The House on the Edge of the Park/La Casa Sperduta nel Parco (1980) - Hess horrifies in another rape-and-revenge sexploitation

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The Grim Reaper is transparent and brandishes a razor knife on this poster for Ruggero Deodato's The House on the Edge of the Park

Alex and Ricky are two degenerate auto-mechanics in New York, who go with a pair of women to a party in New Jersey, where they take the guests hostage, torture and rape them.

The House on the Edge of the Park is written by Gianfranco Clerici (Miami Golem (1985)) and Vincenzo Mannino (The Antichrist (1974)) and directed by Italian master filmmaker Ruggero Deodato (Fenomenal and the Treasure Tutankamen (1968)). It is his 13th feature.

Deodato has a certain style, and the eerily contrapuntal music (by Riz Ortolani (Killer Crocodile (1989))) quickly puts the viewer in the filmmaker's shadow land (as his hostages?) The question is whether this place is horrific, arousing, and/or suspenseful?

Certain scenes of the film are truly sadistic, and yet The House on the Edge of the Park is miles away from the horrors of Deodato's preceding masterpiece, Cannibal Holocaust (1980). David Hess (The Last House on the Left (1972)) is frightening as an ultra-psychopath, and so is Giovanni Lombardo Radice (The Soul Keeper/Prendimi l'Anima (2002)) as his psycho chum. SPOILER The film's ending is grotesque: All the guests seemingly let themselves be tortured, just so they in the end can take their revenge...!

 

Related posts:

 

Ruggero Deodato: Hostel: Part II (2007) - Roth's return to Eastern Europe is a wicked horror blast (actor)

Cannibal Holocaust (1980) - The uncompromising, violent, sensationalistic cannibal debate masterpiece

 

Listen here to 26 minutes of Ortolani's original score for the film

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain

[The House on the Edge of the Park was released 6 November (Italy) and runs 91 minutes. Deodato has said in an interview that his initial thought about the script was that it was "too violent." The filmmakers reportedly wanted Hess so much for their central villain part that they offered him half the rights to the film. Shooting took place in September 1979 in New York and in Rome, Italy. Details as to the film's cost and box office gross are regrettably scarce online. It did enrage the harsh British censors, who rejected it and put it on their 'video nasties' list, when they discovered in 1981 that it had been released on video in the country nonetheless. It was allowed a heavily cut release there in 2001, losing 11 minutes, and finally in 2011 with only about 40 seconds missing. Since 2011 a sequel titled The House on the Edge of the Park: Part II with Deodato and Radice involved has been 'in development'. Deodato returned with Atlantis Interceptors/I Predatori di Atlantide (1983). Hess returned in Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls (1981, miniseries) and theatrically in Swamp Thing (1982). 5.1k+ IMDb users have given The House on the Edge of the Park a 5.8/10 average rating.]

 

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