Unmade Last House On The Left 2 Saw A Revived Villain Stalk A Summer Camp

An unmade sequel to Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left saw its revived villain stalk a summer camp, though more outlandish ideas were also suggested. Released in 1972 to overwhelmingly negative reviews, The Last House on the Left has since become a cult classic, and the movie is infamous for its depictions of extreme violence and inclusion on Britain’s “video nasties” list of banned films. It tells the harrowing story of Mari and Phyllis, two teenagers headed to a rock concert who try to score some marijuana in the city, but end up kidnapped and violently assaulted by a gang of psychotic killers. While it would later receive a remake in 2009, no official sequels have ever been produced – though that wasn’t for lack of trying.

The idea of a sequel to The Last House on the Left is a curious proposition, considering its most recognizable character – the villainous Krug Stillo, played by the late actor and musician David Hess – is dispatched with a chainsaw during the climax. The rest of his gang are killed too, making a direct sequel difficult to envisage. That said in the 1980s Vestron Pictures (now defunct) hired Danny Steinmann (Friday the 13th: A New Beginning) to write and direct The Last House on the Left Part II. While the sequel was ultimately never made, a couple of different story concepts have since surfaced, offering a glimpse into what it could have been.

Before Steinmann was attached, director Wes Craven and producer Sean S. Cunningham batted some ideas about for a possible follow-up and according to a 2016 Blumhouse article, were keen on setting the first part of the movie in Hell – literally – with Krug and his gang fighting their way back to Earth to embark on another killing spree. While it’s certainly a fun idea, it doesn’t seem to have been a serious consideration. When later asked about the Hell idea, Cunningham himself laughed and stated: “I think we were both heavily into drugs at that time.” Additionally, given the controversies surrounding the original, Craven was said to distance himself from the idea of a sequel, though he would later go on to produce the remake.

By the time Steinmann was attached to write and direct the sequel was titled Beyond the Last House on the Left and according to a Fangoria interview, would have glossed over the deaths of Krug and his gang, with the band of killers hiding out on an island and eventually tormenting a group of kids, “Deliverance-style” when they get stranded there. According to the same Blumhouse piece, Hess once read a sequel script set in a summer camp which, while unoriginal, he thought could have been elevated with his and Steinmann’s input. Once again, it’s assumed Krug’s death at the end of the original horror movie would have been ignored.

Ultimately, Beyond the Last House on the Left fell apart due to copyright issues. In a later interview with Jeff Cramer, Steinmann stated: “It seemed that they had not secured permission from the original writer to shoot a sequel, and although they were paying me good money, their hands were tied and it couldn’t be done.” Since Craven was the writer of the original, it can be assumed he nixed the idea of a follow-up moving forward at the time. It’s probably for the best The Last House on the Left 2 didn’t go ahead, since it would have been near impossible to top the raw power and shock value of the first movie.

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