Casa sperduta nel parco, La (1980)

Director:

Ruggero Deodato

Writers:

Gianfranco Clerici (writer)
Vincenzo Mannino (writer)

Release Date:

February 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Plot:

Two lowlife punks invite themselves to a party at a posh villa and after being taunted by their snobbish hosts, hold everybody hostage and subject them to various torture and mayhem.

Plot Keywords:

Lesbian | Female Nudity | Pubic Hair | Rich Kid | Robbery

Cast

David Hess	...	Alex (as David A. Hess)
Annie Belle	...	Lisa
Christian Borromeo	...	Tom
Giovanni Lombardo Radice	...	Ricky
Marie Claude Joseph	...	Glenda
Gabriele Di Giulio	...	Howard
Brigitte Petronio	...	Cindy
Karoline Mardeck	...	Susan
Lorraine De Selle	...	Gloria

Also Known As:

The House on the Edge of the Park (International: English title)

Runtime:

91 min | UK:79 min (heavily cut)

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian | English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:(Banned) | Sweden:15 (uncut) | Norway:18 (uncut) (2007) | UK:R (original rating: 1981) | Australia:Refused Classification | Canada:(Banned) (Ontario) | Canada:18+ (Quebec) | Italy:VM18 | UK:(Banned) (1984-2002) | UK:18 (heavily cut) | USA:Unrated | Norway:(Banned) (video rating)

Filming Locations:

Incir De Paolis Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

F.D. Cinematografica

Trivia:

The film was initially rejected for a UK cinema certificate by the BBFC when first submitted in March 1981, and later found itself on the DPP list of "video nasties" when it was revealed that the uncut version was readily available on UK video. When it was eventually passed by the BBFC in July 2002 it was cut by 11 minutes and 43 secs, with almost all of the rape and violence either replaced or removed entirely.

Quotes:

Alex: I know what it's like, friend. It's a bitch when your car breaks down, Especially if you're in a hurry.

Movie Connections:

References "Kojak" (1973)

Interesting sleaze

This is interesting sleaze in a lot of ways, mainly because it's one of those movies that looks like nothing more than cheap, hateful sex trash when there are underlying ideas (even though I will not dare call this an intellectual film by any means). One thing I would like to say is that it is true that some of the things going on here can be viewed as romantic if you view it in a very unconventional way. One of the "rape" scenes definitely seems more like a rough, consensual sex game rather than a brutal, totally forced rape. At the same time, a lot of this can really be viewed more as about a guy (David A. Hess as Alex) who has had some serious female trouble at one point and is so terrified of a woman he loves leaving him that he responds animalistically with hateful, misogynistic acts of rape and abuse so that he can get close to all the women he likes in the only way he knows could work for him, no matter how cruel and damaging it is to anyone else. His companion Ricky is obviously someone who is mentally slow and hated by society, finding friendship only in scum like Alex, who he looks up to like a big brother/mentor type. He is shown to not know any better for the most part, but we know there is good in him when he not only can't bring himself to violate a woman, but he is also the one who tries to stop the terror from continuing. This leads to a twist ending that I thought was actually surprisingly clever for this type of film. This one's not quite as good as "The Last House on the Left" if you're going to compare movies with mean David A. Hess characters, but, despite similarities, this film stands up fairly well on its own, in my opinion.