No questions asked – how keeping things cosy has failed Sandra

Something that's become increasingly apparent as I've looked into Sandra Peabody's treatment while making The Last House on the Left is how little this issue has been seriously interrogated in the last half-century. While there have been interviews with cast members and of course David Szulkin's very important making-of book, for the most part they've been essentially celebratory.

What we haven't seen, beyond the Road to Nowhere podcast, the very occasional mention in an academic paper or the scattergun approach of various listicles, is coverage that spends more than moments turning an openly critical eye on the production itself. Once you come to the conclusion that Sandra Peabody was abused, not merely that she "had a hard time on the movie" or similar euphemisms, this becomes an increasingly glaring absence.

One reason is of course Sandra's decision to prefer peace and privacy and her work in other fields to leaning into her fame as "the woman who was Mari". If she had chosen to exploit this fame – or notoriety – there might have been more attention paid to her. But given her weeks of fear and intimidation, doing this could well have proved deeply damaging. Sandra's decision to stay away must be respected absolutely.

Members of the Last House team have often guested at horror conventions and similar events. However, these are designed as celebratory affairs. Any questions towards invited guests that seriously challenge them are generally deeply unwelcome – moderation at Q&A sessions almost always weeds these out before they can even be asked. This avoids embarrassment for the stars who have been invited, and for the events which have often paid them substantial appearance fees.

We can see an example of this in the case of Fangoria's 2009 Weekend of Horrors, as reported by The Bedlam Files at the time. David Hess, Marc Sheffler and Fred Lincoln attended a special Last House on the Left panel, along with Szulkin. The panel was described as "pretty raucous", which itself suggests there was very little opportunity for serious, reflective discussion of the ethical dimension to the film's production.

According to the Bedlam Files reporter, Sheffler told the cliff threat story at the panel. There is no suggestion that anyone challenged him on whether this kind of threat was acceptable. Nor indeed does our correspondent give any impression that Hess was asked about his open admission that he threatened rape against Sandra, something which had appeared in Vanity Fair the previous year.

We see the same thing in online interviews. The 2018 Without Your Head and the 2022 Hollywood Wade pieces last over an hour apiece, and in both of them Sheffler is asked about the cliff threat. ¹, ² In both cases he provides a version, but in neither case is he confronted with serious questions about it. By the time these interviews were published, questions of consent and safety in historic film-making were becoming prominent, making their absence more striking here.

While I don't know what those two hosts specifically may or may not have agreed with Sheffler beforehand, some interviewers will worry that if they get too harsh, their subject will pull out or that they may lose their "access to the stars" altogether. Given the way modern online media works, there can be a genuine fear that even a short period without such big-name guests might hole the show below the waterline.

Despite this, when there evidence of serious mistreatment of a member of the cast, as there is in Sandra's case, taking such a gentle line risks airbrushing the reality that she lived. The story of a woman threatened with being thrown off a cliff can be softened into lore or even jokey trivia. The question of Wes Craven's ethical responsibility is skimmed over. The fact that one of Sheffler's Last House co-stars claimed to have threatened rape gets omitted completely.

There is indeed a balance to be struck. We see this on the Arrow Blu-ray, where "Junior's Story" allows Sheffler to speak without an interviewer's voice being heard at all. The result is very revealing even though the cliff threat is not even hinted at. However, the word is balance. When, as with Sandra's experience, there is a near-total absence of serious questioning in virtually every source, that is not balance at all. That is whitewashing.

¹ "Marc Sheffler of Wes Craven's Last House on the Left interview". Without Your Head, YouTube, 4 Apr 2018.
² "Marc Sheffler sits down w/ Hollywood Wade to discuss the infamous Horror film Last house on the Left", Hollywood Wade | Crime & Entertainment, YouTube, 4 Sep 2022.