While I do like LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, I've never been a huge fan of the film as much as some other genre freex. I much prefer Aldo Lado's NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS, which 'is' a rip off of LAST HOUSE. I completely understand the cult following that film has, but it just never grabbed me--I mean it's not a movie that I would care to watch over and over, I've seen it twice in my lifetime and that's about enough--oddly that's why I like the film, it disturbed me. Now as for the other Deodato film of 1980, the much beloved, and/or despised, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST--do not get me wrong, I love the film--in fact I love Italian "cannibal" flicks as a whole, but I feel HOTEOTP is a better film, and a cinematic classic not just a genre classic. Again, I love CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST so save your scathing comments.
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The film opens with some great shots of David Hess's character, Alex driving around New York City (though the rest of the film is filmed in Italy disguised as New Jersey where the "house" is located). He stalks a young girl and forces her off the road in a dark part of town, climbs in her car, then rapes and kills her. This scene sets up the film so we know what kind of character Alex is. Cut to sometime later (if it says exactly how long in the movie, I missed it) where Alex is closing up his auto garage and getting ready for a night of "boogieing" with his buddy, Ricky played by one of my all time favorite genre actors, Giovanni Lombardo Radice aka John Morghen. A young couple pulls into the garage as the two buddies are on their way out. They ask if their car can be looked at real quick and offer money to entice them to work on the car after hours. Alex and Ricky agree to fix the car (an easy fix) as long as they can go to the party/get together that the couple is on their way to.
Now keep in mind, the young couple, based on their looks, are upper class snobs and Alex and Ricky are two low class schlubs. The four show up at the party and are greeted by the other party guests consisting of a weird, bald, black chick, another snobby chick played by Lorraine De Selle (CANNIBAL FEROX, also w/Radice) and two pompous assholes, Tom and Howard. Immediately they 'mess' with Alex and Ricky--mainly Ricky, Alex is on to the game quickly and warns Ricky, who by the way is a tad dim--not a retard as some other reviews mislead you to believe. The group encourage Ricky to dance like a disco spazoid for their amusement, while Alex scopes out Lisa--played by the very sexy, Annie Belle. Lisa leads Alex on in a cock tease to end all cock teasing--bad move #1. Meanwhile, Tom invites Ricky to a game of poker--a fixed game of poker--bad move #2. Soon Alex catches on and grows tired of the group's snotty attitude and beats the shit out of Tom and Howard and things start to get heavy--in fact, from here the film just grows more and more intense as it goes on.
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Up until this point, Alex comes off as a charismatic guido, but likable--curiously like another character named Alex in Stanley Kubrick's A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. It isn't until things get violent when you remember--oh yeah, he raped and murdered a girl in the beginning of the film, then you feel ashamed for liking the character. From here on out the group go from party goers to hostages and Alex plans on using them for 'his' own amusement. The excellent aspect of the film is--you don't really like the victims--they're assholes, you almost root for Alex (Ricky's conscience soon gets to him and wants no part of Alex's "fun"). There is a scene where Tom gets his head violently and repeatedly bashed into a table and Howard gets beat up and tossed in the pool (and then gets literally pissed on by Alex) and I didn't really care--they're snobbish assholes! Even the "rape" scene with Lisa shows her getting 'in to it' as if she secretly lusts to be man handled by a low-class thug. It isn't until a 5th member of the group shows up and Alex goes psycho to the extreme and any likability he had goes out the window.
I believe I may have called HITCH-HIKE Hess's best performance but after re-watching HOTEOTP, it's a toss up. Hess shines in both films and if he hadn't have gotten typecast as a sociopath in Hollyweird, who knows how his career could have went. Same with Radice--usually cast as the perpetual victim in most of his films. Keep in mind HOTEOTP was Radice's first screen performance (it was filmed in 1978) and his greenness shows, but he nails the role of the lovable dunce, Ricky. Radice would go on to make a string of classics in the 80's starting with 1980's CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE to 1989's THE CHURCH, working with such directors as Lucio Fulci, Umberto Lenzi and Michele Soavi. The DVD for HOTEOTP features interviews with both Hess and Radice and are very interesting, especially Hess's which is over 30 minutes long and he touches on many subjects involving his career and movies in general. There is also an interview with Deodato which I'm sure is fascinating, but there was no subtitle option--WTF?
HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK is a film that psychologists could do deep character studies on, which is why it stands out from the other exploitation/sleaze flicks from the same era. There is an obvious message about "class struggle" in the film. The film would seem to be about 2 lower-class guys getting the upper hand on the rich snobby elite but then the sucker punch of a twist ending leaves you with a message that the rich will always have the upper hand, whether they are right or wrong as long there are low-class guys like Alex and Ricky that resort to criminal acts of violence.
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I'm sure I'm making the film seem like a complete downer, but it's actually not. It's sprinkled with pitch black humor through out--some intentional from Hess and some unintentional, like Ricky's dance moves and the poor man's ABBA music that the group "boogie" to. There is a great scene in the middle of the film where Hess has already done a lot of damage and the group are all in shock, there is a moment of silence as Hess scans the room and he just blurts out "Boo!"--now that's some tasty dark humor!
Speaking of the music, the great Riz Ortolani supplies the score, which is scarce, but crucial to the film. Mostly haunting lullaby sounding music which is just plain creepy and sticks with you. Ortolani is no stranger to mixing beautiful music to violent films, case in point, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST and it's eerily beautiful theme song, not to mention the pretty theme song from MONDO CANE, which was nominated for an Oscar for best original song.
This film blows me away every time that I see it and it stands miles above the exploitation sleaze that it is (understandably) lumped with.
HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK trailer
Bonus video...