Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Cooktopi The acting in this movie is really good.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

meathookcinema Harry is on his way to a country holiday home with his new ex-model girlfriend, Diane when they cross paths with a rowdy car-full of drunken yahoos who try to intimidate them. After the couple run them off the road and ruin the suspension on their car, they are tracked to their country lair with the angry men proceeding to invade this picuresque idyll.Violence and rape ensues as the hillbilly gang seek revenge. In the course of events Harry is actually killed and Diane is raped when trying to escape. But then Diane turns the tables single-handedly and in brutal fashion.They are elements of both Last House on the Left and Straw Dogs within this film's premise (in the UK, this film played as part of a double bill with the latter film) but theres also enough to distinguish Death Weekend from these two films. Theres a strong feeling of the 'haves vs have nots' thats interesting. The hillbilly gang see what they don't have within the house and their lives and instinctively seek to destroy and tarnish it.Also, this isn't a case of the good vs the bad- when Diane arrives at the house by the lake she very quickly realises that Harry is a slimeball personified. Hes a swinger who has invited Diane to the house for one reason and that isn't holding hands and going for long walks. We see him taking pictures of Diane as she gets undressed and showers as the mirrors in the swingers paradise masquerading as a country house are all two-way. Diane finds out this later when one of the gang stumbles upon the pictures that the pervert Harry has taken unbeknownst to her.Also, just before the gang invades the house Diane is just about to leave as she learns that although Harry had told her that there were other guests who would be joining them, in fact this was a lie. Harry appears to be just as repellent as the gang members who are just about to kick the door in- its just his social class that separates him from them.This film is also made noteworthy by the cast with Brenda Vacarro and Don Stroud deserving special mention.A very good film that deserves a really good Blu ray release. In fact, this would be ideal for Scream Factory.

trnjamesbond As I watched this bootleg VHS film after downloading it from a P2P site I enjoyed every minute of it, and yes by the way that is probably the only way anyone can actually get a copy of this film. I remember seeing it on television when I was younger, well not that young I was probably in my 20's, and also on Canadian satellite television. But it always stuck with me as a none forgettable film of great acting, very lovable and hated characters at the same time.I wish I had an actual DVD copy of this film, but it doesn't exist, why this is I do not know. The film gives us an insight of so much rage in a woman after she gets raped, but also is with a dentist than is a cocky jerk in the beginning.Death Weekend aka House By The Lake is a great film and stands up beside Last House on the Left, and I Spit On Your Grave. I truly don't know why this film has such controversy behind it since all the films I mentioned have been released on DVD. I'm guessing because it's a Canadian rape revenge film that stand above the rest of this sort of genre. What ever the reason I recommend watching this film if you have the means to do so.

Critical Eye UK Devoid of the directorial brio that graced Russ Meyer's off-the-wall essays in violence, 'Death Weekend' remains an inglorious example of cinema at its ugliest.Vicious, joyless, witless and pointless, it is one long contrivance of outrage, a uni-dimensional affair which having discovered the Newtonian principle of the greater the action, the greater the reaction, proceeds to exploit it with tedious predictability.There are no insights into the human condition, though a great many into the minds of those responsible. Stroud, who until this dross had the potential to be a cinema headliner, must look back now and wonder if his career wasn't buried along with so much else at The House by the Lake. As for Fruett, consignment to the world of TV episodes seems charitable.See it and be demeaned.

Paul English "Death Weekend" is a more complex film than it appears on the surface.The violence is initially against Harry's property which he values more than anything else. Even though Diane has spurned him one gets the impression that he considers her his property too. Her resilience against the grotesque mob of ugly greasers is exhilarating to watch and is comparable to the revenge actions that take place in the later "I Spit On Your Grave".The film's closing images are unnerving, keeping in tone with the somewhat excessive terror factor of the second half.Stroud and Vaccaro are excellent.7/10