Last House on Dead End Street
The original three-hour-long version of the film, titled "The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell", was screened in 1973, and purportedly caused theater riots in New York City and Chicago. It was claimed that the theater in Chicago was burned down. The following year, the film had a brief release under the title "The Fun House". In 1977, it was released yet again, through Cinematic Releasing Corporation, under its most widely known title, "Last House on Dead End Street", a play on the title of the Wes Craven film "The Last House on the Left" (1972). Both of these later releases of the film were significantly shorter, running 78 minutes, as opposed to the original 175 minutes.
The Last House on the Left (2009 film)
Based on 149 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, "The Last House on the Left" has an overall 42% approval rating from critics and an average score of 4.9 out of 10. The consensus reads: "Excessive and gory, this remake lacks the intellectual punch of the 1972 original." By comparison, on Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 42 based on 27 reviews. CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade cinemagoers gave the film was "B" on an A+ to F scale, with exit polling showing that 57% of the audience was female, 60% was under 25, and with Hispanics and Caucasians making up 36% and 35%, respectively.