The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell (lost 3-hour cut version of "Last House on Dead End Street" horror film; 1973)

This article has been tagged as NSFL due to its disturbing subject matter.

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Poster for the released film.

Status: Lost

Last House on Dead End Street was a 1977 horror film written, directed, produced, and starring Roger Watkins. The film is notorious for its intense gore and disturbing atmosphere, with many rumors surrounding the film, including the possibility that the murders depicted on-screen were real. Not helping these rumors was the fact that the credits featured pseudonyms in place of the actual cast members' names, making them very hard to track down. It would take nearly 30 years for the creator's actual name to even be revealed.

However, even before the film was "officially" screened, an earlier three-hour cut known as The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell was screened sometime in 1973. This version was reportedly so disturbing to theater-goers that they incited riots over the violence being displayed. Because of these riots and the general controversy that would surround the film, this version was quickly pulled from theaters and heavily cut down and edited, leaving the final film at just 77 minutes.

Availability

While the final film has had a limited released on home media, being released officially on DVD as a limited release in 2001 and 2002 from Barrel Entertainment, and again in 2018 as "manufactured on demand." Some sources say that this 2018 release was distributed by Films Around World, and Mr. Fat-W Video. The original three-hour cut has not been released in any form. Considering the amount of controversy that came with the uncut footage, it may have been destroyed in an attempt to avoid more trouble in the future. However, there are rumors that a New York film archive has a print of the three-hour cut.

External Links

• A DVD for the final version of the film on eBay.