Last House On Massacre Street (1973) Is American Giallo On Bad Acid
It's surreal watching a seventies movie in high definition. I'm sure this has been talked about before, and using far more pretentious language, but it's an unmooring experience. During the wedding scene in The Bride (Or Last House on Massacre Street if yer' nasty... And I am) I considered the fact that photos taken or film shot during a wedding in 1973 would look significantly worse than the blu-ray transfer I was watching. It's the visual hyper-reality of a time when such a thing would have been impossible to concieve. Most of Last House On Massacre Street has a drugged and drifting quality that seems just outside reality. It's in that dissociation that I find the serotonin high.
Barbara gets what she wants. She wanted a modernist labyrinth of a house and her wealthy father funded it. Now she intends to wed David, and to to fill that dream house with their love. David is an employee at her father's firm and Barbara's father cautions her about his nature. Sitting on daddy's lap, she pouts and sets him right. However, things don't always work out. David still has eyes for his ex girlfriend Helen. If the labyrinth can't be filled with love, then Barbara will fill it with blood.
I have hunted for this flick under its many different names (Including The House That Cried Murder, No Way Out) because of its "movie within a movie" cameo. At the beginning of Blood Rage this is the movie playing at the drive-in. It's also seen again on the television that evil twin Terry watches, as he canoodles with one of his many victims. Turns out its presence is no coincidence. Writer John Grissmer penned both films. The flashes I saw of the movie gave me a gritty, phantasmagoric feeling. It took some time to track it down but I eventually found it on a blu-ray double feature with House On The Edge Of The Park.
The Last House On Massacre Street can be slow at times, but I never found it mundane. Instead it has a creeping dread, one that seeps into the film grain like pesticides into fresh soil. The setup has a seventies flower power optimism that presupposes maybe Charlie never called for Helter Skelter... But we know better. This is a Lana Del Rey song that can only end in bloodletting. Barbara's rich girl machinations and David's playboy vapidity make for a grindhouse Gone Girl setup. The wedding and its unraveling is shot candid, bringing to mind the tangible unpleasantness of movies like Alice Sweet Alice. From there, we turn to David and his life in the aftermath of the failed nuptials. Barbara isn't content with allowing a betrayal time to breath, and her vengeance saturates the screen until even her appearance is heralded under red photon. It all comes to a bombastic conclusion that is grindhouse in its bones. There's a kiss waiting for you beneath the gauzy veil of this film, but it tastes like the grave...
-Dr. Benny Graves
