Post by bluechip on Jul 26, 2007 13:21:23 GMT -5
'Last House On Dead End Street' is one of those rare films that everyone has heard of and no one has seen. Until recently, the film and it's director, one Victor Janos, were a true enigma of the genre. That is, until Roger Watkins finally 'came out', so to speak, and admitted that Janos was a pseudonym that he had used and that he was not only the director and writer, but he also played Terry Hawkins (again under a pseudonym, this time Steven Morrison), the films central character.
Originally entitled 'The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell', Watkins workprint of the film ran 180 minutes, and seems to have mysteriously vanished. The film was used by the producers without his permission or notification and released as 'Last House On Dead End Street' to cash in on the success of the similarly titled 'Last House On The Left' by Wes Craven.
So what is all the hype about? And just what the Hell is 'Last House On Dead End Street' anyway? Simply put, it's pure nihilism personified on celluloid, and quite possibly the sleaziest film ever made.
The story itself is fairly simple: Terry Hawkins, fresh out of a year in jail, goes back to what he knows best - making dirty movies. He alludes to having made films before he went to jail for drugs, and now that he's back on the street, he's hoping to do it again and make some quick and easy money.
Terry and his buddy, Ken (who we find out has also spent time in jail, for sodomizing a cow while he worked in a slaughterhouse), cohort two girls into joining them and go out to make, as Terry puts it, something 'really weird' - a real 'snuff' film.
The girls, wearing some odd theatrical masks, and Terry, in some sort of elaborate 'Greek tragedy' style theatrical mask, commence to kill a blind man on camera, while Ken films the whole ordeal. Once this is completed, they show it to some rich perverts 'who have nothing better to do but sit around and watch pornographic films all day.'
Terry manages, through Ken, to get the film shown to Steve and Jim, two small time porno peddlers who are trying to deliver something a little different to their audience, but coming up empty handed. Jim has been having trouble getting anything other than 'bad porno' made, and hasn't been able to find anything interesting or different to film as of late. The two discuss this as they watch some lesbian porn (involving Jim's wife) and some female masturbation footage in the private screening room that Steve has in his house.
These two are into some pretty odd stuff, as we see Steve's wife, Nancy, being whipped by a hunchback in the next room, wearing 'black face' style make up, in front of an anxious and excited audience.
But when Steve and Jim try to steal away Terry's work without paying him for it, they end up on the other side of the camera, and star in their own sick and twisted film, with Ken behind the camera, and Terry and the girls, again wearing the masks, playing judge, jury and executioner.
Terry calls them up and tells them to meet him 'at that house' and to bring along 'Suzy' (who we've never heard of before) and he'll make it worth their while. It's here that the film takes a sharp left turn straight to Hell, as the unlucky bastards who tried to rip Terry off are disposed of, all 'on camera', with nothing left to the imagination, climaxing in the infamous 'surgery' and 'deer hoof' fellatio scenes.
Sure, the film has definitely got some gory moments in it and it's certainly not for the squeamish, but you've had to have seen a lot worse as far as on screen blood and guts is concerned. What really makes this film so effective is it's atmosphere, which is, quite simply, just plain evil.
Going in, you need to know that this film was shot with almost no budget. In one interview Watkins claims that it was shot for $1500 and in another, he claims he was given $3000 but that $800 of that was spent on drugs and that the balance wasn't used. And the film really does look and feel like the low budget production that it is. The fact that all of the sound was captured off the floor as it happened with a tape recorder and then dubbed onto the film in post production adds to this and gives reason to the speculation that this was a foreign film, which was a common adage when it was released.
The actors and actresses were all amateurs when this was made, and they look the part. In one scene, where Terry is torturing one of the men, you'll see the girls 'acting' in the background on camera, jumping around, flinging their hair from side to side, and giggling, all the while with their masks on. Not exactly Oscar caliber performances, but this type of behavior just adds to the overall weirdness that seeps out of this movie like a torrential sweat.
There is also an admitted Manson family influence on the film, and it's not hard to spot. From Ken's 'beatnik' dialogue, to the perpetuation of the snuff film myth and especially in the unusual chants in the back ground, 'Terry is the answer', during the ritualistic murders at the end of the film, the comparisons to Manson are easy to make and are definitely sound.
Adding to the nihilistic tone of the film is the fact that there is essentially no character development throughout the film. You know everything that you need to know about Terry and Ken in the first 5 minutes of the movie, and it doesn't really matter that you don't know anything about their female partners in crime, because it wouldn't add anything to the movie anyway.
