Questions that need answers

Among the saddest aspects of the abuse of Sandra Peabody in connection with her Last House on the Left work has been the lack of real accountability. As far as I can tell, nobody has ever said sorry in public. Marc Sheffler has at least gone as far as saying he "didn't blame [Sandra]" for being terrified at David Hess's "brutal" approach to Mari's rape scene, but that is not the same thing.

Part of the problem has been the failure to ask questions by interviewers and other media, and the lack of significant pressure from Last House fans for real answers. Here are a few questions I would like to see asked to those still alive and active.

To Marc Sheffler:

1. You have often told the story of holding Sandra Peabody over a cliff and threatening to drop her, in order to heighten her fear for the camera. Are you sorry that you frightened her in this way?
2. You were in the commentary booth with David Hess when he openly recounted threatening Sandra with sexual violence on set. Why didn't you push back or tell him he was wrong?
3. On the same track, Fred Lincoln says, "I thought we really pushed it because we really left 'em in the car till we got to Connecticut". In context, this clearly refers to leaving Sandra and Lucy Grantham in the Cadillac trunk. Did anything like this happen? If so, how and why? If not, was it appropriate for Lincoln to joke about it?
4. In David Szulkin's book, Sandra says of Hess, "He'd come after us with a knife at night, trying to freak us out." Were you aware of this? Do you think it was an appropriate way for an actor to behave, "in character" or not?

To Sean Cunningham:

1. As producer of Last House on the Left, to what extent did you support or at least tolerate Wes Craven's mining of Sandra being "scared to death" in pursuit of a "convincing" result on screen?
2. Were you aware of what David Hess and Marc Sheffler were doing to Sandra to provoke her fear? If so, why did you not intervene? If not, why not?
3. Why did neither you nor Craven publicly speak up to defend Sandra when Hess openly mentioned threatening to rape her on the commentary track and again in Vanity Fair?

To horror writers and reviewers:

1. When you write about Last House on the Left from now on, will you commit to mentioning the abusive conditions Sandra Peabody endured in any piece of significant length about the film? 
2. Have you allowed the later "Master of Horror" Wes Craven to obscure the fact that he operated differently in the early 1970s to in the Scream era of a quarter of a century later?
3. Will you commit to treating David Hess not as a "cool bad guy" or horror icon, but as a man who openly and without remorse spoke of making a young colleague deeply afraid for her personal safety?

To distributors and media stores:

1. Will you acknowledge that what is said on the Hess/Sheffler/Lincoln commentary track is in a different league from somewhat problematic remarks in other older media, and so requires proper, track-specific context?
2. It is around two decades since the first DVDs appeared with special features such as Celluloid Crime of the Century, which features both Marc Sheffler's cliff threat and David Hess's "Can I?" anecdote. Is the single word "archival" good enough in 2026?
3. Streaming platforms, is it any longer acceptable to present this particular film shorn of ethical context, thus making it less likely that those who choose to watch it will understand exactly what they are seeing?

To film schools and academic writers:

1. Do you have a responsibility, when teaching or writing about the rape-revenge genre and Last House's influence on it, to recognise and clearly acknowledge that Mari's rape scene in this film was shot in a way that would be unacceptable today?
2. Have you given sufficient attention to the ethics of the treatment of young actresses as people – Lucy Grantham as well as Sandra – and not merely in terms of the representation of their fictional characters?
3. To what extent should Wes Craven's legacy and reputation be reconsidered in the light of what happened to a young actress on a set he controlled?

To convention organisers and event staff:

1. Why did even major conventions continue to invite David Hess to guest at their events, even after he had admitted in a mainstream magazine to threatening his co-star with rape?
2. When you run Last House panels or show the film at your events, will you commit to providing significant space for serious discussion of Sandra's mistreatment in the movie's creation?
3. Do you think that serious ethical questions about guests' behaviour should be allowed in Q&A sessions, even if they are uncomfortable or affect the celebratory tone? If so, how should the guidelines change? If not, why not?

To ordinary horror fans:

1. Does knowing about the real-life abuse suffered by Sandra Peabody change how you feel about Last House on the Left or Wes Craven? Why/why not?
2. Do you think that those who control media about films like this – distributors, streamers, writers, etc – have a responsibility to proactively provide context when there is clear evidence of behind-the-scenes abuse?
3. Do you think the horror community as a whole should do more to ensure that people are better informed about ethical failures such as this? If so, how can this best be achieved?

To Sandra Peabody:

No questions. 

You do not owe us a single word. We owe you a great deal: an end to minimising and trivialising what you survived, respect for the remarkable courage and humanity you showed, and recognition of the decades you have spent building safer, more supportive spaces simply because it was the right thing to do. We owe you freedom from unwanted intrusion and questions about Last House on the Left, and recognition of your "No comment" as a sacred boundary.

Most of all, Sandra Peabody, we owe you peace.