Eaten Alive!

The film begins in Canada and New York, with an Asian hitman killing his victims by blowing poisoned darts at them. He is then run over by a truck and killed. The police find some film on him, and wouldn't you know, the film contains scenes of a cannibal ritual, which includes a woman named Sheila's(Janet Agren) missing sister. A professor tells Sheila that the ritual is from a tribe in New Guinea, so she travels there and finds Vietnam war veteran Mark Butler (cannibal film regular Robert Kerman) and pays him to find her sister.

The film then goes off into the usual cannibal film thing. The odd animal is killed, they find parts of bodies etc. It turns out that her missing sister is part of a religious community in the jungle lead by a character named Jonas. He brainwashes all his followers, and has strict rules, like no drinking of alcohol. The version I watched was sadly cut, and some gory scenes that were about to be shown then quickly jumped to another scene. The music deserves mention too, a catchy tune plays during the opening credits. The other music during the film is ok. It's not nearly as good as Cannibal Holocaust, or even Lenzi's other cannibal flick Ferox, but if you like cannibal films it's worth checking out.

'Eaten Alive' is a profoundly stupid movie, but despite that, or more accurately, BECAUSE of that it's extremely entertaining trash. It rehashes plot elements (and even footage) from previous Italian cannibal movies and adds a Jim Jones-ish death cult in for good measure. Italian exploitation star Ivan Rassimov plays Jonas, the cult leader, Janet Agren (Fulci's 'City Of The Living Dead') the sister of a missing woman, and Robert Kerman (Deodato's infamous 'Cannibal Holocaust') the man hired to find her. The cast also includes Paola Senatore and Mei Mei Lai, both favourites with cult/sleaze buffs. The version of 'Eaten Alive' I watched was the British cut which has most of the more infamous scenes censored or completely removed. I really don't know if this was a good or a bad thing. I believe most of this stuff was recycled from earlier Lenzi films or "borrowed" from my fave cannibal movie 'Mountain Of The Cannibal God', so if you're familiar with this genre you've probably seen it all before already. Anyway, most people run away screaming from this kinda stuff, but if you're into movies like this you'll find much to enjoy here. Neither the best nor the worst cannibal movie, but definitely worth a look.

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.

If you've never seen an Italian cannibal flick before, Umberto Lenzi's Eaten Alive might seem like the perfect slice of bloody exploitation, packed as it is with lashings of gore, sex and general nastiness. However, anyone au fait with the genre will identify many of the film's gory highlights as being stolen from earlier movies by Lenzi's contemporaries Ruggero Deodato and Sergio Martino. This is a shame, since the story has loads of potential and could have been developed nicely without resorting to pilfering footage.

Sheila, a rich young heiress from Alabama, is searching for her sister Diana, who has gone missing. When she discovers that Diana has been brainwashed by Jonas, a Jim Jones-style cult leader, and is living in a compound in the jungles of New Guinea, she enlists the help of Vietnam veteran Mark and ventures into the New Guinea wilderness on a rescue mission. But freeing Diana is a tougher job than it at first seems: the cultists will not let her go without a fight and the surrounding area is inhabited by cannibals. Only with the help of native woman Mowara can they hope to escape.

In addition to the gore, Lenzi packs his film with plenty of nudity from his female stars and includes some entertaining and gratuitous sex scenes: Mowara (Me Me Lai) is gang-banged amidst her recently deceased husband's ashes and spends most of her time topless; Janet Agren, who plays Sheila, is defiled by Jonas wielding a blood coated dildo; and Diana (Paola Senatore) gets it doggy-style from a randy cannibal.

Eaten Alive is a glorious exercise in bad taste and exploitation that would have got a higher rating from me had all of the footage been original.

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!!!