To avoid fainting, keep repeating: “It’s only a movie, it’s only a
movie, it’s only a movie…”
A huge allure of horror films when I was younger was the taboo
that seemed to encapsulate them. I was strictly forbidden from watching them
when I was young, at least when mom was in the house, so naturally (much like
any other young child who is told they can’t do something) I was drawn to them.
I think that’s something that transcends young age, and in the world of horror
it is far from unheard of for films to be banned for decades before they are
seen within the borders of some countries. Many films have met this fate, such
as The
Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, but one of the
biggest to be slapped with the fated rating of X was the exploitation horror, The
Last House on the Left.
Written and directed by Wes Craven, this film broke
boundaries when it was released in 1972. It was exceedingly violent, gruesome,
perverse and downright awful, but then again that’s what makes it a horror film
that we are still discussing 40 years later. Funny enough, Sean S. Cunningham
(who went on to direct Friday the 13th) actually
produced this one through his own studio so we saw two great masters of horror
working together years before they went on to mark their names in the horror
books forever. Friday the 13th meets A Nightmare on Elm Street?
Sounds tasty.
