Andy Copp has posted a thread at DVDManiacs with the sad news that Roger Watkins, writer/director/star of LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET, passed away on Tuesday March 6 of heart failure. LHODES is one of the most infamous of all cult films, its status over the years moving slowly from "does it even really exist?" to "yes, but who *made* such a thing?" to being presented in a lavish 2-DVD set from Barrel Entertainment. It seems strange that it was only a few years ago that the identity of Victor Janos was revealed.

Rest easy, Roger.

Very sad to hear this. I was always hoping Watkins would get another shot at filmmaking recently. I just listened to the commentary on LHODES and watched SHADOWS OF THE MIND in the past month. While he wasn't very fond of SHADOWS, I think he still managed to create some great camera set ups and effectively use the mise-en-scene. It really showcases his talent. He will be missed.

LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET may be tough to find...

LHODES on Amazon

Sadly, it seems to be increasingly hard to find. In the same thread I mentioned above, there's a report that a recent order from Amazon (rather than one of their Marketplace vendors) was cancelled on Amazon's end because the disc wound up not being available at the time (it still shows a 4-6 week delivery time, but AFAIK, it's out of print stateside). There is a 2-disc R2 edition available from Tartan Video, as well as a German single-disc PAL (no region encoding) release from CMV, and both seem to have carried over much (if not all in the case of the Tartan edition) of the special feature content from the Barrel set. There's also a region-coding-free NTSC release from Australia (on the Hard Corps label) that looks to be identical to the Barrel release, minus the hefty booklet and Steven Bissette cover art. The first two are available from xploitedcinema.com, though not the AU release -- not being familiar with ordering from Down Under, I'll leave suggestions for that to more experienced hands.

Dread Central is reporting that Toe Tag Pictures, the guys who do the AUGUST UNDERGROUND flicks, will be taking up the Watkins-penned LHODES sequel:

http://www.dreadcentral.com/index.php?name...rticle&sid=2100

Coming Soon: The Granny Cottage Behind the Last House on Dead End Street.

Ugh. While I think that Toe Tag delivers great makeup effects, the AUGUST UNDERGROUND films represent one of the things that I feel is wrong with today's horror films. Vile entertainment, imo.

If anyone has SIRIUS Satellite Radio... they are running reruns today and, right now (at 5:45am) Roger Watkins' appearance on the Stern show is being replayed. Funny how he says his own LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET is "a terrible movie I made while I was in college".

I don't know if, at 6am, a different show will be rerun, but it's on right now.

I heard this but came in right after Watkins made that comment about making LHODES in college (as opposed to "dropping loads..." etc. ;) )...

Why was Watkins on the Stern show in the first place? It actually seemed like he was participating as a member of the pack that day (I don't know what year he made his appearance)...