The Last House on Dead End Street (1977)

Truly Dreadful Film

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Reading the reviews here I can't help but notice there hasn't been a recent one for some time. Here goes. The plot is as follows: A newly released convict with a big chip on his shoulder against society ropes in a couple of old friends and some Manson Family type females to make snuff movies and proceeds to do just that. This movie has more than a few W.T.F scenes which easily place it higher than the usual grind house fare of the seventies, some of these scenes are just plain bizarre with the whipping of a young lady dressed in a maids outfit with her face covered in black and white mistral make-up by a dwarf!!!. The atmosphere of violent misanthropy and amphetamine abuse which this movie is saturated in is powerful to say the least, the rage filled moment when the lead character kicks a director to death while screaming "I'm the ******* director here" is particularly memorable. But what I came away with most from this movie was the sheer strangeness of it all. The very early primitive-synthesizer soundtrack really is creepily effective. The otherworldly behavior of the Manson family type girls is disturbing and the Greek Mythological masks the characters wear while torturing and killing their victims hint at something deeper, more thought provoking and just plain scarier than other movies of this ilk. Even the opening sequence/trailer with the revolving screaming head jumps at you. And this movies' history, where for almost 2 decades it was all but lost with the names in the opening and closing title sequences being pseudonyms leading to the idea that this movie really was a snuff movie help give this film it's undoubted uniqueness. Some of the oddness can be explained by the fact that in it's uncut form this movie was about 3 hrs long!!! and it's original title was the "Cuckoo Clocks from Hell" But unfortunately this version remains and will probably always remain lost. Ahhhh we can but hope it will turn up in a New York warehouse until then buy a 6 pack stick the DVD in your player and sit back and enjoy this hallucinogenic scare flick

I enjoyed watching Last House On Dead End Street. It is about a man called Terry Hawkins who has been released from prison for drug dealing, who has serving 1 year in jail. He decides to repay society for treating him badly, He recruits a team of four outcast people. who are stupid enough to follow the orders that he gives them. Ken Hardy Is a psychopath who was sent to an asylum, after he was found sodomising a calf at the slaughterhouse where he worked. Bill Drexil, his other friend is easy to manipulate. Kathy Hughes and Patricia Kuhn. also prove that they also are easy to manipulate. Once Ken has his team of people together he finds the victims to use in his film productions This is a very strong and violent film, with images of branding, amputation,and dismemberment by using tools, from power drills to pliers. I would recommend that you watch this film if you are able to take the amount of violence in it

