The world of cinema has a long history of deranged characters that we find ourselves liking, but we know we shouldn't. Going back as far as the 30's and 40's there were actors such as James Cagney playing brutal gangsters in films like THE PUBLIC ENEMY and WHITE HEAT. Robert Mitchum would turn up the charisma dial in 1962 with his role as Max Cady in the original CAPE FEAR. Later, in 1971, an actor named Malcolm McDowell would come along and take the "charismatic sociopath" to a whole new level as Alex in the Stanley Kubrick's classic, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (my favorite movie of all time BTW). Even more recently, Christian Bale showed us that the "charismatic sociopath" character could still be pulled off successfully, in the film version of AMERICAN PYSCHO and also Sid Haig's performance as Capt. Spaulding in Rob Zombie's HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES and THE DEVIL'S REJECTS.

While all those characters are classic, no other actor has pushed the envelope of the "charismatic sociopath" character more than David Hess. David Alexander Hess started out his career in the 50's as a songwriter - his first big hit was "All Shook Up", made famous by Elvis Presley (how fucking cool is that?). Hess continued in the music business through the 60's. In the 70's his career led him down many paths, luckily one would lead to acting. In 1972, Hess would leave his mark in horror movie history as the nasty, Krug Stillo in Wes Craven's...

THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972)

The film that shocked the nation was the very first film for horror director, Wes Craven. It would also be the very first acting role for David Hess and the beginning of a trilogy of films that would also include Pasquale Festa Campanile's HITCH-HIKE in 1977 and would conclude with Ruggero Deodato's HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK in 1981. Although these 3 films are not connected in storyline or anything really, essentially Hess plays the same character to different degrees in all 3 films.

In LAST HOUSE Hess plays Krug Stillo. A vile character, an escaped con and a bully that kills without conscience. He has a son that he keeps doped up on heroin so he can keep him as a slave to do his bidding. His two friends, Sadie and Weasel, also murderous criminals and are just as vile, but are no match for Krug's smarts, so he becomes the unspoken leader of the group by default. Is Krug likable? From a viewers standpoint no, but there is no doubt he has charisma. He's the kind of guy that you might start up a conversation with at a bar, hell you might even buy him a beer. Not knowing all the while there is a bound and beaten woman in the trunk of his car. He's also the guy at the bar that you wouldn't want to fuck with either. Throughout the movie we never question why Krug's gang follow his every command.

I'm sure most of you reading this are familiar with the plot for LAST HOUSE, so I'll spare you a long review of the plot. Basically, it's about two girls on their way to a rock concert in the city. They end up getting kidnapped by 4 maniacs and taken to the woods to be humiliated, beaten, raped and killed. The 4 then flee the murder scene only to end up at the house of one of the girls they killed, where the girl's parents end up taking their bloody revenge on the 4 killers. A "re-imagining" if you will, of Ingmar Bergman's, THE VIRGIN SPRING. A movie formula that would be repeated many times over the years from Aldo Lado's (far superior) NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS in 1975 to David DeFalco's (much inferior) CHAOS in 2005. Not surprisingly there is a remake (with Craven producing) coming to a theater near you.

I've never claimed to be a big fan of THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. I've always thought it wasn't worth all the hype it has got over the years. I understand it's place in history and when it was first released it was very innovative. It was a drive-in movie that made people stop making-out and take notice of what was going on, on the screen. Hess's performance is what makes the movie great in my humble opinion. For a guy that had never been in a movie before, let alone star in a movie - he had instant screen presence. There was confidence in his performance - his face commands attention. The Krug character is repulsive, yet we are intrigued by what he'll do next.

There is a scene in LAST HOUSE, (after the first girl is killed and Krug rapes the second one all while drooling all over her face like an animal), where Krug stands up and reflects on everything that has just happened and how quickly and brutally it escalated. There is a very quick moment of what may be...remorse? A look that is then immediately retracted as he realizes he can't let the second girl get away and shoots her repeatedly. There is no dialogue in the scene. Hess conveys all of this with his facial expressions. Later, his performance at the dinner table is well done as well.

