Gory greetings horroryearbook alumni! This week’s PICKS FROM THE CRYPT are a terrible trio of old school horror flicks that all feature heaping helpings of cannibal gluttony. I hope you’re hungry! LET THE BLOODSHED BEGIN!
“Antropophagus” (1980)
http://imdb.com/title/tt0082479/
A chance meeting inside a cable car in Greece brings together a young tourist named Julie (Tisa “Zombi II” Farrow) and a small group of travelers (including the lovely Zora Kerova of “Cannibal Ferox” infamy) about to take a boat trip along the Archipelago. Julie hitches a ride so she can be dropped off along the way on a remote island where a babysitting job awaits her. When the group finally arrive at the island they are shocked to find it completely deserted. Julie is especially worried when she finds the large house where her employers were supposed to be waiting for her to be empty, with the sole exception of the family’s young blind daughter - who was cowering inside a wine barrel in the cellar!
The traumatized girl babbles a mad tale of a foul smelling savage beast that devoured everyone on the island, including her parents. The gang is skeptical and wind up paying for it with their lives. The “beast” in question is actually a man - a man who was long ago driven insane by a shipwreck and the tragic death and forced consumption of his wife and child. The now completely deranged cannibal killer mutilates and devours anyone who dares set foot on the island he now calls home. The hideous looking madman (played very convincingly by co-writer Luigi Montefiori aka George Eastman of “Porno Holocaust” legend) immediately kidnaps the groups’ token whiny pregnant chick and stashes her away for late night snacking. Then the angry antropophagus sets his sights on Julie and her friends and slowly stalks after them in the night. It’s not the fear that will tear them apart…IT’S HIM!
“Antropophagus” is an especially nasty effort from the legendary director Joe D’Amato. (aka Aristide Massacessi - RIP) It plays out much like an 80’s slasher flick, punctuated with graphic moments of explicit violence that are more in the vein of some of D’Amato’s previous efforts like “Beyond The Darkness” & “Emmanuelle And The Last Cannibals.” It wouldn’t be a stretch to call this a slasher flick with a zombie killer. Although the antropophagus isn’t an undead ghoul, he is very much alive and consumed with bloodlust. The most infamous moment has to be the scene where George chows down on a freshly removed fetus! A skinned rabbit was used for this effect and it is convincingly pukeworthy. The gory gut munching ending is also incredibly memorable, and is usually splashed all over the cover artwork just to spoil everyone’s fun. Although the film suffers from a coffin’s pace it never skimps on the splatter when the man eater gets down to business. The minimal plot (most of the film consists of people walking around in the dark looking for other people) and maximum carnage make this one an acquired taste, but gorehounds should certainly consider this a must see.
This film was “nasty” enough to have been banned on video in the UK for over 18 years. Several different versions have been released on vhs and dvd over the years, with alternate titles including “Antropophagus: The Beast” (the UK video title), “Savage Island,” “Man Eater,” and “The Grim Reaper” (the original US video title). These releases were all butchered to suit the timid tastes of censors. The folks at Shriek Show were good enough to release a completely UNCUT version of “Antropophagus” which was made from the original Italian negative. Shriek Show’s two disc release includes a wealth of bonus features including a 67 minute documentary entitled “Joe D’Amato: Totally Uncut 2,” an interview with stars George Eastman and Zora Kerova, a photo gallery, and more trailers than you can shake a severed limb at.
Check out the original Italian trailer!
“Raw Meat” (1972)
http://imdb.com/title/tt0068458/
At the turn of the century a cave-in traps a group of miners deep within the caverns that will eventually house the London subway system. The unfortunate miners are forced to resort to cannibalism to stay alive, eating the flesh of the sick and dying. Incredibly, this horror goes on for decades as the group continuously breed among themselves and consume the dead. After a century of this miserable existence only two disgusting descendants of the original group survive – a man and a woman. The man (Hugh Armstrong) knows better than to eat his diseased “wife” and wanders out of the catacombs into the subway system looking for fresh meat.
He stumbles upon a sleazy lawyer on the prowl for prostitutes, attacks him, and then drags him back into his lair. This is almost interrupted by an annoying pair of young lovers (David Ladd & Sharon Gurney) named Alex and Patricia who find the lawyer passed out (shortly after being attacked) on the bottom of the subway station stairs. When the sick woman finally dies the inbred cannibal killer becomes even more unhinged and goes out looking for a new female companion. The conveniently located Patricia seems as good a candidate as any and is quickly kidnapped. It’s up to hippy college student Alex and wacky police inspector Donald Pleasence (Halloween, Alone In The Dark) to save the day and finally put an end to the tribe of once humans…the raw meat of the human race!
