LastHouseontheBeach

Last House on the Beach (1978)

The movie opens with a bank robbery where a couple of people get shot. The robbers make their getaway, but not long afterwards the car breaks down on an isolated stretch of road. Lucky for them there is a house nearby filled with College Girls and their instructor. The three men soon take the women hostage and almost from the start the abuse beings. Though initially a girl that fights back wounds one of the men they eventually become submissive in an effort to stay alive. But after a one of the girls is captured trying to escape and killed for it everything goes to hell.

There were a whole lot of movies that were “inspired” by the success of Last House on the Left, including this appropriately titled Last House on the Beach. Unlike many of those movies this one is actually worth checking out. The story is simple, but solid and wastes no time setting up the situation. The girls are appropriately innocent enough and their instructor being a nun, who of course is assaulted in her habit, ups the ante. I thought for a moment that at least one of the gang was going to be made into a sympathetic character, but the movie does a wonderful job of showing his true colors. So when the men finally go too far and the girls fight back their demises are all very satisfying. The other thing that I feel obligated to mention here is the sleaze factor. There is a certain expectation that when you sit down to watch an exploitation movie like this it delivers on a couple of things. Nudity and revenge are the keys to a movie like this. Last House on the Beach does both of these very well. The lovely young ladies get naked early and often, and as I mentioned the revenges is served up nicely in the end. Can’t ask for much more than that.

The cast is very good with Florinda Bolkan doing a wonderful job as the girl’s instructor Sister Cristina. She is asked to do several uncomfortable scenes and manages to pull them off without overacting. Unfortunately some of the other actresses that portray the girls spend most of the movie just screaming and pulling at their hair. Ray Lovelock is the other cast member that I wanted to mention. His role as Aldo is the most interesting of the bank robbers. He take on Aldo is interesting because on the surface he seems like the most humane of the three, but is honestly more of a monster than the other two, in part because he can pass for a nice guy.

Technically this is a solid movie. In addition to the female members of the cast there is quite a bit of nice scenery on display, all of it shot very well. The camera work captures the beautiful scenery, which is an interesting contrast to how ugly the story is at times. There isn’t much in the way of special effects. Other than a single bullet to the head that is cool this is a fairly effects free film.

One other thing that I wanted to mention are the special features. The DVD that I’m reviewing here is the Severin release of the film that includes an interview with the star Ray Lovelock. The interview clocks in a just less than 30 minutes and is fairly comprehensive. He talks about getting into acting, the origins of his name, and specifically about filming Last House on the Beach. I also thought his take on the movie now that he has daughters was interesting. All in all if you enjoy the movie you will want to check out this great special feature.

This might not be the movie for everyone and can be brutal at times. But if you are a fan of exploitation movies then this is a must for your collection. I recommend Last House on the Beach.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer