The Last House on Dead End Street (1973)

Directed by Roger Watkins [Other horror films: Shadows of the Mind (1980)]

This is one of those films that I’ve known about for a long time, and perhaps more than most films from the 1970’s, this one has reached a somewhat mythical status. There’s plenty in the film that scholars like to analyze, and perhaps it’s a slice of exploitation that plenty might end up having an okay time with, but I found the whole thing somewhat untenable.

I don’t have objections to the trashy, exploitative films of the 70’s – The Last House on the Left has a lot going for it, for instance. In this case, though, I have say that I found very little in The Last House on Dead End Street to enjoy, and in fact, if I’m being more honest, the movie just gave me a headache, and the fact I got through it actually surprises me.

Toward the end, there is a scene in which a woman is tied down on a table, and her face gets sliced at with knives, and it looks like both of her legs were cut off. It was probably the most striking gore in the film – we did see organs pulled out of someone earlier, but H.G. Lewis made The Wizard of Gore in 1970, and that actually did make me squeamish, whereas nothing here had that effect. If you want to see the movie for the gore, that’s fine, because you probably won’t be disappointed, but it’s definitely not the case in which the gore makes up for the rest of the film.

Amusingly, it’s a somewhat short movie (at least in the currently-existing copy – this was originally around three hours, but a lot of it is lost), running at 78 minutes, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to engage someone. Obviously, I can only speak for myself, but I found much of this so damn tedious, and not only that, but there’s little enjoyment in seeing anything in the film, which just made watching this such a struggle in a way that few movies tend to be for me, and in a way I find difficult to put into words.

I’m not saying that the movie isn’t without value, as most, if not all, movies have some value. It’s just that, on a personal level, The Last House on Dead End Street fundamentally disinterested me, and though it’s been on my radar of movies to keep an eye out for, I have to say that I didn’t have a good time whatsoever with this movie, and would simply recommend it for fans of exploitation.

3/10