Cinema Tuesdays Review

A Thirteenth Century Shocker
By Nathan Cone

Foreign films have long been an inspiration for American filmmakers, but one of the more bizarre adaptations appeared in the early 1970s, as future horror guru Wes Craven adapted Ingmar Bergman's "The Virgin Spring" into the shocking "The Last House on the Left." Craven's film has been available on DVD for a few years now, but Bergman's Oscar-winning classic has only recently been issued in the digital format. A comparison between the two reveals some similarities, but while the earlier film offers some amount of human insight, the adaptation is hollow and beyond redemption.

"The Virgin Spring" is based on a thirteenth-century Swedish ballad, Töre's Daughter at Vänge. So that I might better discuss the film, if you have not seen it and would prefer to do so without knowledge of the plot, stop reading now.

Briefly, the ballad tells the story of young Karin, who is on her way to church when she is stopped by three herdsmen. The three men rape and kill her, and then fate finds them at Karin's home. When Karin's mother discovers the herdsmen's evil deed, she shares this with the father, Töre, who in turn kills all three men in retribution. But Töre soon realizes his own evil deed, and vows to build a church on the very spot where his daughter's body lay, and a spring arises where none had before.

Screenwriter Ulla Isaksson took this medieval ballad and expanded it for "The Virgin Spring," adding personality to the characters, and a hint of religious conflict. In the film, pretty blonde Karin is not exactly spoiled, but doted upon by her very religious parents, unlike the servant Ingeri, who is unwed, pregnant, frowned upon by the family, and does not appear in the source story. Ingeri is also depicted as the one who put this story into motion. As is pointed out in an essay that is included with the DVD, medieval Sweden was a time when Christianity was the religion of the land, but some still held on to the old pagan gods. And so "The Virgin Spring" opens with jealous Ingeri imploring Odin, the Norse god of wisdom and war, to take Karin down a notch.

Ingeri's prayers are answered, and then some. She, like Töre, is set up for reconciliation with God at the end of the film. Töre's face-off with the almighty comes in the final moments of the film, in a beautiful long shot from behind, as he realizes the sin he has committed and vows to build a church as a step toward forgiveness.

In comparison, there is no church built at the end of "The Last House on the Left." There is only the queasy feeling one gets from witnessing appalling crimes. Director Wes Craven explains in a making-of documentary included on the DVD of "The Last House on the Left" that "The Virgin Spring" was indeed the basis for his first film, but instead of herdsmen, we have escaped convicts, and instead of the young churchgoer Karin, we have young birthday girl Mari Collingwood, off to a concert with her friend Phyllis. Of course Mari and Phyllis stop off to score some dope from the wrong people, and wind up getting brutally abused, raped and murdered by the convicts, who in turn wind up at Mari's home, where their parents host them at dinner until they find out the killers' true identity, whereupon the mother and father kill them all by knife, chainsaw, and other foul means.

"Last House on the Left" is terribly acted, for the most part. I thought this was a hindrance at first, but then realized that it only adds to the sickening realism of the film. I suppose Craven's movie makes a statement about the reality of evil in the world -- it was made in the waning days of Vietnam -- but there's little else it has to deliver, beyond shocks and snuff. In contrast, Wes Craven's source film, Bergman's "The Virgin Spring," and even the medieval ballad that inspired it, explores our darkest tendencies, but is ultimately a story of spirituality in spite of evil, even if that evil comes from within ourselves.

3/14/06

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