Trivia

A mixture of red and blue food colouring mixed with caramel syrup was used for the fake blood, which contrary to most film "blood," actually looks real.

When fledgling director Wes Craven took this film to the MPAA, they slapped it with an "X" rating. Wanting an R rating, for wider release, Craven went back and removed several minutes of footage, but his still wasn't enough and the film still got an "X" rating. Once again Craven removed footage, but that still wasn't enough. Finally, Craven put all of the original footage back in, got an authentic "RATED R" seal of approval from the film board from a friend of his, who put the rating on the film, and released it.

According to director Wes Craven, the crew set up a special editing office to restore prints returned from cinemas because "every one would come back chopped up by theater owners."

According to Wes Craven he never anticipated the extreme reactions that audiences would have to Last House on the Left. Audiences were said to have vomited, fainted, and (rumored to have happened to one unfortunate moviegoer) had a heart attack during initial screenings of the film.

When this movie was first released in '72, most critics found it disturbing, but Roger Ebert gave it 3 and half stars and he got letters from people asking him how he could possibly support a movie like this.

Jonathan Craven: Director Wes Craven's son plays the little boy who has his balloon popped by Krug Stillo's cigar.

Steve Miner: (production assistant) hippie taunting the sheriff and deputy.

Wes Craven: [Elaborate methods] Booby traps are used to capture a villain.

Wes Craven: [Blurring of dreams and reality] Krug has an ominous dream sequence.

Wes Craven: [Strong female characters] Mari, Phyllis, Sadie and Mari's mother.

Wes Craven: [Incompetent police] The police officers are portrayed as incompetent.

Wes Craven: [Suburbia] The murders occur in suburbia.