Wednesday 1 May 2013

DVD review: The Last House on Dead End Street (1977)


Terry Hawkins (Roger Watkins) has just been released after spending a year in state prison on drug charges. He wants to get into filmmaking, and claims he previously made pornographic films that he was unable to sell. Hawkins believes audiences want something more, so he decides to make snuff films. Victims are lured to an abandoned building; there they are murdered in elaborate ways for the films, including by decapitation or receiving a power drill to the head. Hawkins is complimented on how realistic his films look. The Last House on Dead End Street is written and directed by Roger Watkins. The acting is quite atrocious but the camerawork and editing is actually pretty decent. The pace is pretty slow and I found it to be quite boring even if it does have a couple moments that are intense and brutal. There are some imagery that might be considered to be unsettling by the politically correct and squemish viewers but in my opinion it was a let down. Jaded viewers won´t find this even slightly disturbing. There is gore but most of it is very poor and amateurish fx. There is gratuitous nudity in this.
The Last House on Dead End Street is also known as At the Hour of Our Death, The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell and The Fun House.
This review is based upon the Austrian region 2 DVD release from X-Cess, it´s uncut, english audio is available.
Rating: 4 out of 7. I´m somewhat disappointed . I found The Last House on Dead End Street to be quite boring and kinda lame. I can imagine it having more of a impact when it was first released and it do get points for being pretty brutal and trying to be unique.

/JL



No comments:

Post a Comment