House on the Edge of the Park Year: 1980 Director: Ruggero Deodato Written by: Gianfranco Clerici, Vincenzo Mannino Threat: Psychopath Weapon of Choice: Straight Razor Country of Origin: Italy Language: English IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
none

Rish's Reviews
I saw this at what's probably my last trip to the local revival house's sleazy Horror double-feature. This time, it was two "Park" flicks, Don't Go Near the Park and this one, House on the Edge of the Park, aka La Casa Sperduta Nel Parco. I guess Jurassic Park was too much to ask.
Mechanic/Rapist Alex (David Hess) and his buddy invite themselves to a party in an upscale New York (Italy) villa, thown by a bunch of attractive/decadent young people. Everything goes well until their wealthy hosts mock them one time too many. Then Alex begins to tease/terrorize/rape/abuse everybody there for pretty much the rest of the movie.
This, my friends, is hands down, the sleaziest film I have ever reviewed. It made Andy Warhol's Frankenstein look like a Pre-Code Universal Monster flick. I don't know if it means anything, but we were watching Quentin Tarantino's personal print of the film. It also has more sex and nudity than probably any other work on the site.
But what do you expect from the director of Cannibal Holocaust?
The audience I saw it with really ate it up, but even jaded old me had to turn away a couple of times.
I've gone on and on about how much I hated Last House on the Left and its ilk. I know that film has its fans, but I was thoroughly sickened by it. This movie rips it off in more ways than one (most obviously the title), and though its tone is similar, it's glossy enough and the actors are attractive enough that I never had to remind myself it was only a movie.
David Hess, who also starred in Last House, apparently made a couple of Last House knockoffs for Italy. Hess, rapist and murderer though he is, is oddly compelling in the film. Sure, he's psychotic, but there's something really interesting--almost likable--about him. Meanwhile, the good guys range from cringingly ineffectual to morbidly aroused. It's all supposed to make sense in the end, but it really doesn't.
And the ending is completely ludicrous (almost insultingly so), but ah well.
Besides "sleazy," the only other word that perfectly describes this film is "interminable." The only film I can recall feeling longer than this one was Meet Joe Black. And I liked this one better.
I'd Recommend It To: These kind of films are right up some people's alley. If you're one of them, then you could do a lot worse than House on the Edge of the Park.
Posted: August 1, 2006

Total Skulls: 21

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film		Last House on the Left
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?