Death Weekend is set in the Canadian wilderness where rich dentist Harry has a huge isolated mansion 10 square miles from anything or anyone, he has invited pretty model Diane (Brenda Vaccaro) there for the weekend. On the way Diane insists on driving his flashy Corvette & gets involved in an ugly road rage incident with Lep (Don Stroud) & his gang of thugs, Stanley (Don Granberry), Frankie (Kyle Edwards) & Runt (Richard Ayres) which ends up with Lep's pride & joy parked in a ditch in a stream. Harry & Diane continue their journey to his place while Lep & his buddies are left understandably upset by being humiliated by a woman, they decide to get even & teach Diane a lesson so follow them to Harry's house where the nightmare starts...
This Canadian production was written & directed William Fruet & is a decent piece of sleaze although while I liked it I didn't love it. The script is your basic backwoods brutality exploitation film where some city folk are given a harsh lesson by some inbred retards. Interestingly Death Weekend paints all of it's male leads as scum, even Harry who likes to take nude photo's of his female guests from behind a two way mirror in their bathroom. This actually doesn't lead anywhere & nothing significant is made of it but I found it quite an odd subplot. On the exploitation front this is actually quite tame, there are two attempted rapes unless a rape can be committed while both parties remain fully clothed & it seems to want to spend more time on Lep & his mate's wrecking Harry's expensive house. The character's are OK but I didn't think Lep & his gang came across as anything more than one dimensional pantomime villains, Harry tried to bribe his way out of trouble rather than do anything proactive, Diane as expected suddenly turns into a female commando who takes four big guys down by herself & I could have done without the two drunk comedy relief gas station attendants. Having said that it moves along at a nice pace, when it's good it's good & overall it's quite an effective piece of 'savage cinema'.
Director Fruet does a good job, the opening car chase scenes are pretty cool although he does tend to chicken out when Death Weekend threatens to get really nasty. There's a great 70's sleazy atmosphere to it which is priceless. I wasn't sure about the ending either as it just sort of finishes abruptly. There's not much gore, there's a cool slit throat & some blood splatter but nothing else.
Technically this is well made & has good production values, the location is nice enough & has decent cinematography. The tag line to Death Weekeend on it's theatrical artwork was 'It Began with a Rape. It Ended with a Massacre!' which I think is a bit misleading as it should more accurately have said 'It Began with a Road Rage Incident. It Ended with a Massacre!', then again that doesn't quite have the same ring about it. The acting is good from all involved.
Death Weekend may not be the best revenge flick ever but it's still a fine piece of Canadian sleaze that's worth a watch, you know they just don't make them like this anymore... shame really...
This Canadian production was written & directed William Fruet & is a decent piece of sleaze although while I liked it I didn't love it. The script is your basic backwoods brutality exploitation film where some city folk are given a harsh lesson by some inbred retards. Interestingly Death Weekend paints all of it's male leads as scum, even Harry who likes to take nude photo's of his female guests from behind a two way mirror in their bathroom. This actually doesn't lead anywhere & nothing significant is made of it but I found it quite an odd subplot. On the exploitation front this is actually quite tame, there are two attempted rapes unless a rape can be committed while both parties remain fully clothed & it seems to want to spend more time on Lep & his mate's wrecking Harry's expensive house. The character's are OK but I didn't think Lep & his gang came across as anything more than one dimensional pantomime villains, Harry tried to bribe his way out of trouble rather than do anything proactive, Diane as expected suddenly turns into a female commando who takes four big guys down by herself & I could have done without the two drunk comedy relief gas station attendants. Having said that it moves along at a nice pace, when it's good it's good & overall it's quite an effective piece of 'savage cinema'.
Director Fruet does a good job, the opening car chase scenes are pretty cool although he does tend to chicken out when Death Weekend threatens to get really nasty. There's a great 70's sleazy atmosphere to it which is priceless. I wasn't sure about the ending either as it just sort of finishes abruptly. There's not much gore, there's a cool slit throat & some blood splatter but nothing else.
Technically this is well made & has good production values, the location is nice enough & has decent cinematography. The tag line to Death Weekeend on it's theatrical artwork was 'It Began with a Rape. It Ended with a Massacre!' which I think is a bit misleading as it should more accurately have said 'It Began with a Road Rage Incident. It Ended with a Massacre!', then again that doesn't quite have the same ring about it. The acting is good from all involved.
Death Weekend may not be the best revenge flick ever but it's still a fine piece of Canadian sleaze that's worth a watch, you know they just don't make them like this anymore... shame really...