Perfect cast and a good story

Boring

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

A typically lurid slice of exploitation from prolific director Joe D'Amato (who later teamed again with Eastman to make the entertaining ENDGAME), don't be lured into seeing this film on the strength of the cannibalism and gore. In fact, there is little gore in the entire film, although when it does arrive it is very extreme. For the most part, things are slow and extremely dull, without much action happening until we're well into the final third of the film. This makes it very hard to sit through, and it also reeks of cynical sleaze for sleaze's sake. Instead of being frightening, the film just turns out to be unpleasant, and laughable in places where it should be scary.Things start off well with one of those old machete-in-the-face shocks, but this is all the action we're going to get for an hour. We're then introduced to a bunch of young, dumb tourists who roam around a deserted island endlessly (think TOWER OF EVIL), finding a scrawl on a window reading "Go away" and generally doing very little. There are far too many scenes of people sitting around talking and even a pointless 'romantic' sub-plot. Yes, this is boring.Events pick up for the final half-an-hour, which to the film's credit actually does manage to have some creepy scenes. One shot of a man walking through a tunnel with a burning torch and discovering scattered skeletons while Gothic chords screech out on the soundtrack is near-perfect, and it's a shame that the rest of this film has been up to now so uneventful. From then on it's a series of murders, of the typical stabbing and throat-biting variety. Two gore scenes have made the first infamous; firstly, when the Beast eats a foetus (rumour has it to have been a rabbit), and then the climax, in which the monster's stomach is hacked open and he devours his own intestinal tract - although this proves to be unintentionally hilarious instead of disturbing.The acting from the young cast is of a low standard, and the dubbing is particularly bad at some moments, where absolutely no attempt has been made to tie the words and the lip movements together. Characters act in unbelievable ways, and indeed various actors and actresses become interchangeable. Tisa Farrow is the only one we really get to know, and she repeats her ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS role of an investigative woman who avoids being killed to end up as one of the survivors. George Eastman plays the baddie in some patently fake-looking papier-mache like lumpy makeup, and is menacing only because of his vast physical presence. If you're expecting excitement and action, then it would be wise to look elsewhere, as this is a very slow-moving and boring affair.

Big George 'Luigi' Eastman 'Montifori' wreaks havoc on a Greek Island in a film I'd only ever seen in severely cut form (under the title 'The Grim Reaper'). Is this film any good in it's unedited form? Well, I liked it.After two German tourists are murdered on a beach, we get to meet Tisa Farrow (of Zombie Flesh Eaters and The Last Hunter) who appears once again in an Italian gore film, this time getting a lift to a Greek Island from some holidaymakers, including a pregnant woman, her husband, some guy, his sister, and another guy and a sailor. The sister does tarot cards and doesn't like what she sees, and she doesn't like Tisa either because the guy she fancies keeps putting the moves on Tisa instead of her, even though due to the very blurred copy I watched both of them looked almost exactly the same.They all sail to the island and find it strangely deserted. The pregnant woman hurts her leg, and is soon kidnapped by someone who cuts of the sailor's head (and puts it in a bucket for safekeeping). The rest wander around town, catching fleeting glimpses of a mysterious woman and finding another survivor who keeps rambling on about how someone killed everyone on the island. Our poor victims gather in a house, wandering what to do, and how to get back to their ship, which is now adrift. Plus, a storm hits the island.I'll warn you now: Even though you get to see a couple of killings near the beginning, it's fifty one minutes before Big George puts in an appearance! What a sight he is though, all seven foot of him done up like some one man zombie army. Once he shows up, he tries to munch down on those who remain, but who will survive and will we get to see a certain character eat his own intestines (which was entirely cut out of the British print)? Although slow, and cheap, Anthropophagus neatly builds up the suspense so when Big George does appear he's really creepy and daunting. The whole empty island thing helps the film a lot (as it did in Island of Death and The Wind)…maybe folks should make more films set in Greece. And is it just me or does this whole premise rear it's head in Stephen King's Desperation? You know, the 'one person killing an entire town' thing?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this movie is disappointingly inconsistent. Like most Itallian horror films. The character development is pretty much null but that's not why I watch them. Italian horror films can be very stylish and take you on some memorable rides. The first half of this movie is unspeakably dull. We get a cornucopia amount of scenes with characters walking around and doing absolutely nothing of note on a deserted island. It just goes on, and on, and on to the point where I almost wanted to shut it off. The musical score is very weird, and unlike anything I've ever heard before. I will give credit to a few things. The second half piles on the suspense and some excellent atmosphere, but what the hell was Joe D'Amato going for before this? It really makes my head spin. The killer (Chillingly played by George Eastman) is one of the most frightening characters I've ever seen, and the scary thing is he's not technically a zombie, he's a cannibal! He just has an insatiable need to munch of people's body parts. It was really, really creepy. The gore scenes have given this movie its notoriety. We get a meat clever in the face, severed head in a bucket, a throat gets ripped out and blood gushes out all over the place. We also get nasty stabbings, an Axe in the stomach, and two of the nastiest scenes you'll ever see in a horror film. We get the famous fetus eating scene, and someone eating his own intestines! Those two scenes are the reason this has been labeled a video nasty. Wonderfully sick stuff! The acting isn't worth mentioning except for Tisa Farrow. She was the main female in Zombie as well. She did OK. Make sure you avoid The Grim Reaper at all costs! It cuts out the two main gore scenes. Final Thoughts: If it wasn't for the extremely boring first half, this would most likely be considered a classic horror film. The second half has a lot of memorable stuff in it that will stick with you. It's a pretty twisted movie that warrants a recommendation on its reputation alone. Just avoid The Grim Reaper, and prepare yourself for an agonizing first half…5/10

Antropophagus is the first Joe D'Amato film I have seen, having heard quite a bit about the director and his works. I was kinda excited to finally sit down and watch this, as I have heard a lot about it, and I am currently trying to watch all the video nasties so having got a hold of another one delighted me! Unfortunately this one, after getting to a promising start, descends into nothingness for too long, before finally getting to the gore in the last 20 minutes.The story is extraordinarily simple: a group of people arrive at an island to find it is totally abandoned. Unluckily for them, everyone is actually dead, and a deformed cannibal is running loose murdering and eating anyone he can. So, over the course of the night and the next day the group are one by one dispatched in gruesome ways.Now, the lack of an interesting plot does not annoy me, in fact, this movie COULD have been very good. The opening is quite promising, but most of the middle section of the film consists of the group wandering aimlessly around the island. These scenes drag on for way too long, and eventually become very annoying. There are some scenes here and there which are well shot and are full of atmosphere, with a sense of dread permeating the air. When the maniac is first revealed in the house, it is a pretty terrifying scene, and the build up is fantastic. Likewise, the chase at the end is fantastic and incredibly tense. It is moments like these which show that D'Amato has some skill as a director, but he does not know how to build tension and keep it for a long period of time and he just does not know how to keep a story going.For example, there is a subplot with a lady in black who we see stare out of a couple of windows. This is all though, the obvious mystery surrounding her and the murderer is not developed at all, leaving nothing at all. The acting and dialogue are god-awful, and there are numerous unintentionally funny scenes (like the awesome product placement segment on the boat, you will know it when you see it). However, the gore, when it comes around, is well done and suitably sick. There are two scenes in particular which have become rightly famous for being over the top and depraved.Overall, Antropophagus is not a bad movie, nor a good one. Despite the many poor qualities, the movie definitely has strengths which lift it above being poor. I would recommend it to people who are intent on seeing everything nasty, but with a warning that it is very slow.2½/5