Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Anthropophagus – 1980 – aka The Grim Reaper

     Welcome, ladies and gentlemen (and anyone else) to the wonderful world of Italian horror. The only country that can rival Japan for rotten dubbing. And gory movies. Before there were Guinea Pig movies, Italy was there with such classics as Zombi, Cannibal Holocaust, and this movie. These are the classics in the crowded field of gross-out Italian movie genre. But make sure that you see the new release (from Shriek Show that was released in February), not The Grim Reaper DVD Ltd release from 1998. It’s the cut version, which means you miss all the infamous scenes.

This movie features such classic scenes as the ol’ head in a bucket trick. Try to imagine pulling a bucket of water up from the ocean into a boat, without looking in it, so that when you put your foot in it, your foot lands on your friends face.

Another classic scene you will hear about is the infamous ripping out the fetus and eating it scene that has been cut out of all previous American releases. Can’t say you’ve seen everything until you see a psycho reach into a screaming pregnant woman, and pull out a bunny (according to the Interviews) and pretend to chow down.

Finally, what better for a climax than to have the bad guy disembowled, and he starts to munch out on his own guts. If you are a gorehound, this is a shining moment in cinema.

This is a two disc set, with the first disc containing just the movie (Italian and English soundtracks, with subtitles). The second disc had a great documentary about the director Joe D’ Amato (this is the name he’s listed under in IMDB, but his real name is indeed Aristide Massaccesi). He has 262 movie credits under his name (amazing!). He was so active, clear up to the day he died (in 1999) that he has 3 director credits in years following his death. Of course, over half of them are porn. He was very casual in the interviews about the fact that he made porn, and used that money to finance other movies. A shining example of what you can do with a little (some would say very little) talent and the will to succeed.

Four out of five beers. If you want to experience the fringe of horror, you gotta see this one.