Don't Go Near the Park

Don't Go Near the Park
Poster art
Directed byLawrence D. Foldes
Written byLawrence D. Foldes
Story byLinwood Chase
Produced byLawrence D. Foldes
Starring
CinematographyWilliam DeDiego
Edited byDan Perry
Music byChris Ledesma
Production
company
Star Cinema
Distributed byCardinal IV Film Distributors
Cannon Films
Release date
  • September 11, 1981 (1981-09-11)
Running time
80 minutes[1][2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$110,000
Box office$390,000

Don't Go Near the Park is a 1979[3][4] American Independent supernatural horror film directed by Lawrence D. Foldes, and starring Aldo Ray, Meeno Peluce, Tamara Taylor, Robert Gribbin, Barbara Bain, and Linnea Quigley. Its plot follows a brother and sister, both cursed in prehistoric times, who remain on earth and must subsist on the entrails of young people; in an attempt to break their curse and achieve immortality, the brother conceives a child as a virginal sacrifice.

Filmed in Los Angeles, Don't Go Near the Park was then-19-year-old Foldes' directorial debut. He had previously produced the commercially successful exploitation film Malibu High (1979). The film was released theatrically in September 1981. It gained notoriety when it was successfully prosecuted for obscenity in the United Kingdom and placed on the "video nasty" list due to its violent content. In the intervening years, it was released on the home video market under several alternate titles, such as Night Stalker and Curse of the Living Dead.

Critical response to the film was largely negative, and it attracted commentary in subsequent decades for its themes of cannibalism, incest, and pedophilia. In 2006, Dark Sky Films released a DVD edition featuring the original U.S. theatrical cut.

  1. ^ "Lawrence David Foldes". American Cinematheque. Archived from the original on August 11, 2019. Retrieved August 11, 2019.
  2. ^ Klossner 2005, p. 227.
  3. ^ Kerekes & Slater 2005, p. 138.
  4. ^ "Don't Go Near the Park (1979)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on August 11, 2019. Retrieved August 11, 2019.