House on the Edge of the Park (1980)

La Casa Sperduta nel Parco, an Italian movie given the English title House on the Edge of the Park, stars David Hess, who played a similar character in 1972's Last House on the Left. What a coincidence.

House on the Edge of the Park is a very well-made and stylish movie, which I found both enjoyable and frustrating in turn. In a nutshell, it is about a delinquent and his simple-minded buddy who (sort of) crash a party and threaten, torture and rape the well-to-do guests. Lots of threatening, far too little torturing, and the rapes... well, I'll get to that.

We begin with Alex (the David Hess character) running a pretty young woman off the road, throwing her into the back seat of her own car, tearing open her blouse to reveal her small but perfect breasts, raping her still mostly fully clothed, and then strangling her as he climaxes. This all takes place in the first three minutes, so the movie starts off well. The only downside is that the filmmakers keep blacking out during the action. I just hate artsy shit getting in the way of GIMP action.

We're introduced to Alex and his buddy, Ricky, a simple-minded but likable guy who idolizes Alex and is happy that he and Alex are going to hang together tonight. Then we're introduced to two of the party guests, Tom and Lisa.

It turns out Alex and Ricky work at a garage, and Tom and Lisa pull in with car troubles and one thing leads to another and Alex and Ricky accompany Tom and Lisa back to the house (presumably on the edge of the park) where Glenda, Gloria, and Howard are waiting. Glenda is a bald black woman wearing all black. Gloria is dressed all in red (including red hose) and Lisa is dressed all in white (with white hose). They all dance in lame 80s fashion. The girls are all incredibly hot, and I found myself really hoping to see them all naked and in distress before the movie ends. My personal favorite is Gloria, the one dressed all in red.

Alex follows Lisa into the kitchen, hops her up onto the counter and licks the inside of her thigh and caresses her breast, which she lets him do to work himself up, then she pushes him away. So she's a tease. She announces that she's going to take a shower, and Alex follows her upstairs. She's all soaped up nude in the clear-glassed-in shower. We get full frontal and backside nudity. She makes a show of soaping herself up and invites him to scrub her back. She gets him into the shower, soaps him up, then walks out and insults him.

Meanwhile, Ricky is being fleeced in a poker game downstairs, where they are cheating at cards. Alex comes down and figures it out. A fight starts. Howard grabs a bottle to come after Alex, but Alex pulls a straight razor, which trumps a bottle. They start another game of cards and Ricky gets his money back. Alex decides they're going to "have some fun" now.

Alex pulls down Glenda's black dress to expose her breasts. Alex gives Ricky his choice of the women. Ricky decides to rape Gloria, the Red Queen. He gets one breast exposed briefly. Tom jumps Alex and tries to grab the razor. Alex gets it back and cuts Tom's cheek. Then he tosses Howard in the swimming pool and pees on him. Alex ties up Howard, because he's the only threat. (Tom is kind of a wuss.)

Alex grabs the Red Queen and holds her down across a large stool. Her dress gets pulled up. (She has great legs.) She makes whimpering noises and Ricky explores her body with his face until she pushes Ricky to the ground and starts hitting him. Alex threatens to cut her unless she "plays" with Ricky. We are well on the way to a great rape scene except Ricky can't get it up because Gloria the Red Queen is afraid and Ricky doesn't like to do it like that. Ricky is missing the GIMP gene.

Alex tells Ricky that he'll show him "how to do it." He picks up Lisa the White Queen by her hair and they have a little eye communication where he indicates to her she needs to suck his cock, so she gets down on her knees and starts to blow him and he pushes her away, getting even for her doing the same to him in the shower. Talk about stupid.

Glenda the Black Queen runs out of the room and turns the lights out. She hides in the dark. Alex waits and sure enough Glenda the Black Queen sneaks out to the door, where Alex catches her. He pulls her dress down once again and squeezes her breasts painfully until Tom distracts him and he beats the shit out of Tom. While that's going on, Gloria the Red Queen tries to call the cops on the phone and Lisa the White Queen flees upstairs. Alex follows.

