Death Weekend (The House by the Lake) (1976)

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William Fruet directed this tense Canadian rape-revenge thriller which attempted to capitalize on the success of Wes Craven's Last House on the Left (1972). The film concerns a vacationing couple, Harry and Diane (Chuck Shamata and Brenda Vaccaro), who are terrorized in a remote house on a… More William Fruet directed this tense Canadian rape-revenge thriller which attempted to capitalize on the success of Wes Craven's Last House on the Left (1972). The film concerns a vacationing couple, Harry and Diane (Chuck Shamata and Brenda Vaccaro), who are terrorized in a remote house on a picturesque lake. Don Stroud leads the quartet of vicious psychos who break in and attack the pair, and when Harry is revealed to be a bit of a wimp, Diane takes matters of revenge into her own hands. Vaccaro and Stroud give much better performances than the material requires, and although Fruet's film is hardly as excoriating as its predecessor, it is altogether more polished. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi