Anthropophagous (1980)

"Anthropophagus", in my opinion is a misunderstood flick. I've mostly seen reviews in which a couple of particular scenes are mentioned and not much else, those being the fetus scene and the killer's death. While these scenes are the highlights, I believe it offers more.The setting of the film is absolutely beautiful, with the island location being showcased almost as much as the characters themselves. While I can not argue that it is slow at times, the film focuses on atmosphere, and a mid section that is almost "gothic", at night during a storm in the abandoned mansion. The film pulls no punches, as pregnant and blind women are disembodied and disemboweled without any remorse. The scene where the killer is seen inside the locked room after the door closes and all is thought to be safe is particularly effective.While none of the stranded tourists are particularly memorable, the cast is diverse enough to keep the story going, and their relationships and troubles with one another add to the mayhem. The movie is almost post-apocalyptic and hopeless in tone, since the island is all but deserted and the group is trapped without modern fixings."Anthropophagus" is a gruesome shocker, and also basically a slasher, but has more mood and setting than people often give it credit for.

Looking back these days at the movies on the list of Video Nasties drawn up in the early 80s by the UK's Director of Public Prosecutions, one is often left wondering what all the fuss was about. In the case of "Antrophagus: The Beast" AKA "Antrophagus: The Grim Reaper", with its infamous ripping-out-a-fetus-and-chomping-on-it scene, it is easy to see. However, fetus grimness aside, 'Antrophagus' is a disappointing horror which neither lives upto the hype of its infamous set-piece or the promising first act of the movie.The film begins with the slaughter of a young couple on a pleasant beach on a remote Greek Island by something which emerges from the sea. Sometime later a young group of holidaying tourists (friends of the slain couple) arrive and find the island deserted Mary Celeste style. They begin to investigate, catching glimpses of a mysterious woman before they finally stumble upon a hysterical blind girl who tells them of a monster whose presence she can smell from the odor of blood it carries. From there the members of the group are gradually picked off by something which is eventually revealed to us to be a disfigured and insane George Eastman.Unfortunately, while the first third establishes a convincingly uncomfortable atmosphere courtesy of the island and the house, and the build up to the monster's reveal is quite well done… after this the film deflates quite quickly. For all its hype there is actually very little in the way of action/gore and after the plot has revealed itself we still have to suffer a lot of shots of people walking around like they have done for the whole of the film upto that point. However, it should be noted that the film does attempt some modicum of character development and has some only-just-sub-par acting in order to carry the viewer through the boredom…even though it falls short of the mark. And then, the fetus eating scene (in fact a skinned rabbit)! Sure, this is a gruesome and repugnant idea, but to be honest the scene isn't shot that well, doesn't really make sense, fails to repulse, and so ultimately disappoints.It's a shame really as every now and then you catch glimpses of what could be a great movie, but the editing, the acting, and (to be honest) the monster, let it down and (while it's much, much better than the follow up 'Absurd') still bores where it should scare, and elicits yawns where there should be screams.

Don't look for great acting in Joe D'Amato's gory horror flick. This is strictly low budget. In fact D'Amato, known as "The Evil Ed Wood," was never concerned with production values in his over 200 films. He was out to make money, and that was his yardstick for a good film - it was profitable.This film, properly known as Antropophagus, along with Absurd (Horrible) and Buio Omega (Beyond the Darkness), have given him cult status among horror film fans.It does have one great thing going for it. It was filmed in Greece and has a Greek soundtrack. Splendid! A lot of it was also filmed in Italy, and that is good, too.If you see the uncut version, as I have, you will gain 3 minutes of gore over the American version (The Grim Reaper), including the pregnant woman scene.The movie was the last for Mia Farrow's sister Tisa, who went on to become a nurse.

Antropophagus is the first Joe D'Amato film I have seen, having heard quite a bit about the director and his works. I was kinda excited to finally sit down and watch this, as I have heard a lot about it, and I am currently trying to watch all the video nasties so having got a hold of another one delighted me! Unfortunately this one, after getting to a promising start, descends into nothingness for too long, before finally getting to the gore in the last 20 minutes.The story is extraordinarily simple: a group of people arrive at an island to find it is totally abandoned. Unluckily for them, everyone is actually dead, and a deformed cannibal is running loose murdering and eating anyone he can. So, over the course of the night and the next day the group are one by one dispatched in gruesome ways.Now, the lack of an interesting plot does not annoy me, in fact, this movie COULD have been very good. The opening is quite promising, but most of the middle section of the film consists of the group wandering aimlessly around the island. These scenes drag on for way too long, and eventually become very annoying. There are some scenes here and there which are well shot and are full of atmosphere, with a sense of dread permeating the air. When the maniac is first revealed in the house, it is a pretty terrifying scene, and the build up is fantastic. Likewise, the chase at the end is fantastic and incredibly tense. It is moments like these which show that D'Amato has some skill as a director, but he does not know how to build tension and keep it for a long period of time and he just does not know how to keep a story going.For example, there is a subplot with a lady in black who we see stare out of a couple of windows. This is all though, the obvious mystery surrounding her and the murderer is not developed at all, leaving nothing at all. The acting and dialogue are god-awful, and there are numerous unintentionally funny scenes (like the awesome product placement segment on the boat, you will know it when you see it). However, the gore, when it comes around, is well done and suitably sick. There are two scenes in particular which have become rightly famous for being over the top and depraved.Overall, Antropophagus is not a bad movie, nor a good one. Despite the many poor qualities, the movie definitely has strengths which lift it above being poor. I would recommend it to people who are intent on seeing everything nasty, but with a warning that it is very slow.2½/5