{"id":9300,"date":"2023-05-08T02:05:53","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T01:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=9300"},"modified":"2023-05-08T15:57:17","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T14:57:17","slug":"films-last-house-on-the-left-1972-x-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=9300","title":{"rendered":"FiLMS: Last House On The Left, 1972 & X, 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A spot of borderline insomnia lead me to watch two horror films last night; Wes Craven\u2019s The Last House On The Left<\/em> (1972), and the much more recent X<\/em> (2022), by Ti West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have to confess, I enjoyed them both. Craven\u2019s much older film is<\/em> pretty grim, and follows on \u2018nicely\u2019 from Death Wish<\/em>, in a way, inasmuch as there\u2019s a \u2018revenge porn\u2019 aspect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lambs to the slaughter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I won\u2019t synopsise either in any detail here, as there\u2019s plenty of other places where one can read recapitulations of their plots. What they have in common are interlaced themes of sex and violence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Last House<\/em>, which Craven purportedly based on Ingmar Bergman\u2019s brilliantly dark Virgin Spring<\/em>, we see youthful beauty and innocence destroyed, leading all-American parents to an orgy of violent retribution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dad goes Tobe Hooper.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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X<\/em>, by contrast, follows a small film crew and their \u2018talent\u2019, set on making a porno flick, who wind up in hillbilly hell, a la Texas Chainsaw Massacre<\/em>. Actress Mia Goth is both the lone surviving aspiring porn queen, and<\/em> elderly psychotic murderess, Pearl. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last House <\/em>was considered an appalling shocker at the time. And, seen as an exemplar of the \u2018video nasty\u2019 phenomenon, was banned in the UK for decades. It all seems pretty tame now. Nasty at times. But massively eclipsed by far more graphic depravity in later years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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More than just a nod to Boogie Nights<\/em>\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is<\/em> brutal, undoubtedly, as is X. But both also have some degree of a lighter, even humorous side, as well (esp\u2019 the dumb-ass cop duo in Last House<\/em>). And so it is that now we have indeed become rather inured to such violence and gore. Indeed, it\u2019s assumed, and correctly so, that many viewers will revel in these once decried aspects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both of these films are, I would say, well shot and directed. X<\/em> is the slicker of the two. And is actually quite beautiful visually at times. And both also manage to be cleverer than they might appear, at first glance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2026 with some Texas Chainsaw Massacre <\/em>thrown in.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The one theme that might elevate X<\/em> above run of the mill horror is that of ageing, in relation to sex, beauty, etc. Sinister old wrinkly evil types aren\u2019t anything new:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Howard, all dicky ticker and limp dick.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But depicting them as libidinous and sexually frustrated\/active is<\/em> a tad more unusual. And the pathos of a once beautiful Southern Belle turned murderous ol\u2019 hag, does have aspects of poignancy, in addition to the more usual \u2018yuck\u2019 factor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, whatever gets you through the night, as Lennon (and others) have sung… And last night that was, rather unexpectedly, horror movies!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A spot of borderline insomnia lead me to watch two horror films last night; Wes Craven\u2019s The Last House On The Left (1972), and the much more recent X (2022), by Ti West. I have to confess, I enjoyed them both. Craven\u2019s much older film is pretty grim, and follows on \u2018nicely\u2019 from Death Wish, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “FiLMS: Last House On The Left, 1972 & X, 2022”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-2q0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9300"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9300"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9315,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9300\/revisions\/9315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}