Alex catches Lisa the White Queen and hits her a few times. He makes her strip for him. She strips down to her white hose and white silk garter belt. Alex carries her to the bed and sort of rapes her. He at least pulls her arms up over her head and pins them there while he gropes and kisses her. Since she doesn't really fight him all that much, it is a bit disappointing. We cut away before we see any hard fucking action. Then we return after it is all over. Alex and Lisa the White Queen walk back downstairs fully clothed like nothing happened.

Next, Alex tells Lisa the White Queen to make out with Glenda the Black Queen while they all watch. All they do is start kissing, when suddenly the doorbell rings. It's Cindy, a really cute young blond. Just as Cindy figures out she has walked into a Bad Situation, Gloria the Red Queen makes a run for it out the front door. Alex sends Ricky after her. Eventually, Ricky catches her. But he doesn't want to harm her and she is touched, so she makes out with him. Really, it gets hard to tell who is in control in this movie. But we do get to see Gloria the Red Queen naked (except for her red hose, which kind of makes her look hotter).

While the Red Queen is doing Ricky, Alex turns his attention to newcomer Cindy. While the others all watch, he uses his razor to cut off Cindy's white blouse, then slowly traces his razor over her bare upper body. He makes her strip down to her pink bikini panties and knee socks. He feels her up. All this time we get close ups of Cindy's wide blue eyes and tear stained cheeks. She does an exceptional job of looking scared. He slowly pulls her panties down and makes her step out of them. Alex's time with the innocent blue-eyed Cindy is intercut with Ricky and the Red Queen getting it on, so it loses some potency. Finally, Cindy flees to a couch and covers herself with a blanket and Alex laughs.

Now fully clothed again, the Red Queen is trying to convince Ricky that they don't have to go back inside. They can just call the police. But Ricky can't do that to his best friend Alex. About that time Alex opens the door on them and drags the Red Queen inside.

Ricky tries to talk Alex into leaving, but Alex wants to have his fun with Cindy. And I have to say, Cindy looks incredibly young and innocent, standing there naked except for white knee socks, with small breasts. Japanese schoolgirls have nothing on Cindy. Alex thinks she's a virgin. (I have my doubts, but she sure looks the part.)

Now Alex turns nasty. He pushes Cindy back onto the couch. Cindy tries to cover her breasts with her arms, so Alex slices her forearm with his razor. Cindy screams. Alex laughs. He slices her right breast. Twice. Then he slashes her left breast. Twice. Cindy screams and struggles vainly. Alex lifts up Cindy's arms and slices horizontally across her belly. Twice. He slices her left thigh, twice, of course. He cuts vertically down her stomach twice. It is a nice GIMP torture scene. Until Ricky interrupts him and Alex stabs Ricky.

At this point the GIMP stuff is over. Ricky writhes around on the floor bleeding. Alex is filled with remorse that he stabbed simple-minded Ricky. Alex loses control of the situation and Tom the wuss takes over. Needless to say, it goes badly for Alex. There is an interesting denouement.

So, there's the brief rape and murder with extremely brief nudity at the very start of the movie. (It will come as no surprise that the first victim has a connection to the party-goers.) The Black Queen gets her breasts exposed twice, and sucks face very briefly with the White Queen, but nothing else happens to her. The White Queen provides us with full frontal nudity in the shower and an R-rated sex scene in which she starts out being raped but ends up acquiescing. The Red Queen is almost raped a couple of times, even to the point where her breasts are exposed, but ends up seducing Ricky the would-be rapist instead. So that's a waste of a good GIMP possibility. But at least she is naked. Poor blond-haired blue-eyed Cindy doesn't get raped, but ends up slashed all to hell in a very nice razor torture sequence.

All in all, I was impressed with this movie. It had a complex and satisfying plot. It was well directed. It had good dialog. It was filmed well. The performers all looked good. The women were all absolutely hot. The sex was all R-rated. The GIMP factor was less than it could have been, which is why it was both entertaining and annoying. So, in my opinion, a much better movie than Last House on the Left, but bursting with unfulfilled GIMP possibilities. This movie gets a C, with a caveat. It was not bad for a mainstream movie, and it was really hot in places, but it certainly it could have been more violent.