The House on the Edge of the Park

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The House on the Edge of the Park
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Ruggero Deodato
Produced by	Franco Di Nunzio Franco Palaggi
Written by	Gianfranco Clerici Vincenzo Mannino
Starring	David Hess Annie Belle Christian Borromeo Giovanni Lombardo Radice Marie Claude Joseph
Music by	Riz Ortolani
Cinematography	Sergio D'Offizi
Editing by	Vincenzo Tomassi
Distributed by	United Artists (Italy)
Release date(s)	November 6, 1980
Running time	91 min
Country	Italy
Language	Italian
Budget	Unknown
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The House On The Edge Of The Park (Italian: La Casa sperduta nel parco) is a 1980 film from the Italian director Ruggero Deodato. It features David Hess from Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left (playing a similar character), and John Morghen (byname of Giovanni Lombardo Radice), casting them as a pair of two lowlife punks who invite themselves to a party at a posh villa, and after being taunted by their snobbish hosts, they hold everybody hostage and subject them to various torture and mayhem.

Deodato's film has been criticized for depicting rape victims enjoying (and indeed getting "turned on") by their ordeal, and its prurient close-ups of the mutilation of a helpless, sobbing young woman by a sneering, sadistic Hess.^{[citation needed]}

The House On The Edge Of The Park was initially rejected for a UK cinema certificate by the BBFC when first submitted in March, 1981, and later found itself on the DPP list of "video nasties" when it was revealed that the uncut version was readily available on UK video. When it was eventually passed by the BBFC in July, 2002, it was cut by 11 minutes and 43 secs, with almost all of the rape and violence either replaced or removed entirely.

The USA Media-Blasters release is completely uncut at 91 minutes.

In 2006, the BBFC commissioned a group of academics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth to conduct research into people's responses to films that include scenes of sexual violence. The 'House on the Edge of the Park' is one of the films included in their remit to examine. Futher information on the research can be seen at http://www.extremefilmsresearch.org.uk.