Really Awful Movies

The House on the Edge of the Park

Two mechanics menace a group of friends in a suburban New Jersey house. House on the Edge of the Park is basically Last House on the Left, mimicking Wes Craven’s in-your-face (and better-paced) Cinéma vérité dynamic. Here, the camera is an armchair quarterback, sitting dully, lingering, contemplative. Alternately cheap-looking and lush, House on the Edge of the ParkContinue reading “The House on the Edge of the Park”

Duel

In North America, you get from A to B mostly by car, and Duel is a bona fide B-movie with a plot that could not be more simple: a menacing trucker tries to run a man off the road, ruining an otherwise leisurely drive through the California hills. And the savvy move by Steven Spielberg was to internalizeContinue reading “Duel”