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 A
young nanny (Tisa Farrow) and friends sail to a small Greek
Island only to discover the population has vanished. While investigating
the mystery of the missing islanders the gang finds a terrified
blind girl that screams about a monster. The monster is revealed
to be a disfigured shipwreck survivor (George Eastman) who developed
a taste for human flesh while lost at sea. Soon, the friends
realize their vacation has become a buffet, and they're on the
menu.
The
taboo of cannibalism has been covered by other slashers like
Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Humongus, but none
have sunk their teeth into the subject like Joe D'Amato's Anthropophagus.
Eastman (real name Luigi Montefiori) uses the occasional knife
or meat cleaver to subdue a victim but throat chewing is really
his preferred killing method. If you find cannibalism a difficult
subject to swallow, then stick with the The Grim Reaper,
the heavily edited US version of Anthropophagus. You
still get the stalking and slashing in The Grim Reaper,
but the cannibalism and extreme gore has been removed.
Italian
sleaze merchant Joe D'Amato (real name Aristide Massacesi) gives
the film enough old world gothic atmosphere and suspense to
make things interesting before dropping an atomic gore bomb
on the audience. There are two infamous scenes that keep Anthropophagus
from reaching family friendly status. The first has Eastman
chewing on a fetus freshly ripped from a mother's stomach. Viewers
troubled by this scene can take comfort in the knowledge that
mother and child were later reunited... inside the cannibal's
stomach. The other disturbing scene shows Eastman ripping out
and eating his own intestines after a nasty pick ax accident.
This could be silly if performed by a lesser actor but Eastman's
psychotic gaze makes the scene all the more haunting.
While
D'Amato and Eastman loaded their script for Anthropophagus
with plenty of bad taste moments, they forgot to include likable
or complex characters. Such generic characters mean the actors,
with the exception of Tisa Farrow and George Eastman, are nothing
more that fodder for the killer. The dubbing isn't too bad for
an Italian film, at least lips and words look close to matching,
but the dialog sounds like it was recorded in a giant, empty
warehouse.
Anthropophagus
is something of an acquired taste. Fans of Italian splatter
and gory slashers will love every gut churning moment. If you
prefer slashers that rely on plot more than graphic violence,
then go with The Grim Reaper, the same film minus the
controversial bits. D'Amato and Eastman later teamed up for
the prequel Absurd (aka Rosso Sangue and Monster Hunter)
and Michele Soavi's classic slasher Stagefright (D'Amato
produced and Eastman wrote the screenplay).
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