Also Known As: Anthropophagous: The Beast (UK), (video title) Anthropophagus: The Grim Reaper (USA) (DVD box title), Antropofago (Italy) Man Beast, The Grim Reaper (USA) (censored version), The Savage Island The Zombie's Rage (USA) (reissue title)
I first heard of this film under its alternate title, THE GRIM REAPER in a book by Joe Bob Briggs when I was a teenager. The book was a collection of Briggs' reviews for "drive-in movies" and this one stood out from the rest because of one scene in particular that Briggs went into full detail about--a scene where a fetus is ripped from a womb and eaten--now that's a grabber for any growing gorehound. It seemed that ANTHROPOPHAGUS gained notoriety from that one scene--and the fact that it was one of the U.K.'s infamous 'video nasties' in the 80's. THE GRIM REAPER on VHS was hard to find and featured all the great gore cut out--so I waited patiently for the uncut version to finally make it to the states. Finally the film has seen the light of day and I was able to enjoy it in all it's baby munching glory and it was worth the wait. Not sure why I've waited this long to review it, but here it goes.
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A group of tourists get stranded on a Greek island where all the townsfolk have mysteriously disappeared. A woman named Julie (Tisa Farrow from Fulci's ZOMBI 2) tags along with the group to meet up with some friends who were already on the island (we see them get killed in the opening scene). Also in the group is a couple--the woman is pregnant and pretty far along and another couple who are not really a "couple"--the guy is a cocky, guitar playing douche bag and the woman is a tarot card reading spaz. Then there's the studly guy and the boat captain. When they arrive on the island the pregnant woman hurts her foot and stays on the boat with the captain (what kind of husband leaves his hurt and pregnant wife?), while the group go off to find Julie's friends and explore. Soon 'something' kills the captain and drags the pregnant chick off somewhere (all with great POV shots through the killer's eyes). When the group go into the town they find it deserted, all but a mysterious woman looking at them from a window. They try and find her to no avail. When they go back to the boat they find it out to sea and assume the captain saw the storm clouds and took the boat away from the dock--hold the phone! Does that make any sense? Whatever, I'll let that one slide.
The group shack up for the night in Julie's friends place and soon the storm knocks out the power and leaves everybody in the dark--let the creepiness begin. Julie and the cocky guy (he looks like a long lost Gibb brother) stumble across one of Julie's friends who was hiding and accidentally stabs Sir Douche, but only cuts him (damn!). The girl is blind so she can't say what the killer looks like but she can smell him when he is near because he smells like...blood! WhoOoOoOooooo!
Up until this point the film drags but still manages to build suspense. First, you want to know the story behind the killer and second, what happened to all the townsfolk? These things are never quite spelled out to my satisfaction, but there are enough clues dropped to make your own conclusions. I've read many reviews and none that I read touch on what I perceived.
***WARNING - SPOILERS...Kind of***
ANTHROPOPHAGUS and BEYOND THE DARKNESS are, in my humble opinion, Joe D'Amato's two best films--even more than his EMANUELLE flicks (of which I enjoy as well). Like Jess Franco, D'Amato made a lot of crap, but makes up for it with great cinematography and (usually) great scores. It's all about style over substance with Eurosleaze directors and that's also what turns a lot of people off from their films, ANTHROPOPHAGUS, I feel, truly holds up as a great horror film, no matter what side of the pond you're on.
A misconception about the film is that it's a gorefest--it's not. The fetus eating stories probably built that rep', but while there are a few well done shots of grue, it's pretty tame in the gore department. Even THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE built a reputation of being gory with all the talks of chainsaw killings and people being hung on meat-hooks, even though most of the bloodshed is off camera. I once knew someone that said TCM was the goriest movie they'd ever seen...I don't talk to that person anymore.
With ANTHROPOPHAGUS, D'Amato was truly trying to make a genuine horror film, with no other intention but to shock you and maybe get your girlfriend to snuggle up close at the drive-in and maybe get you laid--and like most Italian directors in the late 70's/early 80's, put some cash in his pocket.
Okay so here's my theory. George Eastman's character, Nikos Karamanlis was a wealthy sea-man, all we know is that he was ship wrecked near the island, he went mad and ate his wife and son. Does this really explain why he's the way he is? Not really. The townsfolk are all missing but towards the end of the film, the pregnant chick's husband stumbles across a cave which has an iron gate and tons of corpses all over the place in various forms of decay--in make-shift cots in the walls of the cave. If you look, you'll see there are signs up in the cave that are written in Greek, but look like medical signs like you may see in a hospital. What I think is, there was a plague on the island and a bunch of the people were quarantined to the mountain cave. Karamanlis probably took his family out to sea to escape the plague only to get shipwrecked. He eventually made his way back to the island and went mad with the hunger for flesh--possibly brought on by the mysterious plague? Karamanlis's sister was probably also infected, which would explain the rumors of her madness. Then again, Julie says she read about Karamanlis's shipwreck in a newspaper so wouldn't the plague have been reported--who knows, this is a Joe D'Amato movie after all. It's just a thought anyways.
***END OF...SPOILERS?***
Finally in the last half of the film, the killer is revealed and it's a tall creepy fucker (played by George Eastman) with a complexion worse than Edwards James Olmos! From here the film becomes your standard slasher flick ala HALLOWEEN or FRIDAY THE 13TH where the cast are stalked one by one and killed--only this is an Italian flick, so it's not exactly 'by the book'. There are some truly creepy scenes in the film and the film's finale is worth sitting through to get to.
Anthropophagus trailer