House on Straw Hill

Trailer—House on Straw Hill

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source: House on Straw Hill

Exposé (1976) ** out of **** Directed by James Kenelm Calrke With Udo Kier, Linda Hayden and Fiona Richmond. Laughlable intent of a thriller with Kier as a novelist who hired Hayden as a new sensual and mysterious assistant in a house far from the city. A video - nasty, filmed in a beautiful set but full of sex without necessity; but it worth it if you want to see a young, handsome and certainly demented, Kier. Well Known as "House on Straw Hill". Released in Colombia as "Extraña Fascinación".

I know the famous and scandalous success of this brilliant film written and directed by James Clarke in 1975, the most exciting moment for movies in the British industry. "The house on Straw Hill" is a suspense thriller with a lot of blood and oniric sexual scenes with calculated violence and slowly intimate moments. No-one knows the reasons of the characters, specially Udo Kier -a paranoid writer with blood nightmares- and Lynda Hayden -a mysterious secretary with bad intentions-. The music, the splendid locations and the beautiful photography of the woods and the manor in Hatfield Peverel is the basic attraction of this horrific and erotic film banned in United Kingdom. Lynda Hayden has her moments as a killer female character and a very sexual presence described by the filmmaker around the movie. Udo Kier, in their best moments before -he did "Story of O" in the same year- is vulnerable and caothic as a worried writer obsessed with finishing their second novel and their traumas. A very recommended production for fans of horror movies in the seventies. This is a very rarely piece of blood, suspense and sex that today follows provoking a really commotion in audiences.

Intended as a cheap sexploitation/horror film, made for only £50,000, it's interesting to discover what became of Expose - and consider what it might have been. The plot is good - better than an average episode of The Avengers, anyway. A writer (Udo Kier) rents a detached farmhouse in Essex and hires a secretary (Linda Hayden) to type his somewhat improbable manuscript. There are low ceilings, claustrophobic surrounds and a small ensemble of performers including Fiona Richmond, who, as Kier's girlfriend, stimulates him so much that during intimacy with her, he feels the need to wear latex gloves. It all augurs well, the soundtrack's good too and I was pleased to see a vignette from talented Karl Howman, who I first saw in the exceptional National Youth Theatre production of Zigger Zagger. The sex isn't outrageous by today's standards - though not quite the sort of thing you'd come across in Last of the Summer Wine. Funnily enough, I first discovered this film due to an innocuous appearance of Linda Hayden in another sitcom, Some Mother's Do 'Ave Em. Her role in this is not dissimilar to that of Susan George in Straw Dogs; on one occasion, as she towers over her drunken employer, lying on the floor staring up at her, panic-stricken, I felt distinctly uneasy. Coming from Stanmore, near to where I grew up, she might at least have considered towering over me, after an evening of inebriation in a pub near the end of the Northern Line. Charlotte Rampling, a fellow actress from the neighbourhood, who appeared in The Night Porter, amongst other things, became a much bigger star. Linda could - and perhaps should - have emulated her. She was apparently disappointed Fiona Richmond enjoyed star billing on the posters and that the film was advertised as a skinflick. Fair enough, but perennial * was not depicted so much in mainstream films in those days (these days, it's almost compulsory, although most associated with American boys in teenage coming of age movies). Suffice to say, with a little bit more suspense, erotica and sensuality rather than sex and perhaps one more twist, this could have been a Witchfinder General or Wicker Man. Perhaps. As it is, it's interesting, worth a look and in the end, hangs together rather well.

Expose, also know under the title The House on Straw Hill, is set in the English countryside in a large house rented out by writer Paul Martin (Udo Kier) as he tries to complete his second novel. However things are not going that well, perhaps it's the disturbing visions he has? Or maybe his large breasted assistant Suzanne (Fiona Richmond) is distracting him too much with their nocturnal activities? Then again it could simply be writer's block, in an attempt to get back on track Paul hassles his publisher to hire a temporary typist so he can dictate. Paul is sent an attractive young lady named Linda Hindstatt (Linda Hayden) who at first seems perfect but that impression doesn't linger for long, why does she * over photo's of Paul? Why does she * in the middle of a corn field? Why does she * in bed at night? Why does she have a * in her suitcase? What secret is she hiding? As time passes the house on straw hill becomes embroiled in seedy sex & brutal violence... This English production was written & directed by James Kenelm Clarke & has gained a certain amount of notoriety since it was banned & placed on the 'Video Nasties' list here in the UK during the early eighties. I don't really know why but I rather like Expose. The script doesn't quite know what it wants to be & features an unusual & heady mixture of murder, gore, mystery, intrigue, sleaze, sex, nudity, rape & a implausible twist ending that when all pieced together astonishingly works. The pace is measured & is sometimes slow but at the same time I found it fascinating to watch, the opening scenes feature Paul putting on a pair of rubber gloves before having sex with Suzanne! Why? I want to know why he puts on rubber gloves before having sex, I honestly can't think of a single reasonable explanation as to why! Linda masturbates all the time & what about that rape scene? As Linda is raped at gunpoint she starts to stroke the barrel of the shotgun in a very suggestive manner if you catch my drift... I just think Expose is a great blend of weirdness, violence, sex & sleaze although the story could have been better if the mystery elements had been developed & expanded upon, I mean there's a killer running around but there are only three people in the house & it's far from difficult to work out the killers identity. Director Clarke does a decent job & I just love the look & feel of Expose. It's the whole era, the Essex locations, the cars, clothes, dialogue & the quaint English countryside. The notion that the two rapists ride around on bikes is just so English! There is a gory slit throat, someone is bloodily stabbed in a shower, the rapists are shot & there are some gory suicide flashbacks. There's plenty of sexual content & it's pretty graphic. Technically the film is good & while it isn't going to win any awards for artistic merit it's more than acceptable. The acting was OK, Hayden is pretty attractive (apparently she hates Expose & regrets doing it), Richmond has a really bad tan & Kier is always good value for money & watchable if nothing else. Karl Howman is one of the rapists, English users may recognise him from the cheesy 'Flash' washing up liquid commercials! I really liked Expose, I'm not sure I could recommend it because you have to be of a certain disposition but for low budget exploitation fans this is a must. Sex, rape, blood, violence, murder & sleaze, what more do you want?

