Anthropophagous (1980)


One topic I haven't gone over yet is "video nasties".  These were a series of films that were banned in the UK in the 1980s by the British Board of Film Censorship, or BBFC.  Besides being brave enough to admit to what they were doing, unlike the MPAA, they didn't just put ratings on these movies to keep them out of the hands of children.  Rather, banned meant banned.  They were not allowed within the borders of the UK. 

Problem is with banning things is people get curious, so of course bootleg and smuggled VHS copies of these films were everywhere, despite being a crime to even have them.  As with all things that are labeled transgressive there is still an aura of legend and mystery around many of them, although most are far from nasty as well as far from worth watching.  Anthropophagous, however, at least earned some of its notoriety. 

Andy (Saverio Vallone) and his group of friends is about to go island hopping.  Julie (Tisa Farrow) overhears them and asks if she can come along as she's late getting to one remote island where she works as a caregiver for Rita (Margaret Mazzantini), the daughter of an English couple that have a home there.  The group agrees and they set sail, though Carol (Zora Kerova) starts having bad feelings that they should not go there.

When they arrive they find the island deserted except for one woman (Rubina Rey) who tries to warn them off.  As most of the group try to find some other inhabitants and a place to stay, pregnant Maggie (Serena Grandi) stays behind and is kidnaped by an unknown person.  When Julie finds Rita she finds her shellshocked.  It turns out a man on the island name Klaus Wortmann (George Eastman), who was a survivor of a shipwreck, has gone crazy and started killing and eating people, leading to most of the inhabitants fleeing.  The group finds themselves using what means they can to survive the madman. 

Anthropophagous is known for a couple of scenes and, truth be told, they do push the boundaries of most gore films.  They're not dwelt upon, and they're not that well-filmed, but they are enough to turn off the average viewer.  The movie is low budget so many of the kills are edited in a way so that the makeup effects can be shown without focusing on the action, but the money scenes are there in their full glory.

The problem is that the majority of the movie focuses on the characters walking.  They walk through the village, they walk through houses, they walk through the woods.  Occasionally they're calling out to other people, sometimes they're bickering.  Director Joe D'Amato may be trying to up the tension, but it doesn't work.  It takes up such a majority of the film that one is left wondering when anything is going to happen and, when it does, there is payoff.  Unfortunately, afterward, we are walking and talking again.

That is the way with many exploitation films and many of the video nasties.  Beyond a few scenes they are boring, featuring characters that never get developed properly either due to the script of the dubbing, and the dubbing is especially horrid on this one, more so than most Italian films.  So, if one is curious about Anthropophagous, they will find the scenes they are looking for.  It just takes too much time to get there, and by then it might be missed because they're asleep.

Anthropophagous (1980)
Time: 92 minutes
Starring: Tisa Farrow, Saverio Vallone, Serena Grandi, Zora Kerova, George Eastman
Director: Joe D'Amato

 

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