Revenge is sweet...and never sweeter than in William Fruet's Death Weekend, originally known as The House By the Lake. While The Last House On the Left might be more famous and I Spit On Your Grave more notorious, this film is by far, the superior and more polished of the bunch.

Fruet was born in Alberta, Canada in 1933. His first foray into motion pictures was writing a handful of films, including Goin' Down the Road in 1970 and Rip-Off, the next year. He directed his first feature in 1972 called Wedding In White (which he also wrote).

Death Weekend would be his second directorial effort. Filming began in Ontario in the fall of 1975 with Brenda Vaccaro in the lead role. Vaccaro hailed from Brooklyn, New York although she was raised primarily in Dallas, Texas.

The raspy voiced actress got her start on Broadway, receiving three Tony nominations in the 60s for roles in Cactus Flower, How Now, Dow Jones and The Goodbye People.

When she made the leap to film, she received excellent notices for a supporting role in the Best Picture Oscar winner of 1969, Midnight Cowboy.

But Vaccaro would receive her own Academy Award nod for Jacqueline Susann's Once Is Not Enough, which was released the same year she started shooting Death Weekend.

With his lead protagonist cast, director Fruet needed a sure-fire villain. He turned to former surfer and Holly wood heavy Don Stroud, who was perfectly cast as one of the nastiest people you'd ever want to meet.

Diane (Vaccaro) is an actress and model who befriends an oral surgeon playboy named Harry (Chuck Shamata). One weekend, she's invited over to a party at his isolated house in the country. Diane gets a kick out of Harry's sports car, a Corvette, and asks him if she can drive it part of the way.

Her passion for cars gets the better of her, and she starts speeding along the road to the estate. Although this makes Harry nervous, he lets his friend have her fun. Anything to get her up to his house for a few days.

Soon, a carload of hoodlums drives up beside them and the men inside harass Diane and Harry by tossing beer bottles and cutting them off. Lep (Don Stroud), the driver, seems to get off by impressing his buddies Runt (Richard Ayres), Frankie (Kyle Edwards) and Stanley (Don Granberry).

Diane stops the Corvette and when the other car drives back towards her, she steps on the gas and takes off, certain that the thugs won't be able to keep up with her. Lep doesn't give up so easily, and Diane's speed and mastery behind the wheel only infuriates him. Not only does he keep up with her, he tries to run her off the road.

Diane and Harry finally elude the troublemakers when Lep's car gets stuck in a ditch. Lep leaps out of the stalled vehicle and vows retribution against Diane and her beau. Frankie says, "I bet no one ever did that to Lep before. And it was a chick too!" Lep is so enraged, he pounces on him. "I'm gonna find that fucking cunt and I'm gonna ram that supercharger up her ass!" he yells.

Harry is impressed with Diane's driving skills. They stop at a local gas station, where Harry speaks to his attendant friends Spragg (Ed McNamara) and Ralph (Michael Kirby).

Out of her earshot, he makes a joke about how many times a woman such as Diane need to have sex. He leaves his car behind for repairs and to have the tank filled, and he rewards the men with bottles of liquor he had promised them.

Harry then takes Diane back to his house in another car. The house is huge and Diane wonders where the other guests are. Harry tells her they'll wander in throughout the day. Inside, the place is filled with expensive furniture and antiques.

The more Diane talks to Harry, the more she realizes what a shallow, material jerk he is. "Are you married or something"? she asks him. He isn't...the doctor just prefers the best and biggest house that money can buy.

Diane starts to settle into her room, which she jokes is larger than her home. She's unaware that the mirrors in both the bedroom and her "private" bathroom are two-way and Harry is able to spy on her from the other sides of them. In fact, he secretly takes photos of his guest while she showers.

Meanwhile, Lep and the gang are finally able to get their car out of the ditch. Determined to find Diane and Harry, the four begin searching through the tiny town. When a park ranger (Denver Mattson) tries to stop them from entering a campground, they grab his arm and drag him along, severely injuring the man. A police officer (Richard Donat) arrives and takes a report from a couple that witnessed the incident

Harry shows Diane around his estate and she nearly falls into a bog that's 10 to 15 feet deep. They decide to take a ride in Harry's speedboat but first, Diane fixes the carburetor, impressing Harry once again with her mechanic skills.

Relaxing in the middle of the lake, Harry asks Diane if she's ever posed in the nude, before coming on to her. She refuses to kiss him, insisting that they go back to the house to await the other "guests."

While driving past the gas station, Lep and his friends see Harry's car. Under the guise of getting their tank filled, they try to get information from Spragg and Ralph. The two attendants, intoxicated from the vodka Harry gave them, reveal that the good doctor has brought a different woman to his estate every weekend this summer. They also give directions to the house, much to Lep's pleasant surprise.

Harry's been drinking himself and his advances on Diane go nowhere. He then admits that no other guests are expected. Diane is beside herself and tells him "I don't pose in the nude, I don't sleep with men I've just met and especially with men I don't like." When she adds that it isn't going to work and she wants to go home, Harry tells her to walk herself back to the nearest bus depot.

Upset and hurt at her shabby treatment, Diane packs her bags and prepares to leave. However, she senses that something is not quite right. She tries to find Harry, who is out by the boathouse. While searching the house, Lep grabs her and covers her mouth as he fondles her breasts.

Harry returns to the house to find unwanted company in his living room. Lep demands to know why his car was driven off the road and Harry tells him it was just an accident. That's not enough for the thugs, who are pissed about the damage to their vehicle. Harry offers to pay them off, but Stanley and Frankie only scoff at him. Lep walks over to them and snatches the doctor's wallet.

