Since it's Halloween, I wanted to make sure that I highlighted a few Hippie Horror movies. One of the most enduring Hippie Horror films is the Wes Craven cult classic Last House on the Left from 1972 that is filled with topless chicks running for their lives!
Wes Craven, as you likely know, was a horror master. He gave us The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and later the genius horror-comedy Scream. It all started, however, with The Last House on the Left which was his directorial debut in 1972.
Wes Craven directed this script that he co-developed with writer Ulla Isaksson. Ulla wrote the original version of the script and this Swedish creative also wrote The Virgin Spring and Caged Women.
If you're familiar with those titles, you might have guessed that Ulla's script was pretty spicy. It was! The original script was actually intended to be porn, but Craven rewrote it to make this more of a straightforward horror film for wider release. That means that he actually took out some graphic sex scenes. Don't worry - there is still plenty of nudity in this film!
The grainy indie flick was shot in 21 days which proves you don't need a lot of time or money to make an impression in horror. The plot starts simply: two teenaged girls in a small, rural town get together to go to the city for a rock concert as a birthday treat to our main character, Mari. Mari (Sandra Peabody) and her friend Phyllis (Lucy Grantham) head into the city and try to score some grass which is where all hell breaks loose.
The opening credits alone are sexy. Cool hippie music plays while Mari gets ready for her night out. When she gets dressed, she walks into her living room to see her parents.
"Hey, no bra?" her dad asks her as he inspects her outfit for going out that night. She tells him of course not and he protests by saying that, "You can see her nipples as plain as day."
This conversation that happens right off the bat - and the discussion of the gruesome band she is about to see - show us the generational difference between Mari and her parents. Her dad even gives her a peace sign necklace as a birthday gift. They make it very clear right off the bat that Mari belongs to the young, hip generation and that her parents have no idea what teens in 1972 are up to.
There is actually a lot of talk about breasts in the movie. As they talk about the seasons changing, Mari mentions that she changed this season, too...specifically in her chest. She says her breasts have gotten bigger and that she feels like a woman for the first time in her life.
All of this is horny, of course, but it also serves the purpose of showing us how naive Mari is. Mari may look like a woman and she feels that she is ready to experience more adult things for the first time in her life, but she still has no idea just how evil the world of adulthood can be. This is also juxtaposed with their hippieness.
The girls carry some of the ideals of peace and love, so they have no idea just how unpeaceful some people can be. Sadly, these girls soon find out when they come into contact with three escaped convicts and their brutal female companion played by Jeramie Rain.
Not only that, but when she does not come home the next morning, her parents think that she is just a teen hippie who is up to no good. They assume their girls have just gone wild and try not to panic. It takes people a long time to realize that something really dangerous happen to Mari and her friend Phyllis.
The killers lure the girls into the hiding spot with the promise of weed but end up attacking them. The next morning we see that the gang of killers has put the girls in their trunk as they drive out of town. However, their car breaks down on the side of the road. The girls attempt to escape their attackers which leads them through a grueling chase through the woods where the girls are continually tormented.
It's one of those horrifying horror films that takes place in daylight, too, which signifies that no one is safe from these depraved criminals. Their motive is never clear other than the fact that they are bloodthirsty animals. That's about it, but that's enough to horrify us. The killers wind up becoming somehow eviler when they ask for help at Mari's parents' house and terrorize them, too. No one is safe, in any generation!
This film was originally rated X, so Wes Craven went through the movie and removed some footage to get an R rating. He wound up getting bot the R-rating he wanted, due to a friend on the MPAA board, and he was able to put all of the original footage make in.
Last House on the Left was panned by most critics who found it deplorable, but Rober Ebert gave the movie 3 and a half stars and he was met with angry letters asking how he could possibly enjoy this film. He said that the movie was "four-times as good as you'd expect" and that the film was filled with genuinely terrifying moments.
Critic Pauline Kael also praised the movie. She wrote: "The film's grainy, banal seriousness works for it - gives it a crude realism. Even the flatness of the amateurish acting and the unfunny attempts at campy comedy add, somehow, to the horror - there's no art to transmute the ghoulishness."
Sandra Peabody was genuinely terrified during the filming of the movie. She was not very comfortable on set and unfortunately, some of the convict actors stayed a little too in character when cameras were not rolling, allegedly harassing her in between takes.
It is said that a lot of her terror and dread in the movie is real and actor Fred J Lincoln has said this was the worst film he's ever done, partially because he regrets treating her that way. Fred J Lincoln was actually a porn actor who has done porn before and after this film, so it's interesting that he says this is the one role he regrets.
Lucy Grantham is quite the opposite. She enjoyed the film and has talked about it at length. She only acted in two films after this one, one of which was an X-rated picture with Linda Lovelace.
This film is often considered one of the first slasher flicks (although Psycho and Peeping Tom hold the distinction of being the first slasher films, both coincidentally made 12 years prior). It did seem to become the prototype for future slasher classics like Black Christmas.
In some ways, Last House on the Left really does show the death of the hippie movement. The hippies are not the bad guys, but they are instead seen as being woefully unprepared for these evil people. Her parents who are older and wiser (and her mother being a mature woman who knows how to use the horniness of men to her benefit) are the ones who outwit the killers.
Craven has said the film is a commentary on the horrendous physical violence humans can inflict on each other and how senseless those acts of violence really are. Using young, innocent, peace-sign-wearing victims only further illustrates that point. These girls have done nothing wrong! They just wanted to get a little high and see some rock music.
You can get high off of watching the beginning of this movie with Sandra's steamy shower over and over again!