The lack of character development, the amateur acting, and the genuinely bizarre low budget production values and inebriated state of the filmmakers at the time of the shoot, makes 'Last House On A Dead End Street' a very effective, and utterly sleazy work of hateful and exploitive art. While each of the aforementioned attributes on their own would probably have made the film a complete and utter mess, for some reason here they all work off of each other and heighten the viewing experience making the film truly both unique and impressive in it's own perverted and sickening way.
Originally entitled 'The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell', Watkins workprint of the film ran 180 minutes, and seems to have mysteriously vanished. The film was used by the producers without his permission or notification and released as 'Last House On Dead End Street' to cash in on the success of the similarly titled 'Last House On The Left' by Wes Craven.
So what is all the hype about? And just what the Hell is 'Last House On Dead End Street' anyway? Simply put, it's pure nihilism personified on celluloid, and quite possibly the sleaziest film ever made.
The story itself is fairly simple: Terry Hawkins, fresh out of a year in jail, goes back to what he knows best - making dirty movies. He alludes to having made films before he went to jail for drugs, and now that he's back on the street, he's hoping to do it again and make some quick and easy money.
Terry and his buddy, Ken (who we find out has also spent time in jail, for sodomizing a cow while he worked in a slaughterhouse), cohort two girls into joining them and go out to make, as Terry puts it, something 'really weird' - a real 'snuff' film.
The girls, wearing some odd theatrical masks, and Terry, in some sort of elaborate 'Greek tragedy' style theatrical mask, commence to kill a blind man on camera, while Ken films the whole ordeal. Once this is completed, they show it to some rich perverts 'who have nothing better to do but sit around and watch pornographic films all day.'
Terry manages, through Ken, to get the film shown to Steve and Jim, two small time porno peddlers who are trying to deliver something a little different to their audience, but coming up empty handed. Jim has been having trouble getting anything other than 'bad porno' made, and hasn't been able to find anything interesting or different to film as of late. The two discuss this as they watch some lesbian porn (involving Jim's wife) and some female masturbation footage in the private screening room that Steve has in his house.
These two are into some pretty odd stuff, as we see Steve's wife, Nancy, being whipped by a hunchback in the next room, wearing 'black face' style make up, in front of an anxious and excited audience.
But when Steve and Jim try to steal away Terry's work without paying him for it, they end up on the other side of the camera, and star in their own sick and twisted film, with Ken behind the camera, and Terry and the girls, again wearing the masks, playing judge, jury and executioner.
Terry calls them up and tells them to meet him 'at that house' and to bring along 'Suzy' (who we've never heard of before) and he'll make it worth their while. It's here that the film takes a sharp left turn straight to Hell, as the unlucky bastards who tried to rip Terry off are disposed of, all 'on camera', with nothing left to the imagination, climaxing in the infamous 'surgery' and 'deer hoof' fellatio scenes.
Sure, the film has definitely got some gory moments in it and it's certainly not for the squeamish, but you've had to have seen a lot worse as far as on screen blood and guts is concerned. What really makes this film so effective is it's atmosphere, which is, quite simply, just plain evil.
Going in, you need to know that this film was shot with almost no budget. In one interview Watkins claims that it was shot for $1500 and in another, he claims he was given $3000 but that $800 of that was spent on drugs and that the balance wasn't used. And the film really does look and feel like the low budget production that it is. The fact that all of the sound was captured off the floor as it happened with a tape recorder and then dubbed onto the film in post production adds to this and gives reason to the speculation that this was a foreign film, which was a common adage when it was released.
The actors and actresses were all amateurs when this was made, and they look the part. In one scene, where Terry is torturing one of the men, you'll see the girls 'acting' in the background on camera, jumping around, flinging their hair from side to side, and giggling, all the while with their masks on. Not exactly Oscar caliber performances, but this type of behavior just adds to the overall weirdness that seeps out of this movie like a torrential sweat.
There is also an admitted Manson family influence on the film, and it's not hard to spot. From Ken's 'beatnik' dialogue, to the perpetuation of the snuff film myth and especially in the unusual chants in the back ground, 'Terry is the answer', during the ritualistic murders at the end of the film, the comparisons to Manson are easy to make and are definitely sound.
Adding to the nihilistic tone of the film is the fact that there is essentially no character development throughout the film. You know everything that you need to know about Terry and Ken in the first 5 minutes of the movie, and it doesn't really matter that you don't know anything about their female partners in crime, because it wouldn't add anything to the movie anyway.
The lack of character development, the amateur acting, and the genuinely bizarre low budget production values and inebriated state of the filmmakers at the time of the shoot, makes 'Last House On A Dead End Street' a very effective, and utterly sleazy work of hateful and exploitive art. While each of the aforementioned attributes on their own would probably have made the film a complete and utter mess, for some reason here they all work off of each other and heighten the viewing experience making the film truly both unique and impressive in it's own perverted and sickening way.