moonspinner55 Savvy model Brenda Vaccaro, on a weekend date with a dentist she hardly knows, runs a car full of drunken thugs off the road; they vow revenge. Repugnant, unpleasant Canadian-made B-movie, though admittedly well-made and well-acted of its type, slipped by virtually unnoticed in 1976, this due in part to several films with similar scenarios already in circulation (and more were to follow). By having Vaccaro's date (a wealthy womanizer--and Peeping Tom to boot!) turn out to be as loathsome as the surly gang who invades the house by the lake, writer-director William Fruet seems to be making an ironic point on the thin line between rich creeps and poor creeps. Either way, it's still 75 minutes of watching creeps...and waiting for La Vaccaro to turn the tables on them. *1/2 from ****

kdl234 June 2014: This movie is currently available on Comcast/Xfinity On Demand (as part of the "Fearnet" free movies) as DEATH WEEKEND.The Comcast version is slightly different than the Vestron Video version available on VHS in the United States. First, the American International logo is missing at the beginning, and is replaced by "A Cinepix Video Presentation." More significantly, the climactic throat-slashing scene is more explicit than in the Vestron Video release. Here, we see a longer shot of Diane wielding the piece of glass; two lingering shots of Runt's slashed throat, including Runt grasping his throat as blood spurts through his fingers; and Diane being splattered with blood. All of these shots are missing from the Vestron version.

Coventry "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!

Jonathon Dabell In the 1970s, a handful of films like Straw Dogs, Death Wish and Last House on the Left pushed back a few cinematic boundaries. They also provided inspiration for many copycat movies - titles like Vengeance Is Mine, I Spit On Your Grave, The Visitors, Death Hunt and Death Weekend. The latter of these - Death Weekend - is a Canadian thriller produced by a certain Ivan Reitman (who would go on to become a director of box office juggernauts like the two Ghostbusters flicks and Kindergarten Cop). It is a fairly forgettable siege thriller with a few moments of gore and an interestingly resourceful heroine.Diane (Brenda Vaccaro) and Harry (Chuck Shamata) are on their way to a remote house. Harry is a self-obsessed and successful dentist who owns the house. He spends most of his time buying objects to gratify his wealth, without realising their true value. Diane is his latest conquest (she doesn't know it, but she's just one in a long line of weekend flings for Harry). En route to the house the couple are subjected to a scary road rage ordeal at the hands of four drunken hoodlums, led by the foul-mouthed, foul-minded Lep (Don Stroud). Diane successfully out-drives the unpleasant foursome and causes them to crash. However, Lep tracks them down to their secluded love nest and, aided by his cronies, subjects them to an even more degrading and sadistic ordeal.Vaccaro is far too good an actress for a sleazy, violent exploitation flick such as this. She gives a good performance, as you would expect, but it's wasted on the repellent material. Stroud also registers strongly as a deplorable villain, and Shamata is OK as the vain, heartless playboy. For gorehounds there are some worthwhile moments - the highlight being a chilling throat slashing scene - but it's a long wait until the nasty stuff gets underway. Death Weekend is essentially an intentionally mean-spirited thriller. It offers the lingering threat of rape as a form of entertainment, and asks us to enjoy scenes of drunken abuse, degradation, destruction, idiocy, and graphic murder. Ultimately, the unpleasantness becomes a turn-off. The thoughtfulness of Straw Dogs and the black humour of Death Wish is nowhere to be found. This is just unpleasantness for its own sake.... and that's just NOT what movies are all about.