There are some films that simply should never get made; Last House on Dead End Street is definitely one of them, for many reasons. I know moral boundaries are there to be broken, but they're also there for a purpose. I've always been a great advocate for freedom of speech and believe that raging psychos are a result of a lot more than just listening to Marilyn Manson and watching violent films, however, I believe Last House… has taken things too far. The low budget production makes the film appear horrifically real and almost glorifies the levels of violence being portrayed on screen. I am very glad to have watched this as I can now see the argument from the other side of the coin; an argument I once viewed as ignorant. My reaction after watching this film, asides from immense shock, was that my entire belief system had been challenged. I've watched many of Takeshi Miike's films and always found the graphic violence and disturbing nature shocking but purposeful and I think that's where Last House… falls short; there is no reasoning behind the violence, no rationale whatsoever why people would do this. Terry's psychotic nature is expressed very well and it is clear to see he is capable of committing such horrendous acts but the foundation of this being him getting thrown in prison for a year is not very believable. This film could argue that it was questioning the morals of the time by illustrating how demanding black market cinema audiences were for explicit material but if this is the case, Last House… is the antithesis of what it primarily set out to be.Moral dilemma's aside, Last House… is a pretty poor film. Clearly on a shoestring budget, which the director mainly blew on drugs apparently, the cinematography is awful. It looks as if it is being shot with a hand-held when the camera pans side to side in certain scenes and there are definite shots out of focus at some points. Despite this, the direction is actually rather good. There are some first person shots which are very effective and do very well at stepping up the horror and there some off camera goings on which seem so juxtaposed when considering what is actually being shown on screen. The insert shots, in the introductory narration, of the climatic torture scene are quite artistic and makes sure the audience know what they're in for. Roger Watkins appears to fancy himself as the Orson Welles of Grindhouse cinema and if he was the equivalent, it's of no surprise that these exploitation horrors are now near impossible to find. In some ways, I feel sorry for Watkins as he does seem to be quite visionary in his approach, but the vision is somewhat misguided. The score is very atmospheric and perfectly matches the murky scenes and low budget feel of the film. The music, despite being so simple, is probably one of the strongest aspects of the film.As no respectable actor would want to appear in this, it is a dead cert that the acting in the film would be nothing short of dreadful. Terry Watkins pulls off the psychotic nature of Terry quite well but in all the build up scenes and when he is taunting his victims, he is awful. No charisma and no believability whatsoever. The rest of the cast I doubt have ever been in a film since and used pseudonyms for a good reason; I wouldn't want to admit to being in this film. The characterisation of the characters is very bad; four people do not just follow some psychotic moron in to making a bunch of snuff films. This probably did little to help their performances but they're not actors, they're more likely friends of the director who just wanted to help him out.The plot is just an excuse to provide tons of gore and reveal frequent doses of female flesh, there is little substance and as a film, it suffers. There are of course millions of people who will lap this film up because they actually like to be shocked or even disturbed by the extremes of human nature; I am not one of these people. I like to see a rationalisation of nastiness and a more subtle approach to film making. The torture scene at the end is very graphic and very unpleasant to watch but the surreal, grotesque torturing of the final victim is one of the most disturbing and uncomfortable experiences I've had watching a film.Apparently Last House… is the film no one will admit to having seen; I'll admit to it as it opened my mind and expanded my view on cinema but in no way did I find it enjoyable and can't see myself watching it again. This is definitely a proud video nasty!

Almost TOO sick and TOO depraved for words, this mean-spirited and hideously edited US exploit-flick! It might be called pure cult cinema with an enormous shock-value, still this questionable reputation can't hide the fact that "Last House on Dead End Street" is a nearly unendurable film and that you'll need at least three very long showers to wash away the dirty feeling after seeing it. All you ever read about this film is true. It's definitely a true statement that the on screen gore is ultimately gross and that the tone of the film is disturbingly nihilistic & offensive. Now, I don't have a problem with that (on the contrary, I even pro-actively search for this type of films), but I do think there should at least be a point to the violence or some sort of moral that needs to be made clear to the audience. "Last House on Dead End Street" has neither. It's just 80 harsh minutes of insane violence and nasty images of horrible looking set pieces. The plot is as simple as it is irrelevant, and handles about a misanthropist ex-con who mobilizes his former friends to help him make porn movies and earn some extra money. When he discovers that people are only interested in extreme shocks and snuff nowadays, the whole gang goes berserk and complete their film with the rich clients as real-life victims. The first half of the film is surprisingly dull and just plain awful, with some really amateurish attempts to provide the characters (that you couldn't feel less connected to) with a background and really ugly camera-work. The second half is full of gory sickness but still as awful as the first; perhaps even more so. During one of the most notorious sequences in horror-history, both a woman's legs are brutally sawn off while she's kept conscious with medication. The reason for that is that she can witness later how her stomach is cut open with a huge pair of pliers and how the intestines get removed and proudly shown to her. Sick enough for ya? "Last House on Dead End Street" could have been a truly nightmarish experience if everything (apart from the human guts) didn't look so damn fake! Especially the acting, but also the clumsy camera-work and lighting are so amateurish that it's nearly impossible to let this film affect you. Admirers (and, believe me, there are a lot of them) use the cheapness as an argument to claim that it only increases the genuine exploitation feel to it, but I strongly disagree. I've seen enough exploitation movies that are stylish and convincing DESPITE the limitations in budget. I wouldn't advise anyone to see this film (apart from some personal enemies, perhaps) but if your curiosity becomes too hard to resist, you can always purchase the brand new double-disc special edition on DVD. But do yourself a favor and wait at least three hours after you had dinner.