Last House on Dead End Street is a particularly horrific and gruesome exploitation horror flick released in 1977 from writer/director Roger Watkins. Some of the mysteries surrounding it prove to be more interesting than the film itself, with everyone involved using pseudonyms, and the director himself not even being aware that the film had been released until someone recognized him on the street. After seeing the film there’s little wonder as to why it was tough to get this into a theater, as it’s almost at Cannibal Holocaust levels of depravity and violence, which pushed the boundaries even for the shock cinema of the 70s.
The film stars Watkins as a recently released convict, put away for a year on a drug charge, who decides to make snuff films. That’s about all the plot you get, as the rest of the film is just Watkins recruiting some equally homicidal friends and kidnapping, torturing, and killing people.
Though everything about the film feels crude and messy, that only adds to the dark, gritty, sadistic tone. The copy I saw featured some heavily degraded spots in the film, as well as a bevy of other video and sound issues. While this probably looked bad back then, today it seems chic to keep the imperfections in, which again adds to the nastiness of it all.
And nasty is a good way to describe this movie. Filled to the brim with grotesque scenes of extremely graphic torture and dismemberment, it’s not for the faint of heart. While it wasn’t the most gruesome thing I have ever seen, there were a few moments that were actually quite chilling, though they weren’t any of the aforementioned torture scenes. The horror wasn’t just a rip-off of Last House on the Left, which came out two years prior, though the title certainly was. Instead of portraying the violence very matter of factly, this movie played out like a crazy drug trip, with plenty of incoherence and just plain weirdness.
The original film was actually completed in 1972 and carried the title The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell, but Watkins, who wrote, directed, starred, edited, and produced the picture couldn’t find exhibitors. Watkins later stated that only $800 of the $3000 budget for the film was used for production, the rest was spent on drugs.
Last House on Dead End Street may have been lost in the ether back in 1977 when it first reared its ugly head, but it has since become something of a cult classic. For horror fans, it’s definitely one to check out, but for those that get squeamish at the sight of animal guts or cows being slaughtered, best stay away from this one.
