“Anthropophagous” (1980)
Studio: Filmirage
Starring: Tisa Farrow, Saverio Vallone, George Eastman, Zora Kerova
Directed by: Joe D’Amato
Rated: Unrated
Running Time: 88 min.
Synopsis: A group of tourist go to an island where it’s inhabited by a crazed maniac.
REVIEW
Chris Woods
First off, I have to say that this movie was horrible. For a film that is suppose to be very notorious in the likes of Cannibal Holocaust and I Spit on Your Grave, well it’s not. This film I read about for years and finally got to see it. What a big disappointment it was. I can’t believe they say this film is so shocking and has scenes you just can’t watch. Well, the whole movie you can’t watch, not because it’s so gross, but because it’s so boring.
The movie is about a group of young people, who go to an island for a summer getaway. When they get there the whole place is deserted. They take shelter in one of the group member’s friend’s house. It drags for a while until this crazed zombie-like dude kills one of them. Then there are more slow parts until towards the end and that is even not anything special.
The only good parts to this film are the creepy atmosphere that’s throughout the film. If only they had a good movie that would go good with that excellent atmosphere. The music is another highlight and the two scenes that are the most memorable and that give the film its overrated notoriety is the scene where the zombie guy rips out a fetus and eats it, which is shown very quickly. The scene is gross, I’ll give it that, but it’s a little cheesy and I had seen worse in other horror films. Then there’s the scene at the end where the guy eats his own guts while they’re still attached to him.
The film also includes some Italian horror movie vets in it like, Tisa Farrow from Zombi 2, Zora Kerova from Cannibal Ferox, and George Eastman that’s in a bunch of Joe D’Amato films. Another cool part about the film, which they are very few, is the opening to the film. It has a solid start where a couple on the beach is killed. The girl is killed by something in the water, and then whatever it is gets out of the water and kills the man with a cleaver to the head, then it’s downhill from there.
Antropophagus is a very overrated film in my opinion. I’m also not a big fan of D’Amato. Most of his films that I’ve seen I didn’t like and he’s not as good as the other Italian directors of that time. Like a lot of films that I wait a long time to see either deliver or not. Well, this one didn’t.