THE LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET (1973)

 "THESE PARTIES GET TO BE SUCH A DRAG AFTER A WHILE." 

Yep, that's what a character says in the movie and, I think, that's what director/actor/screenwriter/producer/editor Roger Watkins is trying to get across in this flick.  When the same guy, a purveyor of trashy flix, screens one his films his companion looks at the washed-out B&W image and scoffs "That's SOME exposure" to which our filmmaker replies "Well, haven't got the money to reshoot".  Both of these quotes, I think, really describe this film: a no-budget, overdubbed mess that probably has something to say but just doesn't have the money or talent to do it well.  Roger Watkins, by all accounts, HATED making porn flicks but made several.  In fact, the version of THE LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET I watched was a scratched-up special feature on Vinegar Syndromes blu-ray of a Watkins porn called CORRUPTION.  When I found out LAST HOUSE was a hidden easter egg on the blu ray, I bought it for that alone.  I'm not sure if VS ever got around to issuing a remastered, beautiful print of LAST HOUSE on blu-ray but I think I'd rather have this one; washed-out, scratched-up print that is the essence of 42nd Street.  A pristine print of LAST HOUSE wouldn't be right, somehow.  

The premise of the film is that a recently released from prison Terry Hawkins (Roger Watkins himself) is mad at the world and decides to get his revenge by making snuff films.  Inside that skeleton of a plot is a lot of weirdness that could only exist in a grimy little early-70's horror movie tailor-made for the grindhouses of 42nd Street!  The aforementioned B&W film that is shown has a huge amount of grunge on the bottom of it's frame; obviously added deliberately to up the grime factor.  This perplexed filmmaker with the boring B&W film is named Jim Palmer and he just doesn't understand that sex doesn't sell anymore.  Palmer is showing this B&W film while his wife is being whipped in the next room wearing nothing but her undies and (believe-it-or-not) extreme blackface!  In front of an entire party full of people.  And no, I don't know why this scene is included. . . other than to demonstrate how jaded the modern (1970s) world has become.  He wants to make films that are 'real'; so killing people on camera is the ultimate in 'real' for Hawkins.  

Meanwhile, Hawkins is busy making his more disturbing films featuring a guy in what looks like a Greek God mask from a production of ANTIGONE as well as Hawkins (and others)himself wearing one of those creepy, clear make-up faces mostly remembered from ALICE, SWEET ALICE.  The film mostly consists of people talking and the acting here is practically non-existent.  But somehow it works.  Amateur acting done with no live sound and dubbed later is oddly dream-like and that's what this whole weird movie excels in.  I'd say the vibe I got from LAST HOUSE is a little but CARNIVAL OF SOULS and a little bit MESSIAH OF EVIL and a little but DEMENTIA aka DAUGHTER OF HORROR.  Of course, there is also a heavy influence of Herschell Gordon Lewis in the homemade gore effects reminiscent of BLOOD FEAST etc.  Alexander Tarsk is credited as Director of Photography and he actually shows some flair with his shots and compositions.  The sound design is also incredibly odd and contributes to the nightmare quality of the film.  'Musical Supervision' for the bizarre sound design of the film is given to Claude Armand -- but I suspect Watkins might be behind that as well since it's so weird.  Somehow the endless inept dialogue is NOT boring but weirdly fascinating and the sex scenes are deliberately NOT sensual but ugly; displaying Watkins' obviously dislike.  And the lead performance by Roger Watkins here is strangely both inept and perfectly-cast; his nihilistic attitude may be a little more ingrained in the actor/director that just playing a character.  The fact is that the film gets a lot less interesting when Watkins is not on the screen; he's something of a skid row Orson Welles, I guess.  Can't deny he has incredible screen presence.  The whole film really makes you want to take a shower and that's absolutely what Watkins was going for here.  I can't say I give LAST HOUSE a recommend but somehow I enjoyed it in spite of myself.  The gritty point-of-view Watkins is trying to put across succeeds almost perfectly.  And hilariously, after a warped bacchanalia of gruesome gore scenes a voiceover is tacked on at the very end naming Hawkins and all his fellow murderous band and stating "... were all later apprehended and are in the state penitentiary."  That's probably the funniest part of the entire film; a nod to the silly imposition of 'crime does not pay' the Hollywood Hayes Code forced on filmmakers back in the day which were now being relaxed in the early 1970s.  Watkins' final joke on his audience.