The Last House on Dead End Street

Plot synopsis:
Terry Hawkins (Watkins) has just been released after spending a year in state prison on drug charges. He expresses interest in filmmaking, and claims to have previously made stag films that he was unable to sell. Terry believes audiences want "something more," so he decides to make snuff films.
After choosing a large abandoned college as the setting of his film, Terry secures financing from an unsuspecting film company run by a gay film executive named Steve Randall. Terry rounds up a group of women and men— some of them amateur filmmakers— who are willing to help make his film. Among them are filmmaker Bill Drexel; untrained actresses Kathy and her friend Patricia; and Ken, one of Terry's longtime acquaintances. For their first scene, Patricia and Kathy, wearing translucent plastic masks, lure a blind man to the building. There, Terry, donning a Zardoz mask, strangles the man to death while Bill films the murder.
At a party that night, pornography director Jim Palmer is waiting anxiously for the gathering to end; his wife Nancy, done up in blackface, is whipped repeatedly in front of party guests as part of a sex game. Jim privately complains to Steve that people's tastes are becoming "hard to satisfy."
The following day, Terry seeks out Nancy, arriving at her house and introducing himself as a mutual friend of Ken's; Nancy has appeared in some of Jim's stag films with Ken, and is also a close friend of Steve's. At her house, Terry and Nancy have sex, and he shows her the footage of the blind man's murder in an attempt to convince her to ask Jim if he'll invest in the picture. She is shocked by how realistic the footage looks; Terry confesses that it is in fact real, and rapes her.
The next morning, Terry calls Steve and asks him to stop by the building to visit the film set. He also inquires about a young actress named Suzie Knowles for a part in his movie. Steve arrives that night, and is confronted by Terry and his crew inside the building, all of them wearing masks. Steve is knocked unconscious, and awakens to find himself tied up alongside Nancy and Suzie. Terry and his crew brand Suzie across her chest with a hot iron before Terry slashes her throat.
The following morning, Terry goes to meet Jim at his office and kidnaps him. At the building, Terry and his crew beat Jim to death while Bill again films the crime. After killing Jim, they take an unconscious Nancy and tie her to a large dining table. She awakens to Bill filming her, while Terry uses a hacksaw to dismember her legs before they eviscerate her with gardening shears.
That night, Terry and his crew confront Steve with the corpse of the blind man they killed earlier, and welcome him "back to the edge." Steve flees through the building, where he is confronted in the basement by Terry, who tackles him to the ground. Bill emerges from a dark corridor with his camera while Kathy and Patricia taunt Steve. Patricia removes her mask and takes off her blouse, exposing her breasts. She then unbuttons her pants, revealing a dismembered goat hoof she has held between her legs, which Terry forces Steve to fellate. Steve escapes, but is cornered in a room, where a row of spotlights suddenly light up. Terry and his crew, armed with a power drill, approach Steve, plunging the drill bit through his eye socket, killing him. One by one, they slowly back away from Steve's body and disappear into the darkness.
As the film fades out, a voiceover informs that Terry, Bill, Ken, Patricia, and Kathy were apprehended and are in a state penitentiary.

Tags: cruelty, murder, cult, violence, psychedelic, revenge, sadist

Review:
Although it is now apparent that the across-the-board use of pseudonyms was an attempt by a distributor to "steal" the movie, for a long time it simply was not known who was responsible for this film (in actuality, a director named Roger Watkins wrote, produced, directed and starred in this movie).
This is partly because of the heavy cuts leaving huge and bizarre holes in the narrative; partly because of the strange sound track, lighting and empty sets; partly because of the fact the film was clearly rushed; and partly because of the surreal "story line", if it could be even called that...This is a genuine cinematic curiosity and I think that any self-respecting horror fan would be missing out by not checking it.
When the true filmmakers discover what happened, they kidnap both the thieving director, the distributor, and their respective wives for an evening of torture and humilation back at their wharehouse hideout, all of it to be captured on tape for another "snuff" film.Sure this is disgusting with all manner of nasty acts committed by sleazy characters.
This film about snuff directors is actually designed to look like a snuff film itself, with credits that consist entirely of pseudonyms, grainy handheld camera work, and even a movie box that is tailored to look homemade.
LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET uses this idea to create its horror, most of which is genuine, but it's also hard to call entertainment at the same time.Terry Hawkins, a drug dealer, is just out of prison.
There's also some S&M, softcore sex, real footage of cows having their throats cut in a slaughterhouse (gross!), and really bad "adults only" footage.DEAD END STREET was obviously made to cash in on the success of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, which is a much superior film.
It is doubtful that any movie could live up to the hype surrounding this movie, but in spite of the reputation that precedes it, it still manages to jar the viewer with it's no-holds-barred approach and the atmosphere of vindictiveness that pervades it.Director Roger Watkins, a film student at the time, set out to make this movie as "Cuckoo Clocks Of Hell" in 1972, after which the film was all but lost until it was edited and released under it's present title in 1977.
Even at 77 minutes, it's a little long as the story is undeniably thin and the acting amateurish, although Watkins own portrayal of Terry Hawkins is suitably unhinged.This film has become legendary due to it's uncertain history and allegations that it was a genuine 'snuff' movie.
As for the 'snuff' claims, clearly they were made by people who were unfamiliar with the actual content of the film, as no snuff film in history would come with a background story about a guy getting out of prison, rounding up a cast and crew and finding financial backers to pay for the production of his movie.
The conceit of the movie - that the easiest way to make the footage look genuine is to kill people for real - plays like an extremely sick joke.This has the look of an arty student film, and although the film stock used was fairly poor and some scenes are badly lit, this only enhances the menacing atmosphere of this insidious movie.
I don't easily get grossed out by a movie, but I had to turn from the screen once during the totally twisted surgery scene.The film looks like it was way overexposed so don't even try to get a copy that looks perfect, it was simply made that way.
From what I can tell this was originally some kind of student project film, hence the ultra low-budget, stupid dialogue (really it's stupid the characters sometimes don't even finish their sentences), shot-on-video title effects, short running time, small (and I mean SMALL) distribution, and the fact that all names associated with the picture are pseudonyms.
But I wouldn't trade one frame of LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET's surviving 78 minutes for all of the SAWs, HOSTELs, WOLF CREEKs and other trendy junk horror breakfast cereal movies that owe their very core & fiber to Watkins' film.
Those are entertainments for people numbed by five years of the War on Terror who want to *FEEL* something again when watching a movie -- After seeing 3,000+ people die live on TV, it's kind of hard to get worked up over any one person's fate, lest they be sliced in half while still alive to watch it happen to themselves.Mr. Watkins had the same inklings in 1972 after seven years of carnage on the daily news courtesy of the Vietnam War, and his film is just as painful, wounding, confrontational, raw, unapologetic and disturbingly brilliant as it was then, even if the original 172 minute version called THE CUCKOO CLOCKS OF HELL is lost to all eternity.
The film is shot on an ultra-thin budget and it shows, but this time it actually helps the film as it appears much like the underground snuff movies that it attempts to imitate.
The plot is resoundingly thin and simply follows a deranged young man who gets out of prison and decides to repay his debt to society with movie-making - only he's not making feel good movies, as he uses his film stock to shoot footage of people being brutally murdered!
It's fair to say that the death scenes aren't all that realistic, and it's always clear that this is nothing but a movie - but the masses of gore are delightful and it's good that director Roger Michael Watkins wasn't happy to have all of his victims killed in similar ways.
We are treated to a woman with black face beaten with a whip to entertain guests at a party, The strangest use of a severed deer hoof of all time, a rather nasty dismemberment/operation scene, and hand held camera work that fits into the 'snuff' idea quite nicely.Sure it was made with a budget of $64.97 by someone who was wired out of his mind, but that just adds to overall tone of it in a very good way.If you are a fan of the strange, ex flicks, or even just horror in general you should no doubt check this one out...if you haven't already.
