Last House on Dead End Street (1973)

Acting:		Partying:		Girls:
Blood:		Language:		Gore:
Violence:		Humor:		Sexuality:
Torture:		Predictability:		Overall:

Snuff is one of the most taboo subjects in film. The idea that someone would want to film the last moments of a person's life being taken from them is horrific, and you have to wonder at the sort of person who would enjoy such films. Of course, that doesn't mean that horror films haven't been mining that vein for a long, long time. The Last House on Dead End Street is also a ‘Snuff' based film, albeit one that a lot of people wondered about for quite a few years until the real director finally admitted to making it...

The plot centers around a disgruntled film maker who decides to make a snuff film. The main character is Terry Hawkins, a newly released criminal who went to jail for dealing speed. Terry kind of looks like the average guy you'd see at a Motorhead or Black Sabbath show in the 70s. You know the type: Greasy, longish hair, beady eyes and a Leather Motorcycle jacket. He is more then a little bitter about the turn of events, and more specifically angry how he was screwed over by a producer he was making porn films for. In a voiceover, he rants how he's going to ‘make everyone pay'. He rounds up one of his old friends (who had spent some time in an institution for having sex with a cow), and they talk about making films like no one has ever seen. "Something really different" as Terry puts it. They then round up two women and a cameraman, who shoots with a handheld 16mm camera. Their idea, obviously, is to make snuff films. The first film they make themselves killing an old professor of Terry's, filming the whole thing as Terry strangles him to death. They then propose to submit the film to a porn producer looking for something different.
The back story surrounds the Producer who Terry hates, and him looking for new, different ‘product'. One of the main themes of this movie is that there is always a need for something MORE shocking, different then what came before. In one very telling scene, the producer is shown footage of a woman bathing and keeps remarking it has to be different. At one point a dog crosses the frame, and the producer remarks that now it's getting interesting. There are also a lot of ‘behind the scenes' looks at cheap film making and porn ‘loops', and a very bizarre "industry" party with a hunchback whipping a woman wearing blackface. And no, Virginia, I'm not making this up.

The film basically looks at the other side of film making, the not so glamorous under belly, as it were. This isn't Hollywood product, but the work of an outsider who can't break into the system, and is forced to doing porno to make ends meet. When he finally has had enough, or feels screwed over enough, he decides to make a snuff film and see how that will work out. One of the best parts of the film is Terry screaming at the producer "I'm directing this fucking movie" as he begins the ‘snuff orgy', for lack of a better word. The other great part, which was the tag line for the film, is "You bet your ass this if for real".
The last third of the film centers on the very infamous ‘snuff orgy'. Terry and his gang trick the producer, his partner and two wives to a abandoned house, where they begin a very gruesome torture sequence. I can remember Fangoria magazine printing stills of this back in the eighties. The absolute nadir of it is when they use smelling salts to wake one woman up who faints from the pain. The whole time you are reminded that this is for a snuff film as the cameraman keeps filming with his hand held.

The film itself is very grainy, which adds to the overall feel. Even more oddly, the dubbing was done very badly (the director shot silently, and over dubbed all the dialogue in post production) and the mismatching almost seems to fit. At the same time, it's very well filmed. It's very well framed and put together. The credits are all very, very fake which also adds to the disorienting appeal of this film.

This was ...

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