LA CASA SPERDUTA NEL PARCO

(A.k.a. HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK)

Ruggero Deodato's infamous 'nasty' finally hits the HD marketplace...

Alex (David Hess) is a dangerous man. Just how dangerous he can be is illustrated vividly in the pre-credits sequence where he rapes and strangles a girl in the back of a car.

When he’s not violating innocent females, Alex makes ends meet as a mechanic at a New York garage. But not on a weekend: that time is reserved for partying. As the film starts proper, we observe Alex grooming himself in preparation of a night on the tiles with his simpleton pal Ricky (Giovanni Lombardo Radice) when a posh young couple pull up at the garage in a swell-looking motor.

Initially reluctant to help them out on his own time, Alex’s tune changes when he learns that the couple – Tom (Christian Borromeo) and sexy Lisa (Annie Belle) – are on their way to a house party in an exclusive area. After fixing their trivial engine problem, Alex invites himself and the sheepish Ricky along for the ride.

Once they arrive at the house, a plush affair set back from the main road and hidden away by privacy-assuring trees, the foursome hurry in to join the party. In truth, it’s a rather sedate shindig: only three other guests are present, but at least they do include the seriously sultry Gloria (Lorraine De Selle).

Alex is most pleased – he’s remembered to bring along his trusty cutthroat razor blade and intends on having some fun at the expense of his rich hosts.

While Ricky busies himself by dancing like a tit to some truly horrific disco beats and stripping off to the raucous approval of the other partygoers, Alex tries his charms on Lisa. Well, who wouldn’t? Trouble is, she’s a terrible cock tease, and keeps leading him on so far ... only to blow cold when he gets too up close and personal. It’s not a particularly wise move, as we know from the thug’s introductory scene.

It doesn’t take long before Alex starts to tire of his posh hosts and their merciless mocking of the retarded Ricky. Predictably, the air turns hostile. At first, it’s nothing too bad: a bloody nose here, some shouting and hair-pulling there. But when demure young neighbour Cindy (Brigitte Petronio) makes a house visit, events take a turn toward the decidedly more ugly ... and the only way this night can end is in extreme violence.

Already courting minor notoriety on the back of his 1970s gut-chomper JUNGLE HOLOCAUST, Ruggero Deodato consolidated his reputation as a purveyor of prime Italian sicksploitation with this instantly infamous 1979 effort. Of course, his subsequent film – CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST – would go several steps further, going on to be one of the most enduringly controversial horror films of all time.

HOUSE, however, shouldn’t be overshadowed by Deodato’s later flesh-eating epic. It’s a harrowing, stylish and deceptively well-made thriller in its own right.

The casting is an obvious strong point, with a veritable who’s who of infamous cult horror movie actors lining up to take part. Hess basically reprises his psychopath persona from THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and HITCH-HIKE, and delivers in a manic style that only he seemed capable of pulling off with credibility. He is genuinely scary on the screen; a convincing sleazeball. Radice, meanwhile, in his big screen debut, demonstrates the edgy energy that would later punctuate the likes of CANNIBAL FEROX, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD and STAGE FRIGHT.

De Selle, Borromeo, the lovely Belle ... Deodato is fortunate to have such a classy cast at hand to breathe life into Gianfranco Clerici and Vincenzo Mannino’s pulpish, angry screenplay.

The director is also aided by slick editing, nice lighting and a superbly paradoxical score from the ever-reliable Riz Ortolani. Yes, the disco tunes grate – but it’s almost as if they’re meant to. After all, Deodato works with his scriptwriters intelligently to keep the lines of morality blurred throughout this troublesome beast: Alex is reprehensible, certainly – but is he any more loathsome than the upper class snobs he despises? They’re not afforded sympathetic characters, and this is intentional – something that becomes increasingly apparent as the film unfurls.

A biting social commentary; a tensely claustrophobic thriller; a class struggle paired down to its basest terms: HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK is all of these, as well as being a weirdly schizophrenic film that clearly owes to Craven’s aforementioned LAST HOUSE, while reaching out for its own identity by way of weirdly ill-fitting sex scenes and a show-stopping torture of the young Cindy that feels totally wrong in its randomness.