Terry Hawkins is out of prison and he desperately needs some money.Tired of making porno movies for a small group of wealthy perverts,he decides to make snuff films("I wanna make some films,really weird films").He enlists his old porno cameraman and a couple of girls-Nancy and Suzie-in anticipation of his next project.Then he abducts his backers and films their graphic torture and death."Last House on Dead End Street" is one of the most notorious horror films ever made.The general misanthropy displayed throughout the film is simply overwhelming.There are some scenes of sheer sadism and depravity,especially the torture of a young woman(Janet Sorley)on a table by her surgical masked captors.Both her legs are sawn off above the knee while she is kept conscious with smelling salts.Then she is cut open and disembowelled using a pair of wire-cutters,her entrails being held a lot for all to admire.My copy runs 77 minutes,but I'm not sure if my version is the uncut one:some people claim the operation scene has the woman being disembowelled,but the disembowelling takes place in the first two minutes of the film,and the torture scene late in the film fades to black as the killer starts to cut in to the sheets-I doubt they would repeat the same gore sequence twice...Lots of people hate this film,personally I loved it and would recommend it to any fans of cool trashy exploitation cinema of the seventies.To be honest,it's not very gory film,but the pure nastiness of the murders will certainly shock you!.
LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET, a topnotch exploitation title, is the best thing about this film.Originally titled THE CUCKOO CLOCKS OF HELL, one of the most evocative titles I've heard, this was reworked, reshot here and there and refurbished by director Roger Watkins (aka Richard Mahler aka Victor Janos).Watkins' porno flick with Jaime Gillis, MIDNIGHT HEAT, is a much better, more accomplished thriller than this.The first ten minutes set a grim, nihilistic tone as Watkins' snuff filmmaker character is introduced outside an abandoned college.
It's a low budget exercise, but it's simply inept for the most part and the climactic "snuff" footage is plain silly.There's a little gore here and there and some ugly fornicating, but the endless scenes of losers talking produce boredom and the main character's one-dimensional ranting wears very thin.Barrel's DVD features some terrific extra material about director Watkins that is more interesting than his film.I will hold onto my Venezuelan dupe as the film seemed seedier on crap tape..
This is the kind of film I wish I could have watched at the Old Times Square theatres or at a mid-night movie house like 'The Elgin'..
What makes it disturbing is the fact that the atmosphere is so true to life, bringing out that "this could actually happen" theme that so few movies try to achieve, but end up blowing.In other words, I liked this movie.Oh yeah, the director of this movie is not Victor Janos.
THE LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET is the "story" of Terry Hawkins (Director, Roger Watkins), who is so embittered by having been incarcerated, that he sets out on the ultimate, sadistic, misanthropic plot for revenge.
In 1972, Roger Watkins filmed this macabre picture about a disgruntled ex-con named Terry Hawkins who decides to kidnap four people and, with the help of his "crew" of movie makers, film their murders inside an abandoned building-turned makeshift studio.
Originally running at almost three hours long, the film was re-titled numerous times and the original cut became a lost film, leaving us with the 78 minute "Last House on Dead End Street" as we know it today.Quite frankly, this is maybe the most nihilistic film I have ever seen.
They decide to exact revenge by making him and his associates the stars of their next movie.Shot on a shoestring budget, The Last House on Dead End Street is a poorly made 'grindhouse' shocker that has gained much notoriety through the years due to its mysterious origins (the cast and crew all used pseudonyms) and controversial subject matter.
With grainy, washed-out visuals, bad dubbing and shaky camera-work, the film achieves a genuinely seedy quality that is befitting of its iffy themes, but even with its convincing atmosphere, exploitative subject matter and and some nasty scenes of gore, I found the whole affair rather disappointing.The first half of the movie is incredibly dull, and a real test of endurance: with some ponderous scenes more akin to an art-house movie than an exploitation film, The Last House on Dead End Street meanders from one dull, badly directed scene to another for what seems like an eternity, before finally delivering the yuck-factor that most viewers have been waiting for.When Terry and his gang of sick reprobates finally mutilate and kill their three victims for the benefit of the camera, the movie lives up to its notorious reputation as one sick little puppy.
Written, directed, produced and staring Roger Watkins (he used the pseudonym Victor Janos for this title), in 1973, but not released until later - he had only previously (and subsequently) made porn movies, Last House on Dead End Street is a gruelling piece of cinema.
