Despite coming saddled with a title that I’ve never been accurately able to pronounce, Anthropophagous (also known among other things as The Grim Reaper), comes with a fair amount of notoriety thanks to it making the infamous Videos Nasties list in the UK during the early 80s. However, while old, puritanical English biddies pulled out their blue rinse hair at the thought of a generation getting warped by a spot of gut crunching and foetus eating, the real threat to viewers was surprisingly a good chance of dying of boredom as notorious Italian sleeze meister Joe D’Amato crams in an awful lot of wandering between the epic acts of bloodletting.
Still, surely the sight of big George Eastman as a sunburnt cannibal and the picturesque setting of its Greek setting is enough to carry the film despite it being possibly one of the slowest slasher movies I have ever seen, right?
So is Anthropophagous ultimately a cannibal, or a Can’t-ibal? Time to hop on a boat to Greece and find out.
After getting a taster of what lay in store after a couple of German tourists are slaughtered after visiting a remote, Greek, island, we’re introduced to a gaggle of five indentit-kit tourists who are hoping to tour the various islands by boat. While the three guys are virtually indistinguishable from one another (one wants to be a doctor, I think…), the women are easier to tell apart because one it’s pregnant and the other does tarot cards, bur before their holiday can get fully underway, they’re joined by a sixth person in the shape of Julie.
Julie is hoping to meet up with her friends who are on the island where that German couple bought the farm and convinces her new buddies to sail round that way. However, upon arriving, the pregnant member of their group, Maggie twists her ankle and has to remain in the boat while the rest of the group explore. However, while we ponder how a woman can be so lame as to turn her ankle in a slasher movie before the killer has even shown up, the mystery assailant gets to work, removing the head of the boat’s owner and making off with Maggie for possibly nefarious reasons.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group find that the island, while dotted with plenty of houses and buildings, is utterly deserted aside from a few rotten dead bodies and the sight of a strange woman in black wandering the streets. On top of this, they manage to stumble upon the blind daughter of Julie’s friends who attacks them with a knife and claims there’s a madman stalking the island who smells of blood.
This proves to be Klaus Wortman, a man driven terrifyingly insane by a traumatic incident involving a shipwreck, his family and an inconveniently placed knife and he’s been roaming the island killing and feasting on anyone he can lay his hands on. Can the survivors find the guts to beat him, or will he just simply remove them himself and stuff his face with them?
So as you gathered from the rather sardonic tone of my opening, Anthropophagous isn’t exactly sitting on the top of the pile when it comes to influential Italian horror trash and the main reason seems to be that director Joe D’Amato (also responsible for the spiritual sequel Absurd, goofy Conan clone Ator: The Fighting Eagle and Emanuelle And The Last Cannibals) has almost next to no idea how to pace a slasher movie. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love slow and brooding as much as the next guy – unless the next guy is a Monster swigging speed freak – but the characters here do as much random wandering in a single film than the Scooby Gang managed during their entire careers. It’s a shame, because the set up is actually fantastically simple enough that it should be effective as Hell as the notion of being stuck on a remote island as you’re being hunted by a crusty flesh eater is a fucking great one. Better yet, the abandoned little town by the sea we visit evokes such Lovecraftian tales as Shadow Over Innsmouth and the sight of a bug-eyed, leering George Eastman with sun-seared skin and upsetting dental work proves to be a genuinely alarming image.
It’s just a shame then that NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENS for the vast majority for the running time as our mostly interchangeable leads wander aimlessly while doing a multitude of highly illogical things. However, while illogical proves to usually be the enjoyable middle name of 80s Italian splatter flicks, D’Amato can’t quite nail the frenzied dream logic of such peers as Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci or Michele Soavi – in fact, I get the sneaking suspicion that Fulci in particular would have knocked this particular of lurid pulp clean out of the arena – especially if it meant tormenting his former Zombie Flesh Eaters star, Tisa Farrow, once again.
That’s right, Mia Farrow’s less famous sister once again throws her pallid features into the realm of the Italian gore flick and proves to be every bit pale and pained looking as she was in Fulci’s epic – but at least her earlier role gave her a bit more to do than just wander aimlessly (well, a little more) and here she just gets lost in the shuffle and succumbs to the odd, strange subplot. Quite why the tarot obsessed Carol suddenly feels the need to suffer a pang of random jealousy and locks Julie in a crypt I have no idea, but it certainly doesn’t add anything to the plot.
However, Anthropophagous had to have been targeted by the Video Nasties list for a reason and while the snatches of iconic gore that got it put there may actually seem rather quaint these days, back in 1980 it was considered somewhat more ghastly. Of course, there’s the numerous usual stabbings, slicings and choppings that come as standard with your average slasher pic, but the sight of Eastman’s towering ghoul slicing open a mum to be and taking a bite out of her unborn baby certainly isn’t one to be sniffed at. However, while Klaus chowing down on some literal babyback ribs may sound the movie’s pèice de résistance, but the final scene manages to top it with the cannibal killer having his stomach ripped open with a pickaxe, but instead of just simply dying, he instead starts feasting on his own guts while mataining eye contact with the leads – now that’s what I call dedication to the bit.
Elsewhere, D’Amato manages to stage a couple of decent sequences that prove to be pretty effective. The moment when the blind girl suddenly emerges from inside a barrel soaking in blood and stabs one of the holiday makers in the back is a great one, as is the moment when someone closes a door to a room to reveal Eastman standing behind it illuminated by a conveniently timed flash of lightning is a massively effective reveal for the monster. However, if D’Amato had kept this stylish streak going, Anthropophagous might have had more artistic merit under its belt than just some impressive gut munching, but as it stands, Anthropophagous could use more brains to go with its exposed entrails…
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