Filmed, cut, exploited – the forced oral sex scene

Cropped screenshot showing clapperboard during a cut sequence described below

In my last post, I talked about Sandra Peabody walking out of a pre-release screening of The Last House on the Left. I included her quote in which she said that she thought "the most upsetting scene for [her] was the one in the woods" and noted that Sandra had told Szulkin (p73) that she had found the sequence where Mari and Phyllis are forced to strip and perform sex acts on each other distressing to film.

Today, we'll look at that section of Last House in more detail. On p73, after having introduced the sequence, Szulkin gives us some unusually strong editorial text:

"This stark and ugly sequence is arguably the most disturbing portion of the entire movie. The sickos' snickering commentary [...] was all unscripted. The obviously improvised dialogue, combined with shaky, documentary-like camerawork and a lack of music throughout most of the scene, makes this sequence especially creepy and all too real."

By the time of this scene Mari and Phyllis's bonds have been removed, but their gags still hang loosely around their necks, a disturbing reminder of their captivity. As I said last time, Wes Craven acknowledged on his commentary track that Sandra "was scared shitless" while making this part of the movie. ¹

What isn't mentioned in that commentary is how far the filming of this sequence exceeded what made it to Last House's final cut, something which might help explain why Sandra was so upset. Szulkin hints at it when he says on p74 that "some softcore footage of the forced lesbianism later hit the cutting-room floor" but in fact there was a great deal more.

The Arrow Blu-ray contains about 48 minutes of outtakes and dailies (rushes) which are presented without sound. Most of the last few minutes is taken up with parts of this sequence that are not in the finished film, most notably an extended and more explicit nude section in which Krug's gang force Mari to receive oral sex from first Phyllis and then Sadie.

The soundless nature of this material makes it feel even more like snatched security camera footage than the final sequence, and this is one place where Szulkin's reminder (p15) that "Last House was first and foremost an exploitation flick" really does show. It could certainly be argued that including these particular outtakes as a Blu-ray extra for entertainment purposes is exploitative in itself.

This feeling is heightened when you see the clapperboards at the start of some of these takes. The still at the top of this post is from very near the end of the Blu-ray extra. I've deliberately cropped it closely to show only the clapperboard, but the full still shows the naked Mari lying on her back in the woods with Phyllis kneeling over her during the oral sex sequence. Sadie, Krug and Weasel kneel behind, enjoying what they're forcing the girls to do.

Note the take count: eleven. It's only fair to acknowledge that Craven and company were not experienced film-makers and so may have counted takes or scene numbers in a different way to what one might expect. Even so, eleven does seem a high number for a scene involving full nudity and simulated forced sexual content in front of an audience, all the more so when funds and time were tight.

Unusually for the generally easygoing Lucy Grantham, Phyllis's actress did not enjoy filming this part of the movie, as she tells Szulkin on p73:

"I hated that scene. [...] I worried that it would set the tone for the whole movie [...] I knew it was an important part of the movie, in terms of showing how vicious and cruel the villains were, but I remember thinking that I'd rather not be expressing the cruelty in that way. But that was how it was and I didn't question it."

That last sentence is perhaps revealing of early 1970s exploitation gender dynamics, but when one remembers that Grantham had worked in adult movies and so understood the feeling of being expected to perform naked before a largely male audience, it's striking how strong her dislike for the scene is.

Marc Sheffler, in his 2017 interview for Without Your Head, also touches on this:

"I don't think she was very happy at the scene between Jeramie [Rain] and her, you know, when when Jeramie was telling Lucy [Grantham] to to go down on her. I don't think she was real happy with that, but you know, she soldiered on through it and it is what it is." ²

That last line is reminiscent of Sheffler's "you do what you do" over a decade before in another context. In Celluloid Crime of the Century, Craven also touches on the improvised line Lucy Grantham came up with ("It's just you and me here, nobody else") to comfort Sandra when she realised her co-actor was frightened and unhappy:

"Lucy said something to the younger, more naive girl [Sandra] of, there's just you and me here, there's nobody else here, which was totally improvised right on the spot. And it was so moving, so touching."

Craven does not comment on whether filming should have continued on such a sensitive scene with an actress in clear distress, but Sandra's own words to Szulkin (p73 again) are unequivocal and notably strong for a woman whose quotes to him are generally fairly restrained:

"That was probably the scene that bothered me the most, especially the way it was originally written. The whole thing really freaked me out... in fact, I actually cried a lot during that scene. I don't know how that scene came off, probably horribly, but it was very upsetting for me to do it."

Sandra doesn't explain whether "the way it was originally written" meant the original, hardcore script that was never filmed, or the forced oral sex sequence that we now see in the Blu-ray outtakes and dailies. If the latter, then it's a salutary reminder that cutting a scene before release doesn't erase the fact that the actors had to perform it in the first place.

In the case of this particular cut section, it was enough to disturb even the normally relaxed Lucy Grantham – and to deeply upset Sandra Peabody. 

¹ Commentary track featuring director Wes Craven and producer Sean S. Cunningham, available on multiple DVD and Blu-ray releases of The Last House on the Left.
² "Marc Sheffler of Wes Craven's Last House on the Left interview". withoutyourhead, 4 Apr 2018. Timestamp 29:14