BODY COUNT (1986)

  Italian director Ruggero Deodato, who most famously gave the world CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, now gives us a pretty crappy slasher flick. You get a bunch of dumb "teens" camping out in the woods and a killer Indian shaman(so we know this isn't supposed to be set in Italy) with a shrunken-apple face, who doesn't go for that kind of thing. David Hess, who previously played a brutal rapist in the legendary LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, now plays a grumpy dad of one of the kids, an abusive husband and the biggest suspect for actually being the killer simply because he is David Hess. It's all pretty basic, there's a fat annoying guy(whose peen we get to see for a second), boobs, not very spectacular kills and a double twist ending to wrap it all up.   

Not to be confused with Ice-T's metal band that didn't care for the police: 

HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK (1980)

 Following up his disgusting classic epic CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST director Ruggero Deodato churned out this nasty little flick which is obviously an Italian riff on LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. It uses that film's star creep David Hess to full effect and is quite the ride. It also has it's own flow to it though and seems to comment on class issues and male-bonding. Of course these themes are enveloped in a rape-filled sadistic tale of two slightly unhinged mechanics who end up in a house full of upper-class types. Bloody violent antics ensue. The other psycho, who's really more of a slow-witted follower, is played by Giovanni Lombardo Radice of MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY and THE GATES OF HELL fame. Also from ..DIE SLOWLY Lorraine De Selle is here as a potential victim of our two malcontents. Throw in one big plot-twist for a finale and you have an uncomfortable but interesting watch for horror/violent-thriller fans.
 Hess himself considers this the 2nd part in a sort-of trilogy with LAST HOUSE.. and HITCH HIKE making up parts 1 & 3 and although the stories aren't related in any way he is basically playing the same character in each film so I guess that makes sense.

                                        Giovanni loves to boogie!: 

LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972)

 This is a movie that totally disturbed me when I first saw it back in the VHS days and that was probably a cut up version with most of the gorier bits missing.  It's also a movie I felt compelled to watch over and over again because of the power it had over me and after repeat viewings this one eventually went up there into classic status in my book.  Like I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE it's a basic rape/revenge plot but here we get even nastier and more colorful villains.  David Hess as rapist/sadist/balloon-hater Krug Stillo and porn star/director Fred Lincoln as his henchman are both amazing as is their animalistic lady counterpart Jeramie Rain who unfortunately only appeared in 3 movies before going off to marry Richard Dreyfuss.  A lot of people give this movie shit for the scenes of bumbling cops(featuring future KARATE KID Cobra Kai leader Martin Cove) but as incongruous as they might seem this would be a ultra-bleak trip of a movie without those parts. Overall what you get here is one of the few examples of a good Wes Craven film in my opinion and worthwhile to anyone who loves real exploitation,sleaze and/or just nasty nihilistic films in general.  Avoid the remake unless you like watching very attractive people try and pretend their sleazy low-life rapists and failing miserably at it.

One of the more famous movies to use the old "it's only a movie"-line:

HITCH HIKE (1977)

 Besides LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT this is my fav David Hess movie and besides some of the spaghetti-westerns he's done this is my fav Franco Nero flick. The team-up of these 2 cult stars works great. Clorinne Clery as Franco's wife also does a great job and is naked most of the time which makes for nice scenery. Hess has mentioned in interviews that he was planning on doing more films with director Campanile right before he died. It's really a shame that never happened. So, if ya think it would be groovy to see Hess doing his LAST HOUSE shtick in a well-made Italian thriller this would be the one to check out. Of course this, along with HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK, are the big 3 movies of Hess' career. Franco plays a character pretty dissimilar from most of the ones I've seen him do. He's a bitter married drunk and I find his portrayal very humorous. In fact the more times I watch it the more comedic elements I find, although maybe those are unintentional. It's probably due to director Pasquale's usual forays in silly sex comedies. It's really too bad he didn't make more movies like this.