Number 25 on the DPP hit list is a film that will leave you feeling bad about yourself when it's over. It's an exceedingly sleazy watch that still feels transgressive 40 years after it's release. It's no real surprise that it was instantly banned from cinema release in the UK in 1981 and so of course the uncut VHS later released into the unregulated video market was always going to be targeted during the video nasty crackdown of 1983. 29 years later it came to DVD and that release was shorn of almost 12 minutes before it was considered suitable for public consumption. It's testament to director Ruggero Deodato's ability to shock and disgust that it's latest release is still missing 43 seconds. It's safe to say this is one film that will never be released uncut in this part of the world. Legally at least. What's so bad about about it anyway? Oh man, where do you start...
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| Lorraine De Selle, another Cannibal Ferox alumnus |
It all feels so warped from the very first scene where a sleazebag called Alex (played with slavering relish by David Hess, star of video nasty number 28, The Last House On The Left) rapes and murders a woman driving home at night. The camera dwells on the act from beginning to end and it's here you'll start to get the ick. An ick which builds massively as the film moves forward and all manner of sexual violation takes place. Alex and his dopey friend Ricky (Giovanni Lombardo Radice, star of previous nasties Cannibal Ferox and Cannibal Apocalypse) worm their way into a party and proceed to rape and assault every woman there while the others stand around doing nothing to help.
It gets so ugly and disgusting it feels like Deodato was trying to channel the works of the Marquis De Sade and this feeling really comes to a head during a lingering, close up torture of a naked woman with Alex's straight razor. This scene, even minus 43 seconds of cuts still feels absolutely shocking as Deodato's camera leers over it all. It's annoying because there's the bones of a decent story here. One that doesn't need all the shock to work. After a few minutes at the party Alex realises him and Ricky are mere playthings to the rich folk around them and it sets up an interesting class divide story that's then instantly ignored in favour of sexual violence.
Come the end of the story we find out Alex was lured to the party so the others could get revenge for the rape and murder that opened the film and it's here there's big similarities with other nasties like Last House On the Left and I Spit On Your Grave. Unfortunately just like I Spit On Your Grave the film spends way more time on the atrocities committed throughout than on the revenge part of the story meaning the revenge feels muted and silly compared to everything else and any impact is ruined by Hess's hilariously hammy reaction to it all. The scene where he's shot in the balls will give you the only laugh you'll get during the 93 minutes this film lasts.
It's hard to credit that Ruggero Deodato released this and Cannibal Holocaust in the same year. That must be some kind of nihilistic record. This one isn't a patch on CH though. It's all shock and sensation obscuring an entirely lacking story, whereas CH had substance to go along with it's carnage.
Does The House On The Edge Of The Park deserve it's nasty status? Yes. Without a doubt.
Is it any good? Nope.
Next up - I Spit On Your Grave. Good jesus. TBH, the next 4 are gruelling.
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