The Last House on the Beach (1978)

A nasty piece of exploitative Eurosleaze, Franco Prosperi's "The Last House on the Beach" (1978) yet tells a very simple story. In the film, a trio of particularly brutish thugs, led by the handsome Aldo (Ray Lovelock), breaks into a hilltop mansion to lay low after a violent bank heist. Too bad that the house they've chosen at random is occupied by a quintet of Catholic schoolgirls, presided over by Sister Cristina (cult Eurostar Florinda Bolkan). The three goons waste little time before starting to rape and kill the young women, until Cristina decides that...well, nun or no nun, she's mad as hell and isn't going to take it anymore! The vengeance that she and the younger ladies dish out on their persecutors is both a swift and satisfying one. I must add that despite the plot's simplicity, this film proved a bit hard to watch at times, largely due to the convincing performances by Stefano Cedrati and Flavio Andreini as those other two maniacs; they really do make for thoroughly hateful characters. Florinda, as usual, is impeccable, and the film offers up some additional pleasures in the form of lovely oceanside scenery (a stark contrast to the ugliness transpiring inside the house; wherever did they film this?) and a dynamic, propulsive score by Roberto Pregadio; the piece of music that accompanies Aldo's pursuit of Eliza (the prettiest of the girls, IMHO) down the hillside to the sea is especially dynamite. Prosperi directs his film to ensure a good deal of suspense, and in all, this is a pretty darn gripping presentation, with, thankfully, little in the way of explicit violence (what is suggested is quite terrible enough!). This nice-looking Severin DVD also includes a 1/2-hour interview with the still hunky Lovelock of today, during which the Italian confirms that "Ray Lovelock" IS indeed his real name. The actor's sincerity and charm make the character of Aldo seem, if possible, all the more monstrous.

Last House on the Beach (1978) * (out of 4) Yet another Italian rip off of Wes Craven's Last House on the Left, which of course was nothing but a rip of Ingmar Bergman's masterful The Virgin Spring. A nun and her five students are practicing a concert in a house far away from anyone when three thugs, running from the police, break in on them. Soon the thugs are raping, torturing and beating the girls so the nun finally gets fed up and takes her own revenge. I've seen a lot of these rips over the years but this one here is without a doubt the worst of the bunch. If you're looking for a watered down version of the Craven film then this is the movie for you as the violence all takes place off screen and we're often just shown the aftermath. The rape sequences are very tame and often don't even feature any nudity. As with the Bergman film, this movie tries to use religion as an undertone but it never works. The entire film is very lazy but what makes the film unwatchable are all of the characters who are annoying from the start and only get worse. The performances are what you'd expect from a film like this but the direction is quite horrid as Prosper brings no energy, suspense or drama to the film. Florinda Bolkan, a Euro Horror favorite to many, plays the nun and does a decent job with the role.

Here's another Last House on the Left cash-in, this one comes from notorious Mondo filmmaker Franco Prosperi.After pulling a bank robbery, three thugs (Ray Lovelock, Flavio Andreini & Stefano Cedrati) seek a place to hide out for awhile. They stumble upon an isolated beach house and decide to crash there for a few days. The house is owned by the nearby Catholic School, and Sister Cristina (Florinda Bolkan) and five of her female students are occupying it for a few days as they study for upcoming exams.The men break in and hold the women hostage, and while searching the house to make sure there's no one else around, one of them comes across a maid hiding in the basement – he slaps her around a bit then caves her head in with an iron, promptly killing her. Another of the men finds one of the girls in the bathroom getting dressed and makes unwanted advances towards her; she swiftly grabs a comb and stabs the pointed handle deep into his leg, crippling him for the remainder of the film.When we meet Sister Cristina she is dressed in civilian clothes but as soon as the men discover she is a nun they force her to undress in front of her students and put her habit on. Later on two of them viciously rape her in the wine cellar. The action pretty much never leaves the interior of the house and moves pretty slow as the men lounge around sunbathing and drinking wine (the wounded one even finds time to read a bit of William Faulkner!?).Eventually the ladies manage to do away with their captors as Sister Cristina gives the wounded man a lethal injection, shoots the 2nd man and one of her students blasts the last thug in the stomach with a shotgun. When he refuses to die all five girls beat him to death with sticks! Overall this flick isn't too nasty, shocking or even that entertaining, especially when compared to some of the far superior Last House knock-offs: House on the Edge of the Park, Last House on Dead End Street, Night Train Murders, etc. Although it does contain a few notable scenes: the creepy slo-mo rape of one of the girls set to a ''trippy'' acid-rock score, the violent - although non-graphic - rape-with-a-stick scene (again in slo-mo), a bizarre scene where the men force the girls to watch naked disco dancing on TV while they molest them (!?), and the aforementioned beaten-to-death-with-sticks scene.Some of you will recognize Florinda Bolkan from Flavia the Heretic, A Lizard in a Woman's Skin or Don't Torture a Duckling, Ray Lovelock from Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, Murder Rock or Autopsy and one of the female students as Susan Kelly from Zombie Holocaust. It also features a fantastic upbeat score from Roberto Pregadio (SS Experiment Camp, White Cannibal Queen, and SS Camp 5: Women's Hell). Recommended to rape / revenge completists and fans of Italian sleaze. 6/10

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.