Soon, they begin to humiliate Harry by ridiculing his profession. Stanley even plants one firmly on his kisser. "When are all of you gonna stop this!" Diane screams. Lep, noticing the pricey items around the house, breaks an expensive flowerpot. He then invites himself and his gang to spend the weekend at the house.

Diane tries a tactic. Ignoring Lep, she directs it at Stanley, Frankie and Runt, telling them "what are you, a bunch of ASSHOLES? That you listen and do everything he tells you to do?" It doesn't work. Lep orders Harry to pour drinks for everyone.

Spragg, feeling guilty that he and Ralph directed the strangers to Harry and Diane, calls the house but gets no answer.

Against Harry's wishes, Frankie and Stanley take his speedboat for a joy ride. Now super drunk, Ralph and Spragg head out to the house by the lake by rowboat, after unsuccessfully trying to get their car going.

Frankie, driving Harry's larger boat, harasses them by circling around the two older men until eventually they both fall into the water. A police officer who later arrives at the gas station, finds it abandoned.

Harry tells Diane there's a gun in the house while Lep comes up with a fun "game." He wants Harry to chase Diane and then rape her while the group watches. Harry refuses and gets into a tussle with Lep. However, he's no match for the group and he ends up getting beaten by Frankie, Stanley and Runt.

Diane tries to make a run for it. She wanders through the grounds and hides in a nearby abandoned cabin. Lep finds her and forces himself upon her. Diane stops struggling and smacks him when he's caught off guard. He reciprocates by hitting her repeatedly and then takes her back to the house.

Night falls and Harry's humiliation continues when Frankie finds some pornographic photos of his. Runt has been drinking so much, he throws up in the living room.

"Why don't you stop? C'mon, I've given you money...what do you want!" Harry exclaims in frustration. That really sets Lep and his friends off and they start destroying Harry's record collection and just about everything else in the house. Glasses and frames are broken, the refrigerator is overturned, the toilet in the bathroom is smashed, etc.

Harry runs upstairs to get his shotgun but Lep manages to grab it away from him. The playboy dentist is then told to run for his life. As Diane watches in horror, Harry is hunted like an animal before Lep shoots him to death just outside the house.

When Lep comes back inside, he hands Diane over to Runt so he can "screw her." Runt takes her up to one of the bedrooms where he makes her put make-up on and cuts the back of her neck with a blade.

While Stanley and Frankie try to listen from the other end of the door, Diane gets into the bed with Runt, hiding a shard of broken glass. As he's on top of her, she jabs the glass into his neck and slits his throat, before climbing out the window. She makes it to the boathouse and hides.

Frankie and Stanley realize there's something wrong when they see Runt's blood coming from underneath the door. They knock the door down and find their friend's body.

Lep and the boys search for Diane, who comes up with a plan...she douses the boathouse with gasoline and sets a boobytrap. As she waits outside, Frankie enters and Diane tosses a flare towards the boathouse. The place turns into an inferno and Frankie desperately runs back out in flames.

Stanley goes after Diane with a knife. He catches up to her but she breaks free and leads him towards the bog. He falls in and begs Diane to help him. Instead, she pushes his head under and drowns him.

Dawn arrives and Diane sees a station wagon nearby. She crawls over to it and when she opens the door, Harry's body falls out. With no place else to go, she gets inside of the car.

Lep appears and begins shooting at the vehicle. Diane crouches down in the front seat and tries to hotwire it (call her Ms. MacGyver!) Her attempt is successful and she gets it moving, pressing on the gas petal with her hand.

Lep continues to fire directly at her. When he runs out of ammunition, he leaps on top of the car. With Diane driving and trying to shake him off (and Harry's body near her feet), Lep tries to grab at her through one of the windows. He finally falls off and picks up a huge log, which he tosses through the windshield. Diane quickly steps on the gas and runs him over.

She drives and drives until she brings the car to an abrupt halt as she remembers the man she just killed and her weekend of terror...

Death Weekend was based on a true story that happened in Canada in the early 1970s. Upon the film's release, it often played on a double bill with The Last House On the Left.

There's an interesting footnote to this picture, especially in light of what happens onscreen. Brenda Vacarro and Don Stroud, who met on the set, became a couple after the shoot and were an item for several years. In fact, Stroud told the Terror Trap they came close to getting married.

Director Fruet would go on to direct several genre films, including Funeral Home starring Lesleh Donaldson, the mediocre Spasms in 1983 and Killer Party, which was made in 1984 and released two years later.

Among his television work are episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and the Friday the 13th series in the mid to late 80s.

The producer was Ivan Reitman, who would later become a successful director in his own right. He's specialized in decidedly lighter fare, with hits including the smash Ghostbusters, Dave, Legal Eagles, and the Bill Murray hits Meatballs and Stripes.

Hunter: A powerful and disturbing film. In Fruet's capable hands, I don't see it as exploitative as others of its kind. If handled right, the issue of vigilantism and animal instinct survival skills can make for a thought-provoking and provocative subject.

Although this might be considered a "B movie" by some, the direction is first-rate and the actors are remarkable, in particular Vacarro in a difficult role and Stroud as one of the all-time great bad guys.

Death Weekend is made even more effective by the fact that one of the victims is not exactly sympathetic. You don't know whether to root for playboy Harry or cheer his tormentors on. Don't miss this one. It's a definite underrated classic.

Jason: A perfectly executed woman's revenge pic. Only a good, solid actress can make this type of film work and Vaccaro is excellently suited to the task. Strong, hard willed and smart, she rises under force to dealing with villain Stroud & cronies and her triumph is supreme.

Cleanly directed, fast paced and well acted throughout, I have a hard time calling this anything other than a superior action horror flick. If this same film were directed today with any of Hollywood's current crop of leading players, it would be termed a "blockbuster" even before its theatrical release.