Last House on Hell Street

Different is Good I really love indie films, and a friend of mine let me check out Insaniac (another John Specht/Robin Garrels collaboration). Production-wise, it was a little rough around the edges, but the writing and the performances were great, so when I heard that Garrels and Specht collaborated again on this, I had to check it out.

Well, Last House was…different. Not that different is a bad thing. I wasn't expecting anything like this though. It doesn't play out like a normal movie. There's a story, but most of the film is filled with bizarre imagery and quirky soundscapes that all felt kinda poetic in a way. I'm a little surprised this got released on DVD since it's a very non-traditional movie that will definitely rub mainstream moviegoers the wrong way. Kudos to Sub Rosa for putting this flick on DVD. If you're looking for a regular, linear storyline, you should probably steer clear of this one, but if you're looking for something strange and unusual, you might want to give this one a try.

I honestly enjoy B movies, I like a good laugh. But this movie made me want to jump into oncoming traffic. Where was the dialog? There was so little that there may as well not been any at all. And the purple broad spoke in such re tarted riddles she may as well been speaking a foreign language. And of my god if I see another five minute montage of TREES!! I am gonna go insane. Visual art and poetry? The only thing that was remotely like that was the end where the guy came out of the houses vagina! Which I might add was funny as hell. I love a good crappy b movie but this one made me feel cheated and ripped off. I almost tried to get my 5$ back.

I saw Only Shack on Deserted Field about 7 or 8 years ago. I remember this movie because of the joke I played on my friends with it. Being as it was the worst movie experience of my life, I felt a strange sense of anger. I was bitter. I felt that I had been wronged, and I wanted others to feel my pain. I then burned 2 copies and gave them to 2 of my friends who love horror movies. I told them I had just come across an amazing horror movie. Their reaction goes without saying. Halloween holds the title of greatest film ever for me. Any horror movie I see I rank on a scale of Last House on Hell Street-Halloween. It's my own scale of 1-10 ranking, if you will. 8 years later and hundred of horror movies later, my scale remains intact. With that being said, I recommend this movie. Why? We see average and below average horror all the time. It passes the time and pretty much goes in one ear and out the other. I absolutely guarantee this movie will forever stick with you. After you see this, you will never utter the lines "worst movie I've ever seen" again. If you do, please pass the title along, I would love to see something that beats this.

When you are going to use the words 'Last House' you are treading on sacred ground. LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET are classics in the shock genre. Both of them cross the lines of good taste on a regular basis. Bearing that in mind this film should be along the same lines. Especially, since it's put out on the Sub Rosa Extreme series of titles. I P*** On Your Corpse I S*** On Your Grave (Or something like that) was at least edgy, gory and put in a little erotic frisson for good measure. This one boasts that it's a unique mix of expressionistic visual poetry and intense grueling horror. I didn't get that from this. It was dull and I used the fast forward a lot. The sad part is that I didn't miss anything by doing that. I'm not sure what they were trying to do but the title needs to be changed to something else. Maybe PANSIES MAKE STUPID MOVIE ON HELL STREET or THIS MOVIES SUCKS REALLY, REALLY BAD maybe even FOR GOD'S SAKE DON'T WATCH THIS MOVIE! Hopefully this was just a learning experience for the cast and crew and they'll come back with something better. Maybe home movies or 70 minutes of static.

"The Mother" (Robin Garrels), who appears to be from the late 1800s, is killed by "The Father" (John Specht), after she gives birth to Kyle (Schmack Virgin). I didn't quite make out what was supposed to be wrong with Kyle that caused "The Father's" rage, but by appearances, maybe it was that Kyle was born a redneck in the late 20th Century. The death of "The Mother" causes her to turn into a perpetually present, annoying narrator with the ghost-like power to untie a knot in a rope as long as it's not too substantial. There is some silent-film like material about Kyle and his fiancée Jessica (Leah Schumacher), and something about Kyle becoming possessed, putting Jessica in danger etc.

