#82: Last House on Dead End STreet
Release Date: May 6th, 1977
Format: Streaming (Tubi)
Written by: Roger Watkins
Directed by: Roger Watkins
2.5 Stars
Writer/director/pornographer Roger Watkins’ 1977 horror film Last House on Dead End Street lives up to its filthy reputation (Watkins used the pseudonym Victor Janos and originally titled his film The Fun House; the mysterious aura surrounding the movie’s production is part of the appeal).
When I say the movie’s “appeal,” I should make it clear that the content of this movie is disgusting, full of gore and sicko sex and nudity. The presentation is ugly too. The print looks like it was dragged across a strip mall parking lot.
But as it plays, you start to appreciate certain things. You can’t help but notice Watkins’ compositions. You start to appreciate the amateur, unphotogenic cast and how they lend a verisimilitude that would be ruined by a better known (and simply better) cast. You realize that the minuscule budget actually works for the picture’s effect, not against it.
You might even consider whether or not Last House on Dead End Street is a meta movie. Its protagonist is an ex-con named Terry (Watkins), a pornographer who finds it increasingly difficult to please his wealthy clients. Their tastes have become gluttonous, and he hates what he has to do to satisfy their kinks. Is Terry a stand-in for the actual Roger Watkins? Like Terry, is Watkins making Last House on Dead End Street under duress? Is he wondering if there is anything he can film that will satisfy horror film freaks? Does their lust for on-screen debauchery know no bounds?
I want to give Watkins’ script the benefit of the doubt and credit it with some intellectual ideas.
Unfortunately for Watkins, his film coincidentally lands in the same stylistic space as Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre (#73), which was produced roughly at the same time as Last House on Dead End Street, and which is a much more well-executed movie. Last House suffers in comparison to Hooper’s classic.
So I’m not saying that Last House on Dead End Street is some unheralded masterpiece, and everybody should run out and see it. It’s an ugly grindhouse flick that deals in ugly themes.
But if you want a brutish, depraved horror flick made under mysterious circumstances, you’ve found it.