The version i have contains the infamous (amongst people who know about this film) and totally sick twisted and brilliant surgery/amputation without anaesthetic scene and all the other nasty gore stuff its from a malaysian tape and its supposed to be the only uncut print available if you can find this version with a GOOD picture quality (i bought three prints of this version from 3 different companies before i found a good copy) then get it cos the only way to enjoy and appreciate this film is to see it how it was meant to be seen its surreal, weird sometimes a little boring but its a terrifying sick twisted trip into the minds of sadistic people Victor Janos has made a gem of a movie out of nothing, and while the acting or the effects arent oscar material, damn this film doesnt disappoint gorehounds or fans of psychological thrillers (i like both) like i said get the uncut print, i dont know how much more footage is missing from the other prints aside from the surgery thing but thats worth trawling the net for alone it has to be seen to be believed.9/10.
this was a cool movie the acting and the scenes were great  it makes me mad when fans of crap like scream and i know what you did last summer make fun of it  i bet this film combined on a bill with street trash would make them run baack to their mommies crying like little babies but to make a long story short cult movies rule they have and always will long live films redneck zombies driller killer night of the living dead i drink your blood and the countless other cult films that also  kick ass kudos to  russ meyer for pretty much starting the idead of b movies to the world   oh yea cult films rule.
When people have become used to and complacent with the normal sex acts and even S&M is becoming run-of-the- mill then what's the next big thing(?) To some extent, this is still evident today on the internet, so this notion and opinion are still viable today, especially when you get psychopaths posting animal cruelty videos online.Hawkins is also a pretty good director and though it feels like it's been shot on a hand-held 8mm there are some good camera angles and iconic shots which also add strength to the movie.
The cheap gore effects also look pretty real if you have no idea how effects work, to this day some (badly informed) people still claim this is an actual snuff film.
"The Last House on Dead End Street", the brainchild of writer / director / star Roger Watkins, is the kind of utterly potent trash flick that one respects & admires even if they don't quite enjoy it.
Bad. Last House on Dead End Street (1972) * 1/2 (out of 4) Infamous and notorious horror film that most people have only heard about instead of seen.
My very reason for searching for Roger Michael Watkins' "The Last House On Dead End Street" of 1977 was its reputation as a shocking exploitation classic.
A cult favorite to some of my fellow exploitation fans, "The Last House On Dead End Street" is doubtlessly very disturbing, but apart from its shocking, ultra-violent content and disturbing premise, the film has little to offer.
This is a film that every true lover of exploitation cinema should see, no doubt, but, in my opinion, it is far away from being an exploitation masterpiece.Roger Michael Watkins (who serves as producer, writer, director and leading man) plays Terry Hawkins, a demented criminal, who, after being released from prison, plans to make snuff films...
There are some films that simply should never get made; Last House on Dead End Street is definitely one of them, for many reasons.
The Last House on Dead End Street (1977) could have been a classic exploitation film if they took a different approach to the story.
I can't say that I fall fully into the latter category, but I definitely feel that DEAD END STREET is a must-see for all TRUE exploitation film fans...The plot revolves around Terry, a recently released convict, looking to break into the film business by making something a little "different", namely - snuff films.
Also the gore scenes (though obviously done on the cheap...) are strong and effective.LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET is a powerful film for what it is.
The Last House on Dead End Street starts as Terry Hawkins (editor, writer, producer & director Roger Michael Watkins as Steven Morrison) is released from a New York State penitentiary after serving a year for the possession & sale of dangerous drugs, he is somewhat bitter & twisted at having the last year of his life taken away & decides to do something for which he will be remembered.
Kaiser, directed as Victor Janos by & starring Roger Michael Watkins The Last House on Dead End Street is about as notorious as they come but thanks to the wonder of DVD you can make your own mind up whether it lives up to that notorious reputation because it's no longer a problem to see as it has had uncut special editions released both in the US & Europe.
I can't remember seeing another film like it & I'm sure The Last House on Dead End Street will be very tough for a lot of people to sit through, it deals with porn, snuff film making & a bunch of sadistic degenerates so if this type of thing sounds appealing & you have the stomach then give it a go, for those with more conservative tastes stay as far from this as possible as it will offend, upset & disturb you.
Personally I thought it was great & it's as simple & straight forward as that.Director Watkins does what he can I suppose but while most would call The Last House on Dead End Street amateurish & badly made it is for this reason alone that it had such impact, the whole thing really does look like a homemade film with scratchy, jerky, grainy photography & considering the sleazy & seedy subject matter in context it works absolutely brilliantly.
The acting varies but for the most part it's surprisingly effective.The Last House on Dead End Street certainly isn't for everyone that's for sure, but for exploitation fans this is an absolute must.