The Last House on Dead End Street. All that remains of one of the most shocking films in Cinema

The Last House On Dead End Street. A perfect slice of ultra violent 70s Grind-House exploitation perfection. The story of a bitter man named Terry Hawkins who recently returned after one year in prison for drug related crimes. Upon speaking to people in the porn industry, they tell him that audiences are becoming harder and harder to please. Terry also used to make "Stag Films" that he was unable to sell.

Upon realizing that modern audiences don`t want sex anymore, Terry gathers a rag tag team of other amateur film makers and desperate women in order to make films that will please new audiences and bring our uncaring society to its knees... Oh yeah, you guessed it. Good old fashioned snuff films.

The original theatrical release of this film bore the badass title "The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell" was said to be three hours long. It was allegedly so shocking that mass hysteria struck the audience. They were so convinced that they had witnessed a series of real murders. After the film was pulled from theaters a 75 minute cut was made as a compromise, that being the titular " The Last House on Dead End Street". Basically, this film beat Cannibal Holocaust to the punch, at least in regards to people mistaking it for real. Also the actors used pseudonyms to enhance the authenticity much like Cannibal Holocaust.

I am not at all surprised this film shocked everyone back in the early 70s. This is an excellent gore-fest of a film that between its grainy, cheap camera quality, fantastic practical gore and atmosphere so unsettling it could only have been made in the 70s. The Last House on Dead End Street packs some good shocks and scares even by today`s standards. Terry Hawkins( played by director Roger Watkins who looks like if Danzig and Dwight Schrute from The Office had a child) and his band of "filmmakers" are infectiously charismatic and terrifying. On one hand what they are doing is so horrifying your jaw will drop to the floor, but the other half of your brain is cheering them on as they wreck havoc on their "stars" while immortalizing their deaths on film for all to see.

The Last House on Dead End Street is a film I love very much. It is a timelessly brutal film who`s influence can be felt in many other extreme horror films, most notably American Guinea Pig: Bouquet of Guts and Gore and the Manhunt video games are so close to this film at times it almost feels like an adaptation. I even recognized samples from this film in a Necrophagia song. And the fact that the original 3 hour version is said to be lost is so goddamned frustrating. If 75 minutes of this is this damn good, I can only imagine the testosterone and blood fueled euphoria The original " The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell" cut would bring on.

If you love ultra violent 1970s Grind-House blood and gore like me, then you would be doing an immense disservice by not buying a copy of The Last House on Dead End Street. I bought my dvd copy from Amazon.com It is far from the easiest to come by but it is more than worth it.