The film remains a curiosity even today, challenging perceptions and posing moral conundrums that make its violence (a lot of which is not overtly graphic) seem harsher than it is. Perhaps this is why the BBFC still have issues with this former video nasty to this day - the last time it was submitted to them, by Shameless Entertainment in 2011, it suffered 42 seconds of cuts to Cindy's aforementioned torture (that's nothing: Argent's release in 2002 was butchered by a whopping 11 minutes and 43 seconds!).

Here, the film makes the upgrade to blu-ray courtesy of Italian distributors CG Home Video. It forms part of their CineKult range and thankfully they have no such censorial issues: HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK is presented fully uncut here.

Furthermore, it looks magnificent in this new 1080p HD restoration. The film is presented as an MPEG4-AVC file in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced. Colours are deep but natural, flesh-tones are nicely authentic throughout and blacks never falter. Dark scenes are rendered well and are totally free from compression woes. The blemish-free print helps these scenes impress. But it's the film's aesthetically brighter moments that really shine. Cindy's humiliation, for example, which takes place in a well-lit living room is brutally vibrant, with immense detail to be found in the characters' faces and definition of background objects that I'd previously never picked up.

Exterior scenes are improved too, while the numerous pairings of Belle and Hess look simply gorgeous (aside from the latter's flabby waistline, which is bumpier than ever now).

Throughout, there's a fine layer of natural grain which nicely retains a filmic look to proceedings. DNR is kept in check and edge enhancement is never a concern. This is, in short, a great presentation.

Despite the back cover advertising an English audio track for the main feature, the only soundtracks available are two Italian ones: a 2.0 Dolby Digital mix and a 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio alternative.

Both are very good options. They're clean, clear and consistent with nice balance and range for 2.0 tracks. Is one better than other? I suppose the second one should be but I couldn't honestly discern.

Optional subtitles are available in Italian, Italian for the Hard-of-Hearing and English. Focusing on the latter, the subtitles are well-written and easy to read at all times (white with a thin black border to them).

It's a shame there's no English soundtrack option as Hess' performance is better, obviously, when delivered by his own tongue. But most other characters speak in Italian anyhow, so if you can tolerate his dubbed voice (which is pretty well synchronised to be fair) then watching the film with Italian audio and English subtitles isn't a bad proposition.

The disc opens to an animated main menu page. Pop-up scene-selection menus include a scene-selection menu allowing access to the film via 15 chapters.

This disc was produced in conjunction with Italian horror magazine Nocturno, and they also contribute its most substantial bonus feature: a 23-minute featurette entitled "Danzando Su Una Lama Di Rasoio" in which Deodato and Radice offer retrospective thoughts on the film. Alas, this is in Italian with no subtitle options. It looks to be very well produced and edited though, if that helps...

A selection of trailer for other CineKult trailers are also in Italian without subtitles: VIRUS, BESTIALITA, LA MOGLIE PIU BELLA, IL PLENILLUNIO DELLE VERGINI, L'ASSASSINO AL TELEFONO, QUALCOSA STRISCIA NEL BUIO, LA MANO CHE NUTRA LA MORTE, QUANDO L'AMORE E SENSUALITA, and RAGAZZA TUTTA NUDA ASSASSINATA NEL PARCO.

We also get a cheeky, amusing 48-second trailer for Nocturno magazine which nicely on a classic moment from AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON.

The reverse of the cover sleeve also contains Italian liner notes offering titbits of info on the film, Deodato and Hess, along with alternate cover art (the switchblade-in-the-open-doorway artwork as seen on the banned UK pre-cert from Skyline, albeit with the Italian title here).

HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK (the onscreen title on this disc is, unsurprisingly, LA CASA SPERDUTA NEL PARCO) is not going to get an uncut release in the UK any time soon. Yet here it is, intact and looking pretty tremendous in HD. With Italian audio (and English subtitles) only, admittedly - which is good enough for me, for now.

But, is it good enough for you?

By Stuart Willis