Terry, a drug-dealer recently released from jail, decides to venture into film-making, and sees a possible gap in the marketsnuff movies. He and a group of like minded sleaze-bags show their first attempt to a pornographer who is looking for something new to sell to his jaded customers, but are cheated when the smut-peddler releases the film under his own name. 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. The first victim is stabbed and kicked to death, and the last is drilled in the eye, but it is the second that receives the most brutal demise. A knife is run all over her face and then her legs are removed with a surgical saw. As a finale, she is opened up with a pair of huge cutters and her organs are removed.
The 'snuff' footage is admittedly disturbing, but it doesn't compensate for the wearisome dreck that precedes it, and my final impression of the film was that, whilst it was an interesting curiosity that I was glad I had been able to watch, it just didn't live up to my expectations.
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. The first victim is stabbed and kicked to death, and the last is drilled in the eye, but it is the second that receives the most brutal demise. A knife is run all over her face and then her legs are removed with a surgical saw. As a finale, she is opened up with a pair of huge cutters and her organs are removed.
The 'snuff' footage is admittedly disturbing, but it doesn't compensate for the wearisome dreck that precedes it, and my final impression of the film was that, whilst it was an interesting curiosity that I was glad I had been able to watch, it just didn't live up to my expectations.