jimy23 This is what I call a guilty pleasure movie it's not something to be proud to like even if you are a fan. Terry Hawkins who just got out of jail goes to a collage to make student films Terry and his crew work on Extreme movies with no limit. The first half of the movie is the film crew working on and viewing shocking short films filled with sex and violence one movie is of a slaughter house cows getting hung up and cut another one is two girls making out and a dog walks by the scene. There's an S&m movie with a woman in black-face gets whipped a young child is carrying the whip for the man to whip her. One of the members of Terrys group wants to make new versions of stag films it's 50 Min's in that the movie becomes a horror and Terry really goes over the edge. The sounds and voice's echo like there in sound room the lighting is so dark the if someone is in a dark room you can hardly see them it's also on of the seediest grungiest movies i have every seen but it has some good in it and it's just what it wants to be. This movie had some controversy when it came out people thought it might cause some people to commit crimes maybe it would if they were unstable to begin with.

Kaliyugaforkix ???According to urban legend, the Manson family not only conducted bizarre ritual murders, they also filmed them for posterity and somewhere deep in the California desert, its reputed that the canisters holding said antics are buried far beneath the sand, ripe for re-discovery by some hapless soul. I think Last House on Dead-end Street would prove to be an accurate primer of whatever was stored on those unholy frames, or at least a realistic portrayal of the mindset it takes to mount such a twisted home movie.Terry Hawkins, freshly released from the big house, sets out to make snuff films and succeeds past his wildest expectations when he orchestrates the elaborately choreographed execution of his business associates for assuming the credit for his new underground film movement.As its been said before & which I swear by, 'bad' movies can be sublime, achieving the indefinable in their steadfast refusal to play by the rules, getting surreal results 'good' movies can't touch with their off kilter rhythms. Such monstrosities & freaks-shows are best viewed in the arena of post midnight tribulation, when you can't sleep & celluloid out-of-body experiences are most likely.A minor work of no-budget film-making, Dead End is one of the poorest, cheaply made pieces of celluloid I've seen, and it still works. All the pieces are put together in the wrong way but the twisted logic of it remains. It survives as pure atmosphere. Admittedly it starts off dire, drifting into the aimlessness of a bad grind-house experience, the type only improved with recreational narcotics & full Mystery Science Theater treatment, but somewhere along the way (probably once the 'rituals' begin) your conscious mind takes a back seat to the nightmare-in- progress. That out-of-phase dubbing especially begins to rub in exactly the wrong/right way, throwaway incompetence that seems to(deliberately?) mask something more disquieting. I don't really know how else to describe it: initially coming off as laughable, if you stick with it, the mangled quality of this poisonous enterprise begins to hypnotize, initial disarming shoddiness allowing a seed of something greater to burrow into your head, a deeper vision that's not as easy to laugh off once that frigging creepy Greek tragedy mask comes out. It's like a midnight transmission from Mars, the kind of experience where you question the director's mental health.Watched in a disassociated daze, the jumbled noise activates parts of your brain long dormant. Cutting the distracting dialogue all together and just going on music & footage might've even strengthened it. There's something really weird going on here.The combination of grainy gritty film stock, poverty row locations, claustrophobic framing and vile subject matter combine to make a unique, hallucinatory mood. Director Watkins was working with peanuts here and its forever apparent, from the awful sound to the non acting- this is a sweat and blood, true labor of twisted love. Believe me it shows: Hawkins must've been one cheesed off young punk when he mounted this exercise in despair because the suppressed animosity and bitterness of a seriously miffed youth vibrates throughout the lean-mean 78 minutes..... definitely a 70's curio. When Hawkins flies into a rage at one point during the shock murders of the film's latter half, screaming over and over, "I'M DIRECTING THIS F%$KIN MOOOOVIE!" you aren't quite sure where Terry ends and Rog begins.The sheer grunge throughout is another thing; it accesses a depraved realism through its bottom barrel-ness. Amateurishness is key. Claustrophobia, feeling trapped in a crumbling asbestos-ridden rat hole is palpable, filth and decay leaking through the screen to infect viewers. One of those fabulous times at the movies that makes you want to take a scalding shower after.Very much a work of its day when general disillusionment abounded, the loser characters who populate Watkins's film have not much further to sink in their respective depravity- they truly are dead-ends, mouthing empty hippie jargon, running on the fumes of something long dead, all sunken eyes & bad skin. What's shown is all that's going on in these empty heads. The paltry lot are all surface and eagerly jump on Hawkin's new idea without much deliberation-like any good ambitious American- which is purely for rich upper crust smut consumers who've grown weary with typical hardcore frivolity. Snuff: the next logical step in flesh-as-commodity ( no doubt such things exist). The plot isn't really that important to Last House though, its the stiflingly bleak presentation of a scorched earth populated by only perverts and freaks, which Watkins assembles with only 800$ and a lot of recreational drugs to his name. It packs a bite 30 years on. Only the tacked-on narration feebly attempting to provide the viewer with some sense of closure is a misstep.Through the apparatus of 'bad movie' Watkins did with a shoestring what few directors could do with lavish budgets- communicate an unadulterated vision of tangible hell on Earth, caked with dirt, sleaze and ennui. It's a shame he only churned out a few pornos before quitting the scene altogether. I hope to check them out one day.This is a bad dream, not a film.

