La settima donna

Another vile and rapidly edited Italian exploitation effort that just mildly succeeds in cashing in on the enormous 'popularity' of Wes Craven's horror landmark "Last House on the Left". Three bank robbers drive up to a remote beach house where they plan to hide from the police after a successful heist. Staying at the house at that moment are an attractive nun and five teenage girls under her supervision. The schoolgirls become the objects of violent torture games, vicious rapes and eventually murder. Bloody vengeance by the remaining girls and the nun is the inevitable consequence. What can be said about this type of cinema that hasn't been said a thousand times before? It's mean-spirited, sickening and not the type of film to watch if you already feel a bit depressed. Peculiar, however, is that the victims of these rape-flicks continue to get younger and more innocent. I suppose it's some sort of competition among the directors to be the sickest bastard of all? How else do you get the crazy idea of exploiting sexual aggression towards teenage girls? The girls in "Last House on the Beach" barely look 15 years old, so mission accomplished for director Franco Prosperi, but the overall tone of the film isn't half as offensive or shocking as Ruggero Deodato's "House on the Edge of the Park" or Meir Zachi's infamous "I spit on your Grave". Not recommended, unless of course if you're on a sole mission to watch every rape/revenge flick ever made. In that case, you can watch this one on par with "Late Night Trains" and "Terror Express", which are equally bad.

As successful as Wes Craven's "Last House on the Left" was, it was such an unpleasant and notorious film that it didn't spawn too many imitators in American. Italy, however, was a whole different story, There "Last House" and its home-grown, pseudo-sequel "Late Night Trains" spawned an entire subgenre (albeit a pretty small one) known as the "terror film". These films usually fell into two categories. Some are flat-out sexploitation films like "Terror Express" and "Escape from a Woman's Prison" that are pretty hard to take seriously, where others, like "Late Night Trains", are pretty disturbing but are also usually much more stylized and less graphic than the infamous American film (the one exception to all this was Ruggiero Deodato's "House by the Edge of the Park" which might even be MORE harrowing than the Craven film).

This movie falls more into the latter category. It is a more-or-less serious film about three fugitive bank robbers who rape, murder, and generally terrorize a nun and a gaggle of Catholic schoolgirls at an isolated cottage by the beach. The violence is pretty nasty, but not especially graphic. There are three rapes, including a fatal one involving a walking stick, but they are highly stylized and/or take place mostly off camera. There is a general lack of character development,however, so that even the strongest actors like Florinda Bolkan and Ray Lovelock are not as effective as they could have been (having seen "Flavia the Heretic" and "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie" I would have expected more from a face-off between nun-heroine Bolkan and bank robber/villain Lovelock). The girls are all nubile but not particularly young or innocent looking (Sherry Buchanon, for instance, had been playing abused schoolgirls since "What Have They Done to Your Daughters?" in 1974). This is somewhat appropriate, however, since the movie seems unsure at times whether it wants to pity them or sexually exploit them.

The ending is interesting although I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Neither the best nor the worst of its kind.

A trio of obdurate bank-robbers who are barely evading the authorities hole up in an incommunicado beach house where several girls from a parochial school are having a field trip with their drama teacher. Instantaneously, the girls are sucked into a living nightmare of sexual assault, inexorable degradation, torture, and death. At one especially disturbing point in the course of events, one of the brutes becomes seriously injured, and callously demands to be cared for by the very people he has been so cruelly tormenting.

This film is often compared to LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, though despite axiomatic similarities in the general mien, little else between the two films is consonant. LA SETTIMA DONNA is an emotionally exhausting steamroller of tribulation, pathos, and senseless inhumanities...highly unpleasant, but effective, like a hard punch to the gut.

6.5/10

Well, Wes Craven's Last House on the Left sure was an influential film, as there's been a barrage of rip-offs released since 1972, and this is one of them. The Last House on the Beach tends to get put down, and certainly isn't one of the better rip-offs to be released since Craven's masterpiece; but still, I've got to admit that I have a penchant for films like this, and The Last House on the Beach hits the spot. The only real difference between this film and the rest of its ilk is that, as the title suggests, the action takes place close to a beach this time around. Director Franco Prosperi seems keen to capitalise on his film's only original element, as the beach setting is often sun-drenched, and the director has seen fit to implement several upbeat pop-rock songs into the mix...which actually works quite well. The plot is paper-thin as you would expect, and follows a bank robbery. On the run, the thieves decide to hide out in a nice house on the beach; which just happens to be where a nun is taking care of a bunch of teenagers rehearsing a Shakespeare play...rape, torture and murder ensue.

The main thing I like about these sorts of films is that the focus tends to stay on just one idea, which means that the audience is allowed to see into the situation. This film doesn't do it as well as, say, The House on the Edge of the Park, did; but all the actors play their parts well, and considering that there's barely any character on display; it is testament to their talent that we are actually allowed to feel for the characters. Then again, it's always going to be difficult NOT to feel for someone that is being brutally raped and humiliated. This film never received the notoriety of some of its counterparts, and that's hardly surprising as the violence is never particularly shocking and the rape scenes don't go on for long, nor do they occur often. The girls in this film are typically young, which gives it a lot more shock value; but the real problem here is that there isn't a lot of invention, and it ponders along, which may annoy some. I do have to say that I enjoyed the relaxed style of this movie, however, and since I personally found the action interesting; I am perhaps rating is a little above the rating that many exploitation fans would give it.

Sister Cristina(Florinda Bolkan)plays a nun who takes 5 teenage girls in her care to a remote house where they rehearse 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.Three bank-robbers(Ray Lovelock,Flavio Andreini and Stefano Cedrati)show up,brutally raping and terrorizing the girls,killing one by raping her with a cane,until Bolkan renounces her teachings and seeks bloody revenge."The Last House On the Beach" by Franco Prosperi is a typical Italian exploitation film.There are some nasty scenes of misogynistic sexual violence,but the action is slow and the characters are uninteresting.Still if you like terror cinema you can give this one a look.I still think that Deodato's "House on the Edge of the Park" or Lado's "Late Night Trains" are much more disturbing films.7 out of 10.