|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
6
|
|
 |
|
7 |
|
10
= Highest Rating |
|
Guest
Review by John
J. Cook |
The
Italian Cannibal flick Eaten
Alive ("Mangiati Vivi") is definitely
not for all... ahem... tastes. The film
features extreme gore and violence, nudity, animal
cruelty, and sexual perversion.
It starts out in Canada where an Asiatic-looking
assassin kills a man with a blowgun dart dipped
in cobra venom. Flash to New York City in the
midst of the Christmas holiday season, where Asian
Assassin Guy fatally blowdarts two more people
before being crushed by an oncoming truck. The
police conveniently find a reel of film on the
dead hitman. It contains documentary footage of
a bizarre tribal ritual taking place in a jungle
setting. A Caucasian woman seen in the film is
identified as Diana Morris, a New York resident
who's been mysteriously missing for over 6 months.
Her sister Sheila (Janet Agren) has come to the
city from Alabama to look for her. The police
hook Sheila up with Prof. Carter (Nightmare
City's Mel Ferrer), an anthropologist who
identifies the tribesmen seen in the film as indigenous
to a particularly savage region of New Guinea.
Sheila is determined to get her sister back.
With Carter's help she learns that, before vanishing,
Diana had fallen in with a weird environmental/religious
cult led by the mysterious Jonas, a messianic
Jim Jones-type figure. Jonas is thought to have
established a colony for his followers in the
remote jungles of New Guinea. So, heedless of
any danger, Sheila travels to that Pacific island
to search for Diana and hopefully bring her home.
But she'll need an experienced guide to make it
through the jungle. Locals recommend American
Mark Butler (one-time porn actor Robert Kerman),
a 'Nam vet and soldier of fortune she finds arm
wrestling a guy in a bar. He blows off her proposal
until she adds sufficient zeroes to the potential
fee.
Mark agrees to help Sheila locate her sister
for the tidy sum of $80,000. They're flown to
the jungle by chopper and dropped off, greeted
by some foreboding footage of vampire bats flying
overhead. A grizzled white man in the first village
they arrive at throws them into a dungeon-hut
with a venomous snake in a basket. Mark proves
his worth by getting them out of this unexpected
jam, securing a boat and some native bearers in
the process. During their journey upriver we're
subjected to stock footage of natives butchering
a real alligator. (Yuck!) On the heels
of this comes more stock footage of a python devouring
a live monkey. As Sheila looks away in disgust
Mark says, "You'll see worse before this is over."
(Indeed.) Then, the absolute fakiest-looking
alligator head imaginable attacks their boat —
chomping on one of the bearers —
forcing them to go on foot into the wilds of the
jungle. Shortly thereafter Kerman utters another
immortal line: "You know what? We're up shit's
creek without a paddle!" (Yes, they certainly
are!) Arriving at a clearing, they stumble upon
hacked-up human limbs and find a dismembered native's
body. In an especially bizarre and gruesome scene,
Mark witnesses several cannibals attack a native
girl, strip her naked, then kill and devour her...
all while an owl looks on and a cannibal smiles
at the bird approvingly.
And this is only the first 32 minutes!
Finally Sheila and Mark come upon Jonas' settlement,
called "Purification Village." The newcomers are
greeted by the brainwashed cult followers, both
native and American. Sheila and Mark eye a few
severed human heads on poles and know that they
are in for it. They're welcomed by Jonas (Ivan
Rassimov), who informs them that to leave the
encampment means death at the hands of the surrounding
cannibals. ("Their idea of lunch is fresh,
hot entrails soaked in blood.") Only the cult
leader's blowgun-toting guards keep the flesheaters
at bay. Sheila is reunited with Diana (Italian
porn actress Paola Senatore), who tells her the
truth about Jonas: he's a pervert, a sadist, and
totally insane. For 6 months she's been trapped
here, a virtual slave. Diana's tale is confirmed
when Mark and Sheila witness a sleazy cult ceremony
involving public sex. Mark comes to an obvious
conclusion: "We gotta get outta this place...
These people are crazy!" But escape seems
impossible.
Not as plodding as many films of this type,
Eaten Alive has a
sense of urgency that makes it extremely watchable.
There's an 'evil potion drinking' scene that predates
Mola Ramm making Harrison Ford imbibe the brainwashing
blood of Kali in Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom. The performances
are pretty good, especially Kerman. With his devil-may-care
attitude and constant references to the money
he's owed, his portrayal of Mark the mercenary
definitely gives a nod to Han Solo. Kerman (Cannibal
Holocaust) has a considerable cult following
from appearing in these movies and I understand
why —
he's a likable action hero. Rassimov makes a decent
villain, while Janet Agren, Paola Senatore and
cult favorite Me Me Lai are certainly babe-worthy.
(Although Agren's portrayal isn't particularly
strong. She seems to have a blank look most of
the time, but hey... if your sister was captured
by a religious cult in New Guinea and you're surrounded
by cannibals, you might get emotionally overwhelmed
too!) With its over-the-top gore effects and plentiful
female nudity —
and despite the horrible animal death footage
—
this is a fairly entertaining movie as far as
cannibal flicks go. At least the animal cruelty
sequences (my least favorite part of these films)
weren't staged expressly for this production.
They were culled from other Italian gutmunchers,
most notably Sergio Martino's Slave
of the Cannibal God.
|
|
|
Shriek
Show's recent edition of Eaten
Alive is reportedly the best the film has
ever looked in any home video incarnation.
(There have been German and British DVD releases
as well as a number of dismal-looking U.S. videotapes.)
While not perfect, the 1.85:1 widescreen transfer
(anamorphically enhanced) looks pretty darn good.
The mono audio track is nothing to write home about
but gets the job done without any noticeable hiss
or distortion.
The extras on this disc are really good, the
highlight being a lengthy video interview with Robert
Kerman. Eaten Alive
is my first exposure to this actor; in the interview
he comes off as genuinely appreciative of his cult
status. Fans of the Italian cannibal subgenre should
enjoy it. There's also an interview with Ivan Rassimov
but I did not view it in its entirety. I do wish
there had been more information on any of the female
stars but there isn't even a talent bio, much less
an interview. (A short piece on Janet Agren would
have been wonderful.) A third interview has director/writer
Umberto Lenzi speaking on the film's production
and cast. Rounding out the extras are the theatrical
trailer, trailers for the gore films Zombie
Holocaust, Jungle Holocaust,
Zombie 3 and Zombie
4, and a poster/still gallery. All in
all a worthy, satisfying effort from Shriek Show.
2/05/03 |
HOME
| REVIEWS
| TOP
|
