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Anthropophagus:
The Grim Reaper
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Italy
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1980
Directed by Joe D'Amato
Starring
Tisa Farrow
George Eastman
Zora Kerova
Color |
90 Minutes |
Not Rated
Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC |
2-disc set)
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Guest
Review by Troy
Howarth |
An
idyllic island cruise turns nightmarish thanks
to a deranged cannibal (George Eastman)...
Thanks
to two set-pieces of audacious tastelessness,
Anthropophagus (AKA
The Grim Reaper) has developed into a cult
classic among EuroCultists. It's a good thing
director Joe D'Amato (AKA Aristide Massaccessi,
formerly a talented cinematographer) opted to
go for full-out nasty during those two sequences,
because otherwise Anthropophagus
is a rather tepid affair.
The
screenplay by Massaccessi and actor George Eastman
(AKA Luigi Montefiori, The
New Barbarians) offers a pretty basic setup:
tourists find themselves at the mercy of a deranged
cannibal, who proceeds to pick off the cast one
by bloody one. It's a decent, if somewhat uninspired
setup, but nevertheless one that one could imagine
one of the stronger Italian horror directors making
something memorable from —
say, Lucio Fulci or Sergio Martino. In Massaccessi's
hands, however, it takes forever for the film
to get going. The first two thirds are basically
comprised of tedious footage of the characters
wandering around being bitchy to one another.
With its flat characterizations and slack pacing,
the film doesn't begin to make any kind of an
impression until the final section. Here Massaccessi's
direction finally feels engaged and lively —
he manages to create some palpable tension as
the mutated cannibal stalks his victims through
an abandoned villa, culminating in two explicitly
gory sequences that see Massaccessi thumbing his
nose at the very notion of 'good taste'. The enthusiastic
carnage almost makes the film worthwhile, but
on the whole it remains flat and functional, lacking
the sheer style of the best Italian horrors of
the period.
The cast doesn't help matters.
Tisa Farrow, the lesser-known sister of Mia Farrow,
managed to give a competent performance for Lucio
Fulci in the preceding year's Zombie,
but here she walks about as if in a chemically-induced
haze. The final section suffers in part due to
her dire attempts to convey panic and fear, and
her interactions with the other actors don't exactly
set the screen on fire, either. The imposing character
actor George Eastman had previously given impressive
performances for Federico Fellini and Mario Bava,
in Fellini Satyricon
(1969) and Rabid Dogs
(1974) respectively, but the fact that this is
known as his signature performance is somewhat
baffling. Eastman is a naturally imposing presence
— tall and powerfully built — but he has very
little to do here, apart from skulking around
in a sub-par makeup job. He performs capably enough,
especially when compared to the rest of the cast,
but don't look for any subtlety or character shading.
A young Serena Grandi — later an impressively
buxom beauty who toplined such films as Lamberto
Bava's Photos Of Delirium
(1986) — makes an early appearance, and Fulci
fans will recognize Zora Kerova as the live sex
performer who has a grisly meeting with a broken
bottle in The New York Ripper
(1982).
Technical
credits are on the same level of mediocrity. Despite
Massaccessi's good track record as a cinematographer,
the film looks cheap and rushed in its execution.
The lighting and camerawork are competent, nothing
more. The music score by Marcello Giombini (who
contributed a lively Morricone-esque soundtrack
for Mario Bava's Savage
Gringo, 1965) is repetitious synth fodder.
Makeup effects range from the amateurish to the
appropriately shocking —
the 'celebrated' highlights work very well indeed,
though some other effects look more than a little
phony.
Two-thirds
of a bad film coupled with one-third of a decent
one, Anthropophagus
isn't entirely deserving of its cult popularity
but neither is it among the worst of the Italian
horrors of the early '80s.
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Media Blasters' edition
of Anthropophagus,
through their Shriek Show label, is one of their
best releases to date; there are no technical
bugs or flubs to report. The 1.66/16x9 transfer
looks as good as one could hope for —
Massaccessi reportedly shot the film in 16mm,
blowing the image up to 35mm for theatrical exhibition,
and the rough look of the film validates this
claim. Grain is apparent, but this is due to the
35mm conversion, not the transfer. Colors look
accurately rendered, and print damage is limited
to some minor speckling and scratching —
understandable in a low budget film of this period.
Audio options include Italian and English tracks,
both in mono. Neither track sounds all that great,
and though limitations are to be expected in post-synched
movies, Shriek Show could likely have done a better
job in this one area . The English dubbing is
passable, though none of the performers provide
their own voices, but both tracks sound a bit
soft and muffled. The removable English subtitles
for the Italian track are clear and easy to read.
Extras, spread across the two discs, include a
number of trailers (for the film and other MB/SS
releases), a
poster/still gallery, an alternate U.S.
title sequence, and part
two of a lengthy documentary on Massaccessi produced
by Nocturna. (The first part of this was previously
issued as a bonus feature with Shriek Show's Images
In A Convent DVD.) The
doc is somewhat disappointing, containing some
good interview segments with Massaccessi and collaborators
like Eastman and Pier Luigi Conti, but burdened
by way too many lengthy film clips. More satisfying
is a brief 2005 Q&A
session with Eastman and Zora Kerova, talking
to a festival crowd about the film and its notorious
director; Kerova takes some time to talk, with
surprising affection, about Lucio Fulci, while
Eastman confesses that he's never been very fond
of Anthropophagus.
You
can also look for a couple of hidden Easter Eggs;
there's at least one on each disc.
2/21/06
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