The American Nightmare in “The Last House on the Left”

In the article, The American Nightmare author Robin Wood outlines the basic formula to create horror. That formula consists of three variables including normality, the monster, and the relationship between the two. This third variable is most important in creating horror. Moreover, in this third formula normality is threatened by the monster, which is central to the horror genre.

In the 1972 film The Last House Out the Left, normality is Mari Collingwood’s modest home life with her mother and father, who all share wholesome family values. The monster is the group of prison escapees that trap Mari and her friend Phyllis Stone in an apartment. Mari and Phyllis encounter one of the escapees, Junior, when trying to buy some marijuana and he leads the girls in a closed apartment with the other criminals where Mari and Phyllis are raped and humiliated. Phyllis tries to escape and tries to reason with them, but she fails and is gang-raped by Krug, Weasel, and Sadie.

Here, there is an ideological closure in discovering the monster, even though the monster is not tamed or caught. In this case, the normality of Mari being a pleasant young girl who stays home with her parents is threatened by the horrors of the harsh outside world, and the monstrous people who inhabit it. In the case of Mari, these dangerous escapees and the forest where they bring her (nature) are monstrous because they are unknown to Mari and Phyllis. The relationship between normality and the monster is that Mari’s normal and modest life is threatened by the dangerous criminals of the outside world.

Correspondingly, this film’s portrait of “normality” and of “monstrosity” also includes the prison escapees themselves. Prison represents a place where criminals and dangerous people are held, and this is considered a normality. When these criminals and rapists escape it is the return of the repressed. Particularly, the return of criminals back into a civilized society that does not want them there. This is the underlying theme of the narrative. That these prison escapees, Krug, Junior, Sadie, and Fred return into society in monstrous form as they continue their previous crimes. Namely, when they rape Mari and Phyllis in the woods and threaten them with a knife, forcing them to be submissive.

Here, the relationship between normality and the monster is that the institution of the penitentiary (prison) is threatened by criminals who escape and who subsequently degrade and tarnish the law and the system. Specifically, Krug, Junior, Fred, and Sadie who all escape from prison and cause mayhem in the New York countryside.

Another form of normality is domestic life and the monster, in this case, is rural life, and harsh nature. Mari and her family enjoy a quaint and simple home life, while the prison escapees are constant drifters, on the move in the countryside from town to town. In this case, Mari and her parent’s lifestyle represent normality and the outdoors-like lifestyle of the prison escapees is the monster.

Here, the relationship between the two is that Mari and her families’ indoor lifestyle is threatened by the rural outside when they are dragged outdoors into the secluded forest and when Estelle is manipulated into going to her backyard area with Krug in the final sequence of the film. These criminals are a monstrous embodiment of what is “othered” in Mari’s civilized society.

The relationship here is Mari crossing paths with the escapees and being at their mercy. Normality is Mari and her family being separated by criminals by a dividing prison wall, and the monster(s) are the criminals that pass that prison wall. In this case, the relationship between normality and the monster is the interaction between Mari (and her friend Phyllis) and these prison escapees. Particularly, the criminal’s violent actions of raping and injuring these two young women through threats with knives and other blunt instruments. The normality of being separate and divided from dangerous or “othered” people in society is threatened here by the escape of these four criminals and by their long evasion of capture (to be put back where they belong in a prison cell).

Additionally, there is repressed sexual energy felt by Mari who has just entered in womanhood. This repressed sexual energy returns in a monstrous form, as surplus repression. It is evident early in the film that Mari has repressed sexual energy because she talks to her parents about how her breasts are finally coming in and developing. She also mentions how her breasts were not coming in last year and that she is becoming a woman. Her father scolds her for not wearing a bra under her shirt, pointing out that her nipples are showing through her shirt.

Mari embraces this and even welcomes it as she is thrilled to finally feel like a liberated woman who now has more sexual freedom. In the woods the prison escapees force Mari and her friend Phyllis to strip down naked to the pleasure of Krug. Also, the sexual energy returns in a monstrous form when Mari is gang-raped by Krug, Weasel, and Sadie in the apartment. In the forest, the relationship between normality and the monster is unnatural, forced sexual relations between the two victims and the prison escapees.

Another one of this film’s portraits of “normality” and of “monstrosity” is chickens. In normality, chickens are animals that are killed for food or for the pleasure of a performance, like in the case of the concert Mari and Phyllis are going to attend. The chickens are monstrous in the sense that they prevent the two police officers from getting on the colored woman’s vehicle. This is because there is no room with the chickens placed in crates on the back of the truck. The chickens are giving these officers a taste of their own medicine in a way. This is because the chickens are preventing the sheriff and the other officer from fulfilling their duty to work for and service the law to locate the missing prisoners, thus the chickens are monstrous.

Here, the relationship between normality and the monster is the officers not being able to hitch a ride on the truck with the chickens, as they are taking up an excess of space, rather than being killed for our use. Instead, the chickens are doing the killing, in a sense, because they are preventing the officers from getting to the criminals quicker. Thus, the criminals might harm or kill more people such as Mari’s parents because the two officers could not get there (to the house) quick enough due to the chickens occupying too much space.

Lastly, masculinity is both normal and monstrous. Junior exemplifies normalized masculine qualities when he is being somewhat respectful of Mari and detesting the raping of her. The monstrosity comes in the form of toxic masculinity. This form of masculinity influences these male prison escapees of Krug and Weasel to portray a “macho man”, thus wielding dominance over their female victims Mari and Phyllis. Here, the relationship between normality and the monster is that toxic masculinity threatens modest masculinity. The toxic and overbearing sense of masculinity makes the male escapees rape Mari and Phyllis in order to show their dominance and power to the rest of the group.