Anthropophagus – The Grim Reaper
Manufacturer : Shriek Show
Rating : 2.5
Reviews : 48
Price :
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Studio: Media Blasters Inc. Release Date: 12/13/2005
Manufacturer : Shriek Show
Rating : 2.5
Reviews : 48
Price :
Order Now
Manufacturer : Shriek Show
Rating : 2.5
Reviews : 48
Price :
Order Now
5 Comments
Cheesy Italian gore movies, you’ve seen one, you’ve pretty much seen them all. Anthropophagus -The Grim Reaper isn’t much of an exception. Hell, it even stars Tisa Farrow of Lucio Fulci’s Zombie.
The story begins as a group of traveling friends agree to give a stranger a lift to a remote island. Once on shore, they find themselves stranded on the deserted island being stalked by a cannibalistic cast away.
That’s about it for this one. I wasn’t expecting much out of Anthropophagus, but I must say that I am surprised at the lack of gore here, especially considering this movie’s incusion in the UK’s video nasties list. It certainly has it’s moments, but with the special effects as poorly done as they are, it’s hard to take anything in this movie too seriously. There are a few sparse moments where the busy synthesizer score and cinematography begin to stir up a nice eerie atmosphere, but it never quite comes together to create an effective whole.
In the end, Anthropophagus – The Grim Reaper is just another dull flick in the slasher mold that relies completely on a couple lack luster gore scenes just to boost it to the z-grade status it resides in. And people call this stuff classic? I shudder to think what they would call bad.
This movie is great.
The antagonist wastes no time at all, he just goes right up to people and starts chowing away.
Also, the whole vibe is great, you know, grainy film quality, totally muffled voiceovers, eerie 70’s-style music. Its a must have for any cheap horror fan.
It gets very suspenseful at times, and some scenes are really shocking.
Gore fans need apply too.
Its just a really good, creepy, scary film in general.
I remember seen this this movie with friends in Chicago when it was first released. It’s one of the movies that still scares me! It builds suspense and the blood, guts, cannibalism, etc. are one of the most graphic ever filmed! NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!
I’m the type of person that like my films to be cheap, nasty and quite often Italian. Anthropophagus was exactly what I was looking for cause it fit that description perfectly, Anthropophagus a.k.a. The Grim Reaper was a cheap Italian gore/shock film that was made during the early 80’s and in my opinion was a great and disturbing classic Italian horror film, it was directed by Joe D’Amato who was king of the sleaze, the film was also banned in several countries including the U.K. and was included in the video nasties list for containing scenes of extreme violence and gore, what they basically couldn’t handle was the scene where the main villain/cannibal grabs a fetus from a pregnant woman and starts devouring it infront of her husband (yes very nice!) and another scene involving a disembowelment, this dvd from Shriek Show is completely uncut so both scenes that were cut from previous editions are featured in here. While the film’s storyline might be lacking a decent plot and has some bad acting it still manages to create quite an effective feeling of dread and suspense throughout, not exactly like Fulci’s films but pretty close. The story was about a couple of tourists who travel to a Greek island which they find deserted at their arrival, With no working electricity they take refuge in a big house where strange things begin to occur. Eventually a zombie-like madman played by George Eastman appears and has an appetite for human flesh, it quickly becomes clear that something evil is about to happen. George Eastman was great as the main cannibal with bad skin condition, possibly due to dehydration? not sure but he looked very menacing and creepy. Tisa Farrow also stars in this film and some Italian horror fans might recognise her from Lucio Fulci’s Zombie 2, she was O.K. as the heroine and did a decent job but the rest of the cast were very wooden and forgettable. The problem with the film is that after the great and suspenseful opening sequence (that was reminiscent of Jaws) was over the film just dragged along for the first half and was kind of boring as characters started walking around dark hallways for what seems like an eternity but if you’re patient then you would be surprised by the great second half which shows one graphic gore scene after the next and the pace picks up quickly after that. Anthropophagus is presented here in an anamorphic transfer, framed at about 1.78:1. For a film that was originally shot on 16mm and blown up to 35mm the transfer looks quite good, the only problem I had with this dvd is that the audio sounded hollow so you’ll probably have to turn up the volume to hear the dialogue better, you can also choose to watch either the original Italian film with subtitles or the dubbed version. The extras on the first disc include three trailers for the film all under different titles and basically the same in content. A fourth trailer is a short promo from Monterey Home Video when they released it as THE GRIM REAPER on VHS back in the 1980s. Trailers for four other Shriek Show releases round out the extras on the first disc and on disc 2 there is a lengthy Italian-made documentary called Joe D’Amato Totally Uncut 2and has Joe having a lengthy chat about his career. He made everything from cheap gore flicks to cannibal films to hardcore porn and sci/fi, there are also a bunch of interviews with the cast and crew, you also have alternate rescored GRIM REAPER U.S. opening credits as well as different opening credits under the title “The Savage Island.” A still gallery is also included and a hidden feature on the extras menu will unveil a video clip of director Sergio Garrone giving his fond impressions of D’Amato who worked for him as a camera operator in the 1960s. A section of trailers for “Fangoria International” DVD releases will lead you to another hidden feature: a cluster of D’Amato trailers which include Death Smiles on a Murderer (as “Death Smiles at Murder”), Emmanuel and The Last Cannibals (as “Trap Them and Kill Them”) ect. Overall this was a fantastic Italian gore flick and Shriek Show did a great job restoring this film in all it’s glory and adding tons of extras, Anthropophagus is a cheap but effective little shocker that’s highly recommended to Italian horror fans enjoy!.
Straight to the point, this is an ok exploitation movie from Joe D’Amato. Not a bad idea, but the script remained poor. About the DVD edition, it is indeed the uncut version. Note that the lenght of this feature is about 90 min and not the 88 that is advertised on the DVD package. I recommnend selecting the Italian sound with the English subtitles so you will not appreciate the bad English dubbing and translation. The extras include an interesting documentary mostly about the non porno filmography of D’Amato that include enterviews to director Joe D’Amato and script writer and “actor” George Eastman. In both you will be able to appreciate some of the conflicting relationship between both. The enterview to D’Amato is particularly interesting as he comments about his adventure, horror and erotic films. He also talks about other Italian directors of the genre including Lucio Fulci and Michele Soavi, among others. In short, the material included in this 2-disk DVD release is probably good enough to please exploitation and D’Amato collectors.