This one boasts an outrageous storyline, and an unbelievably creepy and claustrophobic setting. Director Gary Sherman did a fantastic job here (he also wrote the story) and later went on to direct two of my favorite genre flicks - “Dead And Buried” (1981) and “Vice Squad” (1982). The beautiful cinematography was done by Alex Thomson. Thomson and art director Dennis Gordon-Orr did an excellent job creating a superior rotting atmosphere. The highlight of the movie for me is the sequence where we first get a look at the cannibal’s lair with a lengthy tracking shot that slowly reveals several decaying corpses hung like cattle in loving close up.
The killer is also the victim of tragedy – a drooling, hopelessly inbred savage covered in sores. He manages to be sympathetic, despite the multiple violent murders and abductions he commits. He repeatedly yells his catchphrase “MIND THE DOORS!” and attacks his victims with great ferocity out of necessity. He’s hungry and horny, and far more interesting than the two young leads - who are both rather bland and unappealing. Donald Pleasence steals the show as you might expect with his blustery performance as the tea loving inspector in charge of the subway disappearance investigations. Christopher “Dracula” Lee makes a brief appearance in one scene and trades witty insults with Donald.
“Raw Meat” was originally released in the UK in 1973 as “Deathline” and never had a US release. This film was for many years only available in an uncut form via pricey and poor looking bootleg vhs copies. MGM did horror fans a big favor by releasing an excellent looking remastered widescreen dvd with all the bloody mayhem intact. The original AIP trailer is also included. This is a cool flick that doesn’t get mentioned nearly enough and one of the most unique 70’s cannibal flicks for sure.
“Motel Hell” (1980)
http://imdb.com/title/tt0081184/
The late great Rory Calhoun (Hell Comes To Frogtown) chews up the scenery as “Farmer” Vincent Smith, a successful rural motel owner and cured meat salesman. It’s well known throughout the county that it takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent’s fritters, but no one suspects that Vincent’s trademark smoked ham is actually human flesh! Vincent and his dimwitted and tubby sister Ida (the late Nancy Parsons of “Porky’s” legend) long ago discovered the wonders of murder and cannibalism for profit and have made a comfortable living doing it for over 30 years.
We get to see the dynamic duo in action when a punk rock group called “Ivan & The Terribles” travel through town and suffer a little roadside sabotage thanks to Farmer Vincent. After a spectacular van accident the punks are buried up to their freshly slit necks in the Smith’s secret backyard garden. The unfortunate victims thus become “homegrown” cattle that Vincent & Ida will later happily slaughter, smoke, and then sell to their bumpkin kinfolk and eager tourists. Vincent & Ida are not your typical dimwitted backwoods savages though. They ponder the karmic implications of their actions and attempt to justify them as a means of ending overpopulation and famine at the same time.
A pretty young girl named Terry (Nina Axelrod) survives one of Vincent’s accidents and winds up falling in love with the silver fox (a bit of a stretch to say the least!). Vincent romances the girl for a long meandering chunk of the picture that involves extended scenes of picnics and water tubing. Vincent’s (much) younger brother Bruce – who happens to be the town sheriff also falls for Terry resulting in a deadly love triangle. At the film’s incredible conclusion the now completely deranged Vincent dons a giant pig mask for a bloody chainsaw duel to the death with his estranged brother.
Director Kevin Connor’s “Motel Hell” is a “meat” movie in the proud tradition of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Deranged.” It plays more for laughs than your typical cannibal effort and is also quite satiric. Not exactly thought provoking material, but it’s certainly fun stuff. My only real complaints are that it feels overlong and it’s never really as funny or as scary as it could have been. It’s still fairly creepy though, especially the whacked out scenes in the garden. The kick ass chainsaw duel at the end of the flick is the easily the highlight of the movie and rivals even the legendary battle between Leatherface and Dennis Hopper in TCM2.
A while back MGM released “Motel Hell” on dvd as one half of a Midnite Movies double feature with the 1974 Jeff Gillen/Alan Ormsby classic “Deranged.” Both films were nicely remastered and the double sided disc includes the original theatrical trailers. Sadly, MGM used the heavily edited R rated version of “Deranged” for this release – which unfortunately makes this a good, but not great purchase. I would love to see special edition dvds of both of these classic flicks.
Check out Farmer’s Vincent’s unique neck snapping technique!
KEEP THE BLOOD FLOWING!!!
Read All of “Brain Hammer’s Picks From the Crypt!”