First, before I start the review proper, let me say that I really like the name "Schmack Virgin". In an ideal world, it would be the name of a long lost member of the band Throbbing Gristle (worth checking out if you're unfamiliar with them and you're into weird stuff). This reference has more significance than you might think for this film, but more on that in a minute.

Although Last House on Hell Street still earns an "F" (1 through 4 is "F" territory in my rating system), it's a big improvement over producer/director/actor Specht and writer/actor/composer Garrels' film Insaniac (2002). Garrels still can't seem to write a story to save her life, and her performance is still horrible (as is every other actors' performance here), but there are things that Specht and Garrels get right, if you view the film in a certain way.

Admittedly, Garrels may not be trying to tell a traditional story here--in literature about both this and Insaniac, as well as some material actually in the film, it is suggested that Garrels is trying to take a more poetic approach, but in that case, why is most of Last House on Hell Street constructed as if it has a traditional story, but just not a very extensive or good one? Poetic intent is fine, but ability needs to be exceptional to pull it off in a low budget film like this. I suggest that Garrels should work on learning how to write an engaging story. Mix more poetic elements in with that, but tell a more linear, pithy story that an audience can get interested in. A self-aware sense of humor might help, too.

But, I mentioned that there are positive qualities to this film. If one forgets about the almost non-existent story, it easy to watch Last House on Hell Street as an occasionally effective minimalist music video. Although we're still just dealing with home video cameras, Specht and crew actually achieve some interesting visuals. Most of the film is shot and edited using various "extended techniques", including negative images, intentional blurriness and grain, intriguing shifts and lines in the frame and so on. All of it worked for me. Further, there is a better production design sense in this film compared to Insaniac, with some nice set-ups in the basement of the titular house (which is really more in "Hell Field"), and a great scene featuring Kyle being reborn through a bizarre symbolic vagina that's part Cronenberg, part Blair Witch. There is also lighting apparent in some shots, unlike Insaniac, and occasionally it is fairly artistic.

Part of watching the film this way is the music, obviously. Although Garrels and David Burnett's compositions, when they attempt anything more traditional and tonal, tend to sound very amateur (neither seem very sophisticated with traditional melody, harmony or rhythm), the music is actually pretty good whenever they move closer to Throbbing Gristle-meets-Brian Eno territory, and that's the bulk of the music in the film.

To get value out of the film as a minimalist music video, you have to be a fan of that kind of stuff (Gristle and Eno) as well as Stockhausen, John Cage, Steve Reich's early work, John Zorn, and so on. The extended technique visual style parallels that sensibility. Of course, a lot of people dislike that kind of music and "flashy" cinematography, so these elements will not be saving graces for them. If you don't have the disposition or calm/patience to enjoy Eno's Thursday Afternoon (1984), you're not going to like this film either.

But there are a couple other things Specht does right. One is the opening murder scene. While it's not exactly well acted or very elaborate in terms of special makeup effects, it's staged and shot well enough that it's pretty effective. There are a couple great locations (such as the river) that were well shot and should have been used more. And there is a slight amount of gratuitous nudity, which I'm always happy to see.

However, none of that is enough to bring the film up to a "D" (a 6), or even to make the film "so bad it's good" (a 5). It's not bad/ridiculous enough for that. Plus for most of the things done right, there are things done wrong. The awful storytelling negates the admirable minimalist music video. A ridiculously amateur zoom in and out shot of the moon negates more professional shots in the basement. The extremely padded opening and closing credits (to achieve an actual running time around 67 minutes, not the stated 70) and the horrible pacing for the story negate the few clever montages. The half-assed insertion of a couple ancillary characters (one who gets bonked in the head while he has a metal bucket on it, providing one of the film's only humorous (though unintentionally so) moments) negates itself.

You might think the film sounds worth checking out for its badness, but do yourself a favor and avoid that unless the music video sounds like something you might like.