Synopsis
The movie The Last House on Dead End Street (1973) is a horror film directed by Roger Watkins. The plot follows Terry Hawkins, an ex-convict who has just been released from prison after spending a year incarcerated for drug charges. An amateur filmmaker, Terry claims to have previously made stag films that he was unable to sell. Convinced that modern audiences crave more extreme content, Terry decides to make a real snuff film. He assembles a group of misfits and lowlifes to help him dole out vengeance to those they feel deserve it, all the while filming their violent misadventures. The group kidnaps four people, ties them up, and holds them as material for their project. One by one, they are killed in scenes for the camera.
Cast
- Roger Watkins as Terrence “Terry” Hawkins
- Ken Fisher as Ken Hardy
- Bill Schlageter as Bill Drexel
- Kathy Curtin as Kathy Hughes
- Pat Canestro as Patricia Kuhn
- Steve Sweet as Steve Randall
- Edward E. Pixley as Jim Palmer
- Nancy Vrooman as Nancy Palmer
- Suzie Neumeyer as Suzie Knowles
- Paul M. Jensen as Blind Man
- Ken Rouse as The Whipper
- Alan Cooper as Young Boy
- Howard Neilsen as Man on Couch
- Doreen Ellis as Woman on Couch
- Helene Roberts as Laughing girl #1
- Nora Tucker as Laughing girl #2
Reviews
- Jigsaw’s Horror Corner: “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.”
- This Film Should Be Played Loud: “The mythology surrounding Last House on Dead End Street is reason enough to seek it out. Roger Watkins made the film more or less single-handedly but directed it under the name Victor Janos and used about two dozen other pseudonyms for his other roles. For a long time nobody had any idea who made this movie, who starred in it, where it came from or if it even was a movie! ”
- Mondo Digital: “Like its spiritually twisted cousins (Bloodsucking Freaks and Pink Flamingos, to cite the most obvious examples), Last House feels like a mixture of guerilla horror and post-Warhol arty posturing, mixed with grindhouse porn aesthetics. ”
Cody Meirick on November 4, 2023