Hey, folks. Quint here. Over the weekend genre fans lost one of their icons in Mr. David Hess.
Known mostly for his psychotic roles in Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left and Ruggero Deodato’s The House on the Edge of the Park, Hess’ life is more fascinating the more you look into it.
He began his career as a singer/songwriter and, at the age of 15, he was working at Shalimar Music, writing songs for Elvis, the Ames Brothers, Andy Williams and Pat Boone before his career took a left turn (sorry for the pun) in 1972 as he played the main bad guy, a psychotic rapist named Krug Stillo in Craven’s early film.
Hess’ background in music wasn’t completely thrown aside as he composed and performed much of the soundtrack for The Last House on the Left. As an aside, he also wrote much of the music used in Eli Roth’s debut, Cabin Fever.
Deodato’s The House on the Edge of the Park isn’t quite as well known as Last House, but it’s a solid, weird 1980 home invasion thriller in which Hess once again played psychotic rapist. Perhaps a little pigeonholed, but he’s extremely effective in both films.
Hess had bit parts in Avalanche Express, Robert Shaw’s final film, and the star-studded TV movie 21 Hours at Munich, but my first time seeing him in a movie was either as a gun-wielding punk in 1986’s Armed and Dangerous or as another baddie 1982’s Swamp Thing.
The man was a part of genre history and was one of those faces you always noticed in movies, even if you didn’t know the name to go along with it.
My thoughts are with Mr. Hess’ friends, family and fans.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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