Gialli movies are generally about well-dressed bloodless rich people standing around beautiful rooms being mean to each other for no reason other than, perhaps, the sterile luxury they're surrounded with has robbed them of any feeling other than the small rush they get from cruelty, both giving and receiving. We are generally not surprised when the black-gloved killer starts slicing these people up; in fact, we're relieved. They are deliberately hard to bear.
And then there's the rape/revenge flick. Not too much to say about that genre. I'm sure there are some who have found it worthy of analysis, but it's one of my least favourite sub-genres, so I haven't seen that many, other than your typical entry-points into the genre, "I Spit on Your Grave" and "Last House on the Left".
Indeed, "The House on the Edge of the Park" is clearly a rip-off of the latter flick. How can you tell? Not only does it have the word "House" in the title, which, judging from all the movies that came in the wake of the Wes Craven flick, producers really thought must have been a key ingredient in its success, it also stars Krug Stillo himself, David Hess, in basically the same role he played in "Last House".
Whereas the plot is similar to the generally American rape/revenge exploitation flicks, what with a pair of psychopathic louts invading a party and er, raping or otherwise sexually harassing the female partygoers... the movie has a distinctly European bent in the depiction of these so called rapes, in that they are shot like softcore pornography. There's none of the screaming, writhing, fighting back, even the female faces contorted in expressions of horror that you would expect from depictions of actual rape - and that you got in movies like the aforenamed American rape/revenge flicks. In fact it is heavily implied that the women are enjoying it in some instances.
The plot: Hess is a loutish mechanic who works with a younger, apparently intellectually disabled man. He is shown at the beginning of the movie raping and murdering a woman he just met at a discotheque while the sweetest music plays on the soundtrack - which will be a recurring motif. A sophisticated young man and woman show up at the duo's autoshop looking for a repair, and when they let on that they're going to a party, Hess invites himself and his buddy along.
Those expecting a straightforward rape/revenge tale will be surprised almost immediately when one of the women, who looks like Jean Seberg in "Breathless", entices Hess by stripping and showering in front of him, inviting him to join in. They play poker and attempt to humiliate the younger lout by getting him to strip, and when accusations of cheating are made, Hess pulls out a pretty non-threatening looking straight-razor and ties up one of the guys, while smashing another's face repeatedly into a table.
All the women appear either fully naked or half-naked, and all are beautiful, particularly an exquisite black woman with a totally shaven head.
"The House on the Edge of the Park" has a reputation as a really nasty shocker, particularly in the UK where it was banned as part of the whole "Video Nasty" craze, and is now available there only in a cut version. Nowadays, though, the only thing that's really shocking about it is the film's attitude to sexual violence, which isn't shown to be very violent at all.
At least I wasn't bored. Hess was good value for money as a bad guy. It's kind of hard to believe him as a serial killer when he seems more like a violent loutish type person, and the movie has a ridiculous, though negligible twist at the end, but at least I wasn't bored by it.
And then there's the rape/revenge flick. Not too much to say about that genre. I'm sure there are some who have found it worthy of analysis, but it's one of my least favourite sub-genres, so I haven't seen that many, other than your typical entry-points into the genre, "I Spit on Your Grave" and "Last House on the Left".
Indeed, "The House on the Edge of the Park" is clearly a rip-off of the latter flick. How can you tell? Not only does it have the word "House" in the title, which, judging from all the movies that came in the wake of the Wes Craven flick, producers really thought must have been a key ingredient in its success, it also stars Krug Stillo himself, David Hess, in basically the same role he played in "Last House".
Whereas the plot is similar to the generally American rape/revenge exploitation flicks, what with a pair of psychopathic louts invading a party and er, raping or otherwise sexually harassing the female partygoers... the movie has a distinctly European bent in the depiction of these so called rapes, in that they are shot like softcore pornography. There's none of the screaming, writhing, fighting back, even the female faces contorted in expressions of horror that you would expect from depictions of actual rape - and that you got in movies like the aforenamed American rape/revenge flicks. In fact it is heavily implied that the women are enjoying it in some instances.
The plot: Hess is a loutish mechanic who works with a younger, apparently intellectually disabled man. He is shown at the beginning of the movie raping and murdering a woman he just met at a discotheque while the sweetest music plays on the soundtrack - which will be a recurring motif. A sophisticated young man and woman show up at the duo's autoshop looking for a repair, and when they let on that they're going to a party, Hess invites himself and his buddy along.
Those expecting a straightforward rape/revenge tale will be surprised almost immediately when one of the women, who looks like Jean Seberg in "Breathless", entices Hess by stripping and showering in front of him, inviting him to join in. They play poker and attempt to humiliate the younger lout by getting him to strip, and when accusations of cheating are made, Hess pulls out a pretty non-threatening looking straight-razor and ties up one of the guys, while smashing another's face repeatedly into a table.
All the women appear either fully naked or half-naked, and all are beautiful, particularly an exquisite black woman with a totally shaven head.
"The House on the Edge of the Park" has a reputation as a really nasty shocker, particularly in the UK where it was banned as part of the whole "Video Nasty" craze, and is now available there only in a cut version. Nowadays, though, the only thing that's really shocking about it is the film's attitude to sexual violence, which isn't shown to be very violent at all.
At least I wasn't bored. Hess was good value for money as a bad guy. It's kind of hard to believe him as a serial killer when he seems more like a violent loutish type person, and the movie has a ridiculous, though negligible twist at the end, but at least I wasn't bored by it.