Is the evidence sufficient to conclude that Sandra Peabody was abused?

Over the last 40 or so posts, we've looked at a number of pieces of evidence concerning the way Sandra Peabody was treated in connection with her starring role as Mari in The Last House on the Left. It's time now to take stock and see what we can reasonably conclude from it.

For this post specifically, I have set three criteria, and I will only admit evidence to the dossier here if it meets at least one of them:

1. Mentioned by Sandra personally.
2. Mentioned by at least two separate people. 
3. Obvious by simple examination.

Keeping these requirements in mind, we can say that:

Sandra was frightened on set, of David Hess in particular. Meets criteria 1 and 2. Sources:

1. Sandra herself to a limited degree ("I was scared" regarding the knife stalking).
2. Wes Craven ("David was quite scary, especially to Sandra.")
3. Fred Lincoln ("I knew her for [...] years, and she was afraid of me!")
4. Marc Sheffler ("She was frightened of Hess to the core of her existence.") 
5. David Hess ("I think she was really scared [...] I wanted that reaction from her.")

Sandra's genuine fear is visible at times in the film itself. Meets criterion 2. Sources: 

1. Lincoln ("What you're seeing in her face is real fear.")
2. Sheffler ("The fear on her face [...] was real.")

Hess remained in character as Krug even outside filming itself. Meets criterion 2. Sources:

1. Craven ("[Hess] wasn't a nice guy between takes or anything like that.")
2. Sheffler ("Twenty-four hours a day, all Krug, all the time.")
3. Yvonne Hannemann ("[The actors] stayed in those characters for a few weeks!")
4. Hess ("I held character with her for four weeks.")

Hess was physically intimidating off-set. Meets criterion 1. Source:

1. Sandra herself ("he was trying to live his part... He'd come after us with a knife at night, trying to freak us out.")

Mari's rape scene was very rough and distressed Sandra. Meets criteria 1 (indirectly) and 2. Sources:

1. Sandra herself, via Craven ("My God... I had the feeling they really hated me.")
2. Hannemann ("really quite upsetting [...] really got very rough [...] Sandra needed to be consoled.") 
3. Sheffler ("David was... brutal with her. [...] She was scared shitless, and I don't blame her.")
4. Hess ("got pretty physical with her.")

The rape scene was filmed in long, documentarian-style takes with the camera locked off. Meets criterion 2. Sources:

1. Craven ("[I said] we're going to shoot this three times [...] from beginning to end.")
2. Sheffler ("[Craven] pretty much locked off the camera and let it play.")

Sandra was also distressed by the forced lesbianism scene in the woods. Meets criteria 1 and 2. Sources:

1. Sandra herself ("I actually cried a lot [...] it was very upsetting for me to do it.")
2. Craven ("Sandra was scared shitless here.") 

Sandra walked off set during filming in Connecticut, only returning when Lincoln persuaded her to continue. Meets criterion 2. Sources:

1. Lincoln ("She did run away, the night before shooting, I had to go get her!")
2. Sheffler ("[She] was hitchhiking back to New York [...] Sean and Wes sent Freddie to go find her.")

Sandra walked out during a pre-release cast, crew and backers screening. Meets criteria 1 and 2. Sources:

1. Sandra herself ("I was horrified and upset [...] I walked out.")
2. Marshall Anker ("She was very upset by what she was seeing.")

Sheffler held Sandra partly over a cliff or ledge and threatened to push her over to scare her. Meets criterion 2. Sources:

1. Sheffler ("If you don't do this then I'm [...] gonna just push you.")
2. Hess ("Marc, we were all on the rock at the time [...] one of the things you said that I remember [was] 'And the film will keep going!'")

Hess claimed he had threatened to rape Sandra if she did not perform as he wanted. The claim itself meets criterion 3. Source:

1. Hess: ("I'm really going to fuck you if you don't behave yourself.")

As we have only Hess's word for this, we cannot assert within our criteria that he actually made the threats he claims. For similar reasons, Hess's multiple other disturbing comments about Sandra on DVD/Blu-ray extras (music featurette, "Can I?", "Krug Conquers England") do not meet our criteria either.

As such, we can only admit the part which is obvious by simple examination of the Vanity Fair piece and the commentary track: that Hess says without remorse that he did these things. To appropriate a real person's identity for multiple stories of sexualised coercion and humiliation is abusive in itself.

Overall conclusion

Even if we confine ourselves to the above corroborated or obvious incidents, we can fairly conclude, to a reasonable ethical standard, that Sandra Peabody was abused psychologically and emotionally in connection with her work on The Last House on the Left.

I acknowledge that the recollections quoted were made some years after the film was shot, but this is unavoidable as to my knowledge no equivalent testimony exists from the 1970s. It would be most unlikely to in an exploitation-era film context. This is also why I have set the criteria I mentioned.

I am not here imputing malice or a deliberate intent to harm to specific people involved with the movie, but this is not required to reasonably use the term "abuse" in modern ethical frameworks. Nor am I claiming that every individual incident was abusive in and of itself.

This finding once again underlines the very significant courage, resilience and professionalism that Sandra showed in completing the extremely demanding role of Mari despite severe and justified fear and distress.

That since leaving acting she has spent half a century working to support young people – safely – emphasises what a remarkable person Sandra Peabody was and remains.