Last House on Dead End Street | |
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1977 poster
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Directed by | Roger Watkins |
Produced by | Roger Watkins |
Written by | Roger Watkins |
Starring | Roger Watkins Ken Fisher Bill Schlageter Kathy Curtin Pat Canestro |
Cinematography | Ken Fisher |
Edited by | Roger Watkins |
Distributed by | Cinematic Releasing Corporation |
Release date
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May 1977 |
Running time
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78 minutes 175 min. (original lost cut) |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $3,000 |
Last House on Dead End Street (also known as The Fun House, At the Hour of Our Death, and The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell) is a 1977 American surrealistexploitation horror film written, produced, and directed by Roger Watkins, under the pseudonym Victor Janos. The plot follows a disgruntled ex-convict (also played by Watkins) who takes revenge on society by kidnapping four strangers and filming their murders in an abandoned building.
Filmed in 1972 with a cast and crew of theater students working under pseudonyms, the movie was released in 1974 under the title The Fun House before being re-released under its more widely recognized title in 1977. The film's title is derived from the controversial Wes Craven film The Last House on the Left.
The true identity of pseudonymous director Victor Janos and the actors was largely unknown until Roger Watkins claimed on Internet message boards in 2000 that he had directed the film, a claim subsequently confirmed. The anonymity and refusal of the cast and crew to come forward about the film led many to believe that it had depicted real murders, a rumor which existed for decades.
Terry Hawkins (Watkins) has just been released after spending a year in state prison on drug charges. He expresses interest in filmmaking, and claims to have previously made stag films that he was unable to sell. Terry believes audiences want "something more," so he decides to make snuff films.
After choosing a large abandoned college as the setting of his film, Terry secures financing from an unsuspecting film company run by a gay film executive named Steve Randall. Terry rounds up a group of women and men— some of them amateur filmmakers— who are willing to help make his film. Among them are filmmaker Bill Drexel; untrained actresses Kathy and her friend Patricia; and Ken, one of Terry's longtime acquaintances. For their first scene, Patricia and Kathy, wearing translucent plastic masks, lure a blind man to the building. There, Terry, donning a Zardoz mask, strangles the man to death while Bill films the murder.