Eaten Alive!

(aka: EATEN ALIVE)

This is the second of three cannibal films directed by Lenzi (filmed in Sir Lanka) with CANNIBAL FEROX (1981) being the third. To be honest with you, I saw both of these films one right after the other and I can truly say that they are both about the same. One isn't any more gross or gory than the other, imo.

Film starts in Niagara Falls where a policeman is killed by an asian fellow blowing poison darts. Then the movie cuts to NYC where the same guy kills two more people using poison darts before he is run over by a truck and killed. It's all a part of an ecological cult that Janet Agren is investigating in regards to the disappearance of her sister.

Her search takes her to 'New Guinea' where she hires a Viet-Nam deserter (porn star R. Bolla) to guide her to the village where her sister was last seen. On the way there, we get to watch snakes eating animals, natives gutting and skinning crocodiles and our two heroes being chased by cannibals.

They finally reach the village and meet the cult leader (Ivan Rassimov) who has absolute control over everybody. He's an obvious copy of Jim Jones.

Gross food scenes include:

Cannibals eating native girl's arm and left breast. Not bad...

Then we see three native guys screw another native girl in a ritualistic soft-porn scene. One goes down on top of her, right after the other.

Janet Agren, naked, covered in gold paint getting a snake blood covered dildo inserted into her. It doesn't actually show it, but it's implied by the pain shown on her face.

A native guy who has betrayed the cult, getting his dick cut off before he is gored to death with a stick. Cool !!

Another native girl and Algren's sister being eaten by cannibals after they escape from Rassimov's camp. They are first disemboweled and then their organs are eaten before they are hacked and gored to death with spears. You know it's all fake because the bodies look like full-size rubber latex mannequins. It's still a cool scene, anyway.

The Shriek DVD is taken from an excellent wide-screen print with a few film extras such as an interviews with Lenzi, Bolla and Rassimov. Lenzi says that his next film, CANNIBAL FEROX did better at the box office, but he equates both of these films as being of the same quality. So do I.

In these politically-correct times, films like these wouldn't get made today. It get's a 6 out of 10 for being interesting and un-PC misogynistic at the same time.

This is not so much a film as it is a clip-show "best of" reel with about 60 minutes of original footage to fill in the gaps. Most of this film was shot in Sri Lanka with a few (quite obvious) sections shot in southern Italy and a few completely gratuitous New York scenes thrown in to try to pass the film off as American. Mel Ferrer makes a completely pointless cameo appearance as a professor who gets to interact with two porn actors playing cops (the poor guy!).

Lenzi is usually a great director, but he clearly was not on his A-game with this Cannibal turkey. Not one scene goes by without something completely laughable happening. I'll give you a few examples.

A) one scene showing Mel Ferrer entering a police station features his voice dubbed by another actor! Ferrer then can be heard with his actual voice moments later! B) Ferrer's audio is quite obviously recorded practically, while the other actors in the scene with him are dubbed. Jarringly obvious shift in quality.

C) shamelessly over-acting police-man saying "WHAT?".

D) a scene where a Sri Lankan (well this movie takes place in New Guinea though these people don't look it at all) allows an alligator to effortlessly chomp his dangling arm off. This scene gets double the embarrassment for actually being culled from another movie! E) when the actors "interact" with the Animal cruelty scenes, it's all just close-ups of them reacting intercut with shots from a different film with different filmstock.

F) When Kerman throws a spear at a native (haphazardly), it clumsily falls sideways into the dirt. The next shot shows a screaming native with a spear sticking out of his chest! G) One of the Sri Lankan helicopter pilots (who is dubbed, even) blows his line and they left it in! H) Kerman nonchalantly knocks Agren out with a punch so she doesn't see a gory evisceration.

I) whopping continuity error involving a character's body parts magically reattaching after they were eaten.

J) said scene includes a woman missing her right leg, with a native seen nearby eating a leg... but with a LEFT foot attached to it! Seriously! The list goes on and on. This film is so riotously daft, yet oddly competent in its staging and cinematography, that it's totally unique in the annals of film. The only other film coming close to the lunacy of this is Lenzi's NIGHTMARE CITY which was far more respectable.

This film, at least, is never boring and very accessible to those unfamiliar with bad Italian cinema. Personally I find it funnier than most intentional comedies, which is why it gets such a high rating from me. Whether Lenzi had this in mind or was seriously trying to make a good film is anyone's guess.

While I don't think that Eaten Alive is particularly very good, it's an OK waste of time. If you're used to cannibal films like Cannibal Holocaust then this will seem tame in comparison. It's not a particularly interesting or original story and you don't care much for the characters. But there are a few nice gore touches and shocking rape sequences to keep you awake (if that's your sort of thing). There's also a few decent action and fight sequences. The best scene is probably when one girl is literally eaten alive and her skeleton turned inside out. There's not a lot of gore and it's rather amateur, but it's not too bad.

Since this isn't my sort of film, I wouldn't recommend seeking it out unless you're a die-hard fan of the cannibal horror genre.

I wasnt expecting much when I put this in the VCR, and I definatly didnt _GET_ much either, but it certainly wasnt as bad as everyone says. Actually its rather humorous in a cheesy sort of way, and lenzi does manage to put in some decent atmosphere. The script is basically an excuse to re-use footage from other films though, and it doesnt make much sense anyways. Overall its still better than Slave of the Cannibal God and less boring than Cannibal Ferox. If you enjoyed Trap Them & Kill Them (Emanuelle & The Last Cannibals) you probably would enjoy Eaten Alive!

Next to "Cannibal Holocaust" and "Make Them Die Slowly" Umberto Lenzi´s "Eaten Alive" is one of the greatest cannibal-movies ever brought on the screen! The film itself is a nice mixture between jungle-adventure and gut-wrenching horror, although the man-eaters are only a minor matter this time. Nevertheless director Umberto Lenzi has featured once more a dozen scenes of gore and brutal rape! The genre-typical animal-snuff is also not missing, however the killing has got a more documentary-character and is not as disgusting as it was in "Cannibal Holocaust". The cast: Robert Kerman and Me Me Lai seem to appear in every decent cannibal-flick, Swedish Janet Agren is marvelous and her acting isn´t as bad as often said (I even liked her better than in Fulci´s "City of the Living Dead"..!). Hollywood-star Mel Ferrer, who also had a stunning appearance in Lenzi´s "Nightmare City" is in, Paolo Senatore ("Emanuelle in America") plays the role of the lost sister, but the greatest part goes to Ivan Rassimov who´s giving a hilarious performance as perverted sect-guru! With "Mangiati Vivi" another well-made exploitation-flick was done, which is still an undisputed classic for its genre!!!