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Umberto Lenzi's Eaten Alive
This one begins in Niagara Falls and New York City with a lone young foreign guy stalking random individuals, waiting for the right moments, before blowing poison darts at them through a straw, killing them instantly, only to end up getting run over and killed by a truck when attempting to escape the police on foot on the streets of New York City. The guy turns out to be from a would be cult who believes to be finding salvation by returning to nature out in the heart of a Far Eastern jungle under a man named Jonas, who previously fled NYC when wanted on different counts of different charges. It also turns a lady's missing sister is now a part of that cult, and went to the jungle with them. The lady travels to that part of the country, meets up with a trained fighter and survivalist as they attempt to find her sister and where this cult, and especially Jonas, currently are. This one really goes all out with the old school done right artsy and gory extreme classic horror. It has a graphic scene of a large and long anaconda catching and devouring a wild monkey, another graphic scene of another anaconda catching and devouring another not so large snake, and a canoe with people being attacked by large alligators. That last one had three survivors, only because one had a gun, using most of his bullets to shoot and kill of the alligators, but they then had to fight off and outrun different groups of different cannibals in order to avoid getting killed after that. There are also plenty of graphic scenes with the cannibals catching other people before cutting off body parts, then eating the raw body parts while sucking the fresh blood at the same time. This one is definitely a lot more extreme than the average horror film, and is not for the faint of heart. It is overall well done with everything looking real, well developed characters, good plot, and story line. There is also good drama and dialogue, developing most of the main characters, along with plenty of great scenery and good background. Those into Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Mario Bava, Roman Polanski, and the like would most likely enjoy the cult classics from this director like this one, "Eyeball," and "The Rat, The Fist, and The Cynic."
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I watched this yesterday and while I know I've commented on it before, think it's good enough to pass on more love. I think for the low budget He had, Director Sole does a first rate job here and feel this is one creepy film and certainly a damning view on organized religion. Some truly shocking scenes and some truly odd characters, particularly the annoying Aunt and especially MR Alphonso! Got more appreciation while listening to the commentary and while searching the web, found more interesting trivia, such as Linda Miller (The Mom) was the daughter of Jackie Gleason and married to Jason Miller (THE EXORCIST) and Jason Patric (THE LOST BOYS) is their son. Paula Shepard, creepy as the possibly psychotic 12 year old was actually in college when she made this. Mr Alphonso in real life was a bouncer in a Gay Bar and used to hang around cemeteries dressed as a priest and after consoling a visitor, would accept a "Donation for the Church" and while it has nothing really to do with the film, the red haired Policewoman was the chatty waitress in FRIDAY, THE 13th. ****
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DRACULA AD 1972 (1972). An awful title (had heard DRACULA TODAY had been considered, which works better), DAD doesn't seem to get much love at all, moving from the Gothic milieu to noisy modern day life and there's a lot of conjecture that not having the Count interact in less inhibited/conformist times is a missed opportunity...perhaps.
I do know I really liked this back in Junior High when I saw it...Chris AND Peter together in a Dracula since in forever, Dracula has some good lines, a kick ass opening sequence, some decent blood and two of the smokinnest actresses at the time; Caroline Munro and Stephanie Beacham. Sure it was unintentional, but it appears that three of the men in the film are copping a cheap feel from SB (her Boyfriend trying to subdue her in the Cavern Club, Peter putting the Cross on her in the Church and Chris taking it off) or maybe it's just the goofy pre teen in Me While it still can't compare to the earlier triumphs, I enjoyed this quite a bit and remembered a Skywald magazine (PSYCHO-??) that had movie reviews and declared there there was no great anything in the film, but "...it's just ENTERTAINING. And in a world full of phony Boring movies, it makes for a delightful change of pace." *** |
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