The House by the Lake (1977)

A Masterpiece!

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Death Weekend is a Powerful atmospheric Film. Its a Basic story of a Rich Dentist who loves himself and his money too much. He Brings a fashion Model with him to his country getaway house for the weekend but the pair both have to fight for survival after 4 thugs follow them back to their secluded isolated Country Retreat and hold them captive. The film is Entertaining showing the interaction between The Thugs and the couple. Chuck Shamata plays the dentist who just loves his materialistic possessions and money so much. He has a beautiful house filled with expensive collectibles and furniture. His ego is that of a man who cares for no one but himself and this is evident later in the film when his partner's life and well being is threatened by the thugs who want to rape her and bash her around. The dentist only gets upset and tries to act when his house and possessions are threatened by destruction.Don Stroud , a Favourite actor of mine has one of his finest hours on film as the leader of the thugs named "Lep". He is really Mean and Violent towards anyone , even his own gang and plays his character with lots of Coolness and Menace. To me , he is a Very bad person but he also shows us in a rare scene or two that he has some feeling towards the fashion model and his behaviour towards her is maybe not purely for the purpose of committing rape.While they are alone in the garden shed after she tries to escape , He stops trying to Rape her after she stops resisting him with her fists and arms , he stops the rape.Then he gently tries to touch her face and kiss her as they are both standing up. She rejects him with a slap in the face and then he hits her but its an interesting scene.A few images of This scene is also cut to at the end of the film after she kills "Lep" by running over him with a car. There is a quick shot of Lep smiling at her in the grassy field and then another cut to the kiss he tried to give her in the shed after she stopped fighting with him. I felt the Director was trying to say something about Lep's character and that he was not entirely all bad as a person. Maybe just a bit lonely and in need of good woman that he wanted to love. Maybe he didn't have to die. The Film has plenty of good scenes. I really liked watching the 4 thugs drink all the alcohol in the house and run amok. They get drunk ,Throw Beer on each other and all around the place ,Act Stupid , Make a Mess ,Vomit , fart and make total idiots of themselves as they totally intimidate and show no respect for the dentist's house.Lep questions the dentist's vast materialism with his house and possessions and labels it all crap. This is funny and it builds to a very dramatic scene where Stroud and his men no longer show any restraint and totally go crazy and start trashing the whole house and furniture to bits. They smash and destroy everything they can yelling , screaming and laughing. Its very funny to see these four morons totally lose it and shows they enjoy acting crazy.My Girlfriend watched this film with me and had a real hate for Don Stroud's Lep Character and the 3 other men in his gang. She couldn't wait to see them get killed by the Fashion model. They play very evil, sleazy men and act like filthy animals. The Director really portrayed the thugs as very low class human beings. Actually some of the worst thugs i've seen on film ever. Their behaviour is so low life.Death Weekend is a real 70s Classic. A great Well Paced Thriller with some good Performances. The film is sleazy with its characters but there is no graphic nudity or rape scenes. Overall Well Directed.Stroud and Brenda Vaccaro are Great and Carry this film....

"Death Weekend" – or "House by the Lake", which actually is a much more appropriate title in case you know a bit about the sub genre – is another obscure and unscrupulous rip-off of Wes Craven's "Last House on the Left", filmed without much of a budget but containing loads of extremely brutal and sadistic images. A stone-cold cult favorite, in other words, and a must-have for avid collectors of this genre even though the film itself features absolutely no originality or interesting story lines. The movie is pretty much identical to "House on the Edge of the Park", "Straw Dogs", "Night Train Murders", "I spit on your Grave" and "Last House on the Beach", yet all of them are worth tracking down since they represent pure terror and formidably portray the darkest side of human behavior and abuse of physical power. A wealthy dentist (who made a second profession out of luring gorgeous women to his remote mansion) and his love for the weekend encounter four savage macho men on their way to his...house by the lake. Frustrated by losing a car race, the four brutes track the couple down and invade the house. With no living soul around for miles, they can extendedly torture the dentist, demolish his house and sexually humiliate the female guest. It even takes one casualty before strong-minded Diane turns to deadly revenge. Of course, there isn't any fancy camera-work or sublime acting to enjoy here, but director William Fruet ("Funeral Home", "Spasms") maintains the disturbing tone and raw atmosphere throughout the entire movie. The lake area, with its primitive appeal and natural death traps, forms an excellent location for an exploitation movie like this and the fast car race at the opening of the film is rudimentary exciting. Diane's vengeance when approaching the climax is marvelous, with some of the coolest deaths ever (including a top-five grossest throat slit!). "House by the Lake" also has a fairly good soundtrack and it's interesting to know that one of the main producers was Ivan Reitman ("Ghostbusters", "Junior"), who also started his career as an exploitation filmmaker. Highly recommended!

Solidly-done, low-budget thriller from Canada is a great tale of survival.In route to their weekend get away, a woman and her gentleman friend anger a gang of thugs and end up paying for it.Death Weekend is a little known thriller, which is a shame since it's a good entry in the vengeance/exploitation genre. While Death Weekend isn't as violent or disturbing as Last House on the Left (1972) or I Spit on Your Grave (1978), it does possess a powerful tension and makes for a pretty strong watch. Director William Fruet gives this film tight action and dark, suspenseful atmosphere. It does have the occasional burst of shocking violence - especially during the terrifically intense climax. The films two stars are a strong point as well. Brenda Vaccaro is great as a victim trying to survive. She is an excellent actress and shows it well in this film. Also excellent is villain Don Stroud. Stroud has a powerful kind of presence in this film as the ruthless, but not unattractive leader of the gang.Death Weekend is a nicely edgy shocker that deserves a wider audience. For thriller, exploitation fans it's worth finding!*** out of ****

"Death Weekend" is a more complex film than it appears on the surface.The violence is initially against Harry's property which he values more than anything else. Even though Diane has spurned him one gets the impression that he considers her his property too. Her resilience against the grotesque mob of ugly greasers is exhilarating to watch and is comparable to the revenge actions that take place in the later "I Spit On Your Grave".The film's closing images are unnerving, keeping in tone with the somewhat excessive terror factor of the second half.Stroud and Vaccaro are excellent.7/10