HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK [1980]

House on the Edge of the Park (1980)
Directed by: Ruggero Deodato
Written by: Gianfranco Clerici, Vincenzo Mannino
Starring: Annie Belle, Christian Borromeo, David Hess, Giovanni Lombardo Radice

ITALY

AKA LA CASA SPERDUTA NEL PARCO 

AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY, DVD AND DIGITAL

RUNNING TIME: 91 mins

REVIEWED BY: Dr Lenera

Alex is a mechanic in New York who rapes and kills a woman. Some time later, he’s about to head out for a night on the town with his mentally deficient pal Ricky. However, a couple of rich folks stop by the garage at the last minute and ask for help with their car. After Alex and Ricky reluctantly sort out the issue, the boring couple asks them to tag along for a little party out in the suburbs. The party proves to be pretty bland, mostly consisting of poker games and bad dancing, so Alex starts to liven it up in a manner most people would consider to be totally out of order….

Well I did say in my review of The Untold Story that I was going to review this movie because it’s also a film which – once upon a time – many of us thought that this would never get an uncut release here in the UK, though of course I’m rather late. For the first home release of this, probably the best known of the several pictures heavily inspired by Last House On The Left, the BBFC [UK censors] demanded the removal of nearly twelve minutes; now it’s uncut, its scenes of violence against women and even one borderline “non-consensual” sex scene which is possibly troubling in its seeming attitude now considered to be no longer problematic. And hurrah for that, though of course what we’re dealing with here is an unapologetic exploitation piece, one whose primary intent is nastiness, which doesn’t really have anything to say except some middling, easy class stuff of the kind that was much better done in Late Night Trains, the underrated Aldo Lado’s entry in the “inspired by Last House On The Left” cycle. The problem with Ruggero Deodato, director of this movie, is that, while he always seemed to reach a certain standard and was never terrible [as far as I know], he doesn’t seem to have made anything which comes anywhere near the power and skill of the horrific masterpiece that is Cannibal Holocaust. though admittedly I haven’t explored his work properly. House On The Edge Of The Park is undeniably well done in terms of its building of tension, and its shocking bits are properly shocking as they should be without going on for ages, but people in it behave oddly, and we finish with a bizarre twist which makes no sense whatsoever. Honestly, it’s baffling! The best thing in the film is probably David Hess, basically playing Last House’s Krug again; he’s just so compulsively watchable and has charisma to spare.

The inspiration was the Circeo Massacre [1975], where three men kidnapped and raped two women. Deodato claims that, when  co-writer Clerici pitched it to him, he didn’t initially want to make it because it was too violent – despite having just made Cannibal Holocaust! Okay Ruggero, whatever you say! The producers wanted Hess so much they gave him half the rights. He also re-wrote much of his dialogue. It was shot in only three weeks, exteriors done in New York City, interiors at Incir De Paolis Studios in Rome. Actresses Brigitte Petronio and Annie Belle had done porn so Deodato’s worries about them not wanting to appear nude weren’t necessary, while Hess has said that he had sex with Belle for real in their bedroom scene despite being married to Karoline Mardeck, who plays his victim at the beginning. Okay David, whatever you say! He and Hess often rowed on set, largely because Hess wanted more money for things such as flying his friends over, Deodato eventually slapping him in the face. It wasn’t a success in Italy, but then it was aimed more at the international market anyway. The BBFC rejected it for a UK cinema certificate, and it ended up on the DPP list of “video nasties” when it was found available on UK video. When it was eventually passed in July 2002, the whopping 11 minutes and 43 seconds had almost all of the rape and violence removed. It was resubmitted in 2011 and the BBFC wanted just 1 mins .20 seconds cut; distributors Shameless Films protested and eventually only 42 seconds in one scene were removed. It was finally passed uncut in April 2022. Deodato later expressed dislike of the film, but he and Hess became close. On October 7, 2011, Hess collapsed and died while attending a local concert. In his pocket was a ticket to Rome to visit Deodato, who’d become very depressed and told his wife that Hess was the only person who could cheer him up.

The opening sequence perhaps suggests a more stylish film then we get. POV of Alex driving his car around the city at nighttime alternates with close flash cuts of Alex himself, all set to a deliberately cloying song.  Cut to a closeup of a woman who’s driving another car. He smiles at her as their cars are next to each other on the road, then he runs her off the road, gets out of his car, runs towards her and says “hello lady, he do you remember me….at the discoteque”, before putting one of his hands on her mouth and saying “We’ll make it right now”.  He makes no pretense of being nice, doesn’t build things up, gets straight on with it. He rapes her in the back of her car, ripping off most of her clothes, then thrusting while strangling her at the same time before she dies from the asphyxiation, after which he takes a locket from around her neck. This is intercut with the screen going black a few times. Why did Deodato decide to do this? Was he teasing the viewer to make a point, viewers annoyed that he or she can’t see all of what’s happening, even though what’s happening is very unpleasant? Now we get the opening titles, then Alex again, this time topless and looking at himself in the mirror. His friend Ricky arrives and tells him that cops had paid a visit about a stolen car but said car was already gone, before Alex tells him that a good way to get a policeman to stop pestering you is to threaten to rape his 15-year old daughter. Yes, well, from what we’ve just seen he would say that, wouldn’t he, and also mean it? Next we meet our rich couple Tom and Lisa, driving into Alex’s garage. Alex doesn’t want to help them, because it’ll be a long job and he wants to go disco-dancing, and offers to give him a “do it yourself” handbook, then suggests that he hire a limousine with the money that offered him, but but the slow-witted Ricky decides to help and quickly fixes the problem.

Tom tells Alex and Ricky that they’re driving to a friend’s house in New Jersey for a party and invites them along, though quietly tells Alex that he has concerns about bringing Alex. Before leaving, Alex stops by his locker, filled with various weapons, and takes a razor. Now we know that his recent assault and killing of the woman in the car was nothing out of the ordinary for him. The four arrive at a large villa, welcomed by the owner, Gloria, and her friends, Glenda and Howard. Minutes later, it becomes evident to Alex that the rich people are looking for easy thrills when Gloria asks Ricky to do a striptease to some disco music and is goaded to drink alcohol with each move. Alex hates to see this humiliation – as do we – by these rich arseholes, but fortunately Alex eventually get through to Ricky, and Ricky stops before he strips completely naked. Then Tom, Howard, and Glenda play poker with Ricky and fleece him out of money, while Alex find Lisa drinking from a bottle of wine in the fridge and Lisa sexually teases him. It seems like she’s up for doing it on the kitchen counter a la Fatal Attraction, but she isn’t; then she invites him upstairs to shower with her, and he gets to rub her with a soapy sponge before she leaves him in there. If we hadn’t seen the opening rape, this would be a fun and even sexy sequence even if we can’t understand why Lisa is behaving like this, but instead we’re worried as to when Alex is going to attack her. Alex only eventually loses it when he comes back downstairs to see Ricky being taken advantage of. He easily bests the two bullies, then sets about having fun with the ladies, and wants Ricky to have fun too, but a la I Spit On Your Grave he’s not quite sure what he’s doing. And then another girl shows up.

Initially we truly dislike the hosts, typical rich arseholes who like to exploit the working class, but of course we soon feel that they don’t deserve the constant fear and violence which Alex subjects them to, often with his razor, but not always; Alex is almost as likely to pee on someone or repeatedly smash a head against the poker table. After giving up with Gloria and “giving” her to Ricky who sexually assaults her which she possibly enjoys and possibly doesn’t – it’s ambiguous which doesn’t automatically mean that the film is condoning rape but is certainly uncomfortable – Alex is disgusted when Lisa kneels down to try to give him a blowjob, though minutes later he does try to rape her but she does her best to enjoy it and even goes on top. Questionable stuff for some, and understandably so, but it seem to me that what we’re seeing – and let’s not forget that Lisa did seem to fancy Alex – is a woman trying to make the best of a horrid situation. Soon after that Ricky loses his virginity to a very willing participant, she clearly trying to turn him against his friend but looking like she’s really enjoying it too. Again, she’s probably just trying to make the act into something that’s pleasurable for her, so I don’t see this as being blatantly sexist or crass, even though one would probably be very silly to accuse screenwriters Gianfranco Clenci and Vicenzo Mannino of sensitivity. Deodato cruelly intercuts the romanticism of said scene with Alex slashing a naked woman with a razor, all over her body, over and over again. while he grins with glee. One wonders why the similar scene in The New York Ripper is still cut in the UK, seeing as it has far fewer slashes, though I suppose they’re nastier. Eventually there is retribution, but only in the final act, which makes this film more of an ordeal than many of its ilk. It’s gratifyingly bloody, but the twist is absolutely ridiculous.

The relationship between Alex and Ricky initially seems to just consist of Alex caring for Ricky but soon takes on considerably darker aspects. Alex wants Ricky to have “fun” like he does, but later we see Alex having threatening and manipulative control over Ricky which Ricky probably isn’t even aware of. Yet their final scene indicates that Alex loves Ricky. Inconsistent, but then Alex is a murderous, raping psychopath who revels in what he does, so he might think that the way he treats his mentally challenged friend is okay and for his own good. Hess is scary but magnetic; much of the film consists of him exerting control of the environment, Hess  being able to project this. Ricky is played by Giovanni Lombardo Radice aka John Morghen, an underrated actor whose gruesome deaths that some of his characters receive have overshadowed his performing skill. Even with English dubbing [which isn’t bad though the subtitles for the Italian language version are very different], his performance as Ricky is layered and even subtle. The other cast members are reasonable, and everyone is given lots of closeups, though Deodato and his cinematographer Sergio D’Offizi don’t capitulise on the potential claustrophobia of a film set almost entirely inside one house – but then again they may not have been going for that, and the diverse set design, number of well thought out shots and frequent camera movement certainly prevent things from becoming static and repetitive. Riz Ortolani was the composer of the score, but there’s little more then that song and that song’s tune being repeated in an ironic manner. The relative lack of scoring helps to add a realism to the sustained threat and abuse. The question is perhaps whether a film that consists almost entirely of sustained threat and abuse can be justified. If you do, then Deodato’s second best known film is often effective and effectively troubling.

SPOILER So it was all a revenge plot by the rich folk who say that mistakes were made but don’t seem that bothered by having suffered lots of brutality, brutality which they shouldn’t have needed to undergo at all. Huh? One could shorten the climax, removing the parts that reveal said revenge plot, and have a more satisfying wrap up. Huh again? It’s just so weirdly stupid, unless some clever point wax being made by Clenci and Mannino here which eludes me.