The only British film to be included on the infamous 'video nasty' list of the 1980's, Expose, also known as The House on Straw Hill, is tailor-made for inclusion - a sleazy, often unforgivably dull piece of exploitation featuring lots of sex, blood and B-movie favourite Udo Kier. Kier plays writer Paul Martin, who, following the huge success of his debut novel, moves to the remote British countryside to focus all of his attention on his follow-up - an erotic piece he believes could win him the Pulitzer prize. Paul is plagued by visions of having sex with a well-endowed woman and his hands covered in blood, images he doesn't understand and which are hampering his efforts to get words onto paper. He calls for an assistant, and he is sent the young and beautiful Linda (Linda Hayden) who begins to efficiently type up his dictations. Yet something is not quite right with Linda - she sends Paul's faithful housekeeper away, carries sex toys and a large knife in her suitcase, and seems to open herself up sexually to Paul only to repel his advances. Comparisons to Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs (1971) are obvious (the countryside setting, the inclusion of the word 'straw' in the alternative title and in the script, and Hayden is a dead-ringer for Susan George), but Expose shares none of its quality. The sex scenes are gratuitous and ridiculously loud, and the gang-rape scene fails to garner any sympathy for the victim due to being shot like a soft- core porno. What comes in between is tedious to say the least, and the events play out with all the complexity of a soap opera. Technically, the film looks quite nice, and the performance of Hayden adds a layer of intrigue to her character, but without Mary Whitehouse and her cries of moral outrage, Expose would have been lost in the annals of exploitation.

I was pleasantly surprised by this film. Usually a film of this genre is not really worthwhile staying up late for. You know, the sort of film where a mad person goes stalking through a lonely house for one or two people, the odd flash of flesh here and there - that sort of thing. If it wasn't for the fact that the RADIO TIMES - that's the TV listings over here in England, folks - had given this film 3 stars out of 5, then I wouldn't have bothered. As it was, I was intrigued as to what good a high-brow magazine saw in this film. The plot is fairly simple. Udo Kier plays a writer who lives in a house in a remote area of the English Countryside. He is trying to write his second novel, a follow up to the smash hit that he had previously written. But he can't really type straight onto paper that well, so he decides to hire a secretary, Linda (Linda Haydon). It turns out, however, that Linda is not whom she seems, and soon dead bodies begin to crop up all over the place... This film is pure entertainment. There are some incredibly stupid moments, yes, and you can't help wondering in today's world how the managed to get away with the awful dubbing over Udo Kier's voice throughout the film. Fiona Richmond, though very attractive, is reduced in her first big screen role as Kier's girlfriend, and so therefore generally gets slapped about before she is - thankfully - done in. But the storyline is a fairly decent one, and the performances - particularly of Linda Haydon - are very good. The scenes of loneliness and eeriness of the place is shown quite well in the setting. There are some naughty scenes, but compared to what we have today these are in fact rather tame. It is in the gore where lies the reason for its certificate. Sometimes there are random shots of the stuff, which are explained to a greater depth later on, and sometimes it is directly in-your-face type work. On the whole this is a good suspenseful thriller that will entertain and even surprise you on more than one occasion. 6/10

Unimaginative slab of sexploitation horror has nubile (if slightly pudgy here) Linda Hayden as a disturbed woman who comes to work as secretary for pretentious writer Udo Kier. After a slow buildup, peppered with repeated scenes of Hayden masturbating, she gets to work on knocking off the supporting cast. Hayden's charisma goes a long way to making the film watchable, but it's all a very dry exercise, with little effort in either suspense or characterization making the whole thing seem rather pointless, and the final twist revelation making all of the antics that came before somewhat questionable in motivation. In a supporting role, Fiona Richmond occasionally wears clothes.

Expose (aka The House on Straw Hill) is extremely graphic. The sex is graphic, with gloating scenes of love making, * and a scene near the end which looks suspiciously like anal sex. The violence is graphic too, with a fair bit of spilled blood and sadistic detail during the running time. Udo Kier gives an OK performance as a novelist who murdered a colleague in order to steal his latest manuscript. He is now working on a new book, with young secretary Linda Hayden to help him, but he can't seem to shrug off uncontrollable hallucinations about the crime he has committed. The director indulges in some flashy film-making techniques, but for all this pomp and circumstance there is no hiding the fact that this is pure exploitation fodder. I believe that this may well be the most heavily censored and graphic British film ever made, so it worth seeing for that dubious distinction (especially if you can track down the uncut 117 minute version.... very rare though). However, it's not really a very good movie and once you've experienced it, it is unlikely that you will want to watch it again. Footnote: If you're a fan of British sex siren Fiona Richmond, you'll be pleased to know that she spends most of this movie stark naked.