As fucked up a character that Krug is - it's a great character as well. Unfortunately, LAST HOUSE does not end with an opportunity for a sequel, but the Krug would be reincarnated as ADAM in...

HITCH-HIKE (1977)

HITCH-HIKE is a beautiful piece of Eurosleaze draped in a shroud of Americana. It's a psychological thriller and a road movie. It's an Italian film, set in America (filmed in Italy made to look like south western America) so there is some bad dubbing - to be expected, but not as bad as some other's that I have seen. The dubbing didn't bother me because the performances of the cast are so superb.

The film stars Franco Nero (DJANGO) and Corrine Clery (THE DEVIL'S HONEY) as Walter and Eve Mancini, a married couple that have grown tired of each other but there's still a good amount of co-dependency to keep them together. They are on a hunting trip and pick up a hitchhiker along the way named, Adam Konitz, played by Hess. Konitz turns out to be an escapee from a mental institute with a cache case of 2 million dollars that he stole with 3 other escapees. Everything is fine until Adam makes a verbal sexual advance towards Eve causing Walter and Adam get into a fistfight on the side of the road. Some fisticuffs go on and then Adam pulls out a gun. Now Adam is in control and Walter and Eve are his prisoners. What follows is a psychological hell ride from Northern California to Mexico.

The film features a pretty simple plot but it's the performances and smart dialogue that helps the film be something better than your typical Eurosleaze flick. Of course the top-notch cast helps. Franco, Hess and Clery play morally questionable people. Franco pretty much plays an asshole that treats his wife like crap, Hess is the "charismatic sociopath" and Clery is kind of an uppity bitch. So how do you make a film work with no likeable characters? Director, Pasquale Festa Campanile somehow pulls it off and it's brilliant. At some point in the film you feel (something) for all of the characters. Hess is too charismatic not to like, Franco is a drunk and a chauvinistic pig, yet he grows on you by the end of the film and Clery is the most moral of the three and just down right sexy.

David Hess steals the show from the legendary, Franco Nero, which is quite a feat. Again, Hess plays a pathological killer, but he gets way more dialogue this time around and gets to actually stretch his acting muscles and gives probably the best performance of his career.

What we get with Adam is a cooler and wiser Krug Stillo. Again he is an "escapee", this time from a mental hospital, not a prison. He again breaks out with a little help from his friends, except this time he wisely ditches them. Adam is every bit the sociopath that Krug was, but he's more human, plus HITCH-HIKE features more character development than LAST HOUSE and we get to know what makes Adam tick. Unlike most killers, he was not abused as a child, he didn't have a rough upbringing, he didn't have an uncle that butt-raped him...he was simply a kid that grew to hate society and hated his parents, not for their cruelty, but for their ignorance. He learned if you want something; just take it - even if you have to kill. Basically he was a brat that was never taught right from wrong from his parents and grew up without a conscience.

When Adam finds out that Walter is a writer, he proposes that he will let Walter live if he writes Adam's biography. This brings a whole other element to the film and we see that Adam has human emotion and is not just a psycho. Plus the scene where Adam rapes Eve (get it? Adam and Eve?) is very unusual. Adam, even though it is against her will, tries to make love to Eve - something Nero's character couldn't do. Adam does what he wants and takes what he wants and he takes no shit - which deep down is what we all wish we could do, but we know we must respect the structure of society so we don't. We covet Adam's freedom, even if we wouldn't make the same choices, he makes his own rules and that is true freedom. Therefore we can't help but be drawn to the character, even if he is a killer.

Again Hess's character would have to pay for his sins and be reincarnated. This time he would take the namesake of the all time greatest "charismatic sociopath", Alex from Stanley Kubrick's A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and just like Malcolm McDowell's Alex, this Alex also enjoys a bit of the ol' ultraviolence in Ruggero Deodato's...

HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK (1981)

The film opens with David Hess's character, Alex driving around New York City (though the rest of the film is filmed in Italy disguised as New Jersey where the "house" is located). He stalks a young girl and forces her off the road in a dark part of town, climbs in her car, then rapes and kills her. This scene sets up the film so we know what kind of character Alex is. Cut to sometime later where Alex is closing up his auto garage and getting ready for a night of "boogieing" with his droogie - er, I mean buddy, Ricky played by one of my all time favorite genre actors, Giovanni Lombardo Radice aka John Morghen. A young couple pulls into the garage as the two buddies are on their way out for the night. They ask if their car can be looked at real quick and offer money to entice them to work on the car after hours. Alex and Ricky agree to fix the car (an easy fix) as long as they can go to the party that the couple is on their way to.

Now keep in mind, the young couple, based on their looks, are upper class snobs and Alex and Ricky are two low class, blue-collar guys. The four show up at the party and are greeted by the other party guests consisting of a weird bald black chick, another snobby chick played by Lorraine De Selle (CANNIBAL FEROX, also w/Radice) and two pompous assholes, Tom and Howard. Immediately they 'mess' with Alex and Ricky - mainly Ricky, Alex is on to the game quickly and warns Ricky to no avail - Ricky by the way, is a tad dim. The group encourages Ricky to dance like a disco spazoid for their amusement while Alex scopes out Lisa. Lisa leads Alex on, in a cock tease to end all cock teasing - bad move #1. Meanwhile, Tom invites Ricky to a game of poker - a 'fixed' game of poker - bad move #2. Soon Alex catches on and grows tired of the group's snotty attitude and beats the shit out of Tom and Howard and things start to get heavy - in fact, from here the film just grows more and more intense as it goes on.

Up until this point, Alex comes off as a charismatic "Guido", but likable. It isn't until things get violent when you remember--oh yeah; he's also a rapist and a murderer. From here on out the group go from partygoers to hostages and Alex plans on using them for 'his' own amusement. The excellent aspect of the film is - you don't really like the victims - they're assholes, you almost root for Alex (Ricky's conscience soon gets to him and wants no part of Alex's "fun"). There is a scene where Tom gets his head violently and repeatedly bashed into a table and later, Howard gets beat up and tossed in the pool (and then gets pissed on - literally, by Alex) and I didn't really care - they're both assholes! Even the "rape" scene with Lisa shows her getting 'in to it' as if she secretly lusts to be man handled by a low-class thug. It isn't until a 5th member of the group shows up and Alex goes psycho to the extreme and any likeability he had goes out the window.

The Hess Trilogy goes out with a bang with HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK. If Adam was the cooler and smarter Krug - Alex is a streamlined Adam, yet Alex comes closer to Krug in many aspects than Adam. Alex 'is' Krug, but with Alex's brains, a super-Krug, if you will. A guy that is suave enough to get the ladies using charm alone, but prefers raping them and cool enough to have guys like Ricky want to emulate him and be his pal. Of the three characters, Alex makes you feel the guiltiest for liking him. Alex is cool, but his actions are not. In all three films, Hess's character gets off on humiliating and brutalizing women and by no far stretch of the imagination is that a 'cool' thing.

We don't root for Hess's characters. We don't respect the evil things they do. In the end we are like his victims in these 3 movies. His character's charismatic charm lures us in and we gleefully watch his foul deeds. Well-written characters? Sure, but ultimately it's Hess's acting that makes these characters great. Unfortunately for Hess, it was hard for him to break away from these types of roles and HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK was one of his last meaty performances. It's only been as of recent that Hess has had a slight comeback in indie movies such as NUTCRACKER, ZODIAC KILLER, FALLEN ANGELS and the soon to be released horror/comedy, SMASH CUT with Hess in the starring role. A comeback is long overdue, Mr. Hess.