MovieGuy01 I enjoyed watching Last House On Dead End Street. It is about a man called Terry Hawkins who has been released from prison for drug dealing, who has serving 1 year in jail. He decides to repay society for treating him badly, He recruits a team of four outcast people. who are stupid enough to follow the orders that he gives them. Ken Hardy Is a psychopath who was sent to an asylum, after he was found sodomising a calf at the slaughterhouse where he worked. Bill Drexil, his other friend is easy to manipulate. Kathy Hughes and Patricia Kuhn. also prove that they also are easy to manipulate. Once Ken has his team of people together he finds the victims to use in his film productions This is a very strong and violent film, with images of branding, amputation,and dismemberment by using tools, from power drills to pliers. I would recommend that you watch this film if you are able to take the amount of violence in it

Lt_Coffey_182 There are some films that simply should never get made; Last House on Dead End Street is definitely one of them, for many reasons. I know moral boundaries are there to be broken, but they're also there for a purpose. I've always been a great advocate for freedom of speech and believe that raging psychos are a result of a lot more than just listening to Marilyn Manson and watching violent films, however, I believe Last House… has taken things too far. The low budget production makes the film appear horrifically real and almost glorifies the levels of violence being portrayed on screen. I am very glad to have watched this as I can now see the argument from the other side of the coin; an argument I once viewed as ignorant. My reaction after watching this film, asides from immense shock, was that my entire belief system had been challenged. I've watched many of Takeshi Miike's films and always found the graphic violence and disturbing nature shocking but purposeful and I think that's where Last House… falls short; there is no reasoning behind the violence, no rationale whatsoever why people would do this. Terry's psychotic nature is expressed very well and it is clear to see he is capable of committing such horrendous acts but the foundation of this being him getting thrown in prison for a year is not very believable. This film could argue that it was questioning the morals of the time by illustrating how demanding black market cinema audiences were for explicit material but if this is the case, Last House… is the antithesis of what it primarily set out to be.Moral dilemma's aside, Last House… is a pretty poor film. Clearly on a shoestring budget, which the director mainly blew on drugs apparently, the cinematography is awful. It looks as if it is being shot with a hand-held when the camera pans side to side in certain scenes and there are definite shots out of focus at some points. Despite this, the direction is actually rather good. There are some first person shots which are very effective and do very well at stepping up the horror and there some off camera goings on which seem so juxtaposed when considering what is actually being shown on screen. The insert shots, in the introductory narration, of the climatic torture scene are quite artistic and makes sure the audience know what they're in for. Roger Watkins appears to fancy himself as the Orson Welles of Grindhouse cinema and if he was the equivalent, it's of no surprise that these exploitation horrors are now near impossible to find. In some ways, I feel sorry for Watkins as he does seem to be quite visionary in his approach, but the vision is somewhat misguided. The score is very atmospheric and perfectly matches the murky scenes and low budget feel of the film. The music, despite being so simple, is probably one of the strongest aspects of the film.As no respectable actor would want to appear in this, it is a dead cert that the acting in the film would be nothing short of dreadful. Terry Watkins pulls off the psychotic nature of Terry quite well but in all the build up scenes and when he is taunting his victims, he is awful. No charisma and no believability whatsoever. The rest of the cast I doubt have ever been in a film since and used pseudonyms for a good reason; I wouldn't want to admit to being in this film. The characterisation of the characters is very bad; four people do not just follow some psychotic moron in to making a bunch of snuff films. This probably did little to help their performances but they're not actors, they're more likely friends of the director who just wanted to help him out.The plot is just an excuse to provide tons of gore and reveal frequent doses of female flesh, there is little substance and as a film, it suffers. There are of course millions of people who will lap this film up because they actually like to be shocked or even disturbed by the extremes of human nature; I am not one of these people. I like to see a rationalisation of nastiness and a more subtle approach to film making. The torture scene at the end is very graphic and very unpleasant to watch but the surreal, grotesque torturing of the final victim is one of the most disturbing and uncomfortable experiences I've had watching a film.Apparently Last House… is the film no one will admit to having seen; I'll admit to it as it opened my mind and expanded my view on cinema but in no way did I find it enjoyable and can't see myself watching it again. This is definitely a proud video nasty!