Directed by Tobe Hopper
w/ Neville brand
Carolyn Jones
Robert Englund
Stuart Whitman
Marilyn Burns
Roberta Collins
William Finley
Very loosley based on the crimes of nut job Joe Bell,a salon keeper who killed folks and feed them to his pet gators,Hooper tries to repeat his sucsess of the classic TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE.
Trys. Don't get me wrong-I like this film alot!But TCM is a hard act to follow. I think the main reason is because (at least to horror/exploitation fans) that the cast is so recognizable. Much of the sucsess of TCM was it's use of unknowns in the lead roles-hell-all the roles! But
Nevertheless, EATEN ALIVE is a classick on it's own merits.
Neville Brand,who's been playing killers and psychos since way back in 1950 with D.O.A, is Judd-the loony toon sexually repressed owner of a run down hotel in the backwaters of Buttf**k,Egypt. he has a tendency to go apes**t whenever someone shows up he thinks is '' dirty''. So what happens? Some of the ugliest people you will ever see show up. Among them a hooker, a pervert and a screeching husband with his wife and kid. Robert Englund is the perv,who,with one of Carolyn Jones call girls,raise his ire and push him of into the deep end.So he goes around whacking folks with his scythe (some people call it a sling blade
), and feeding them to his conveinant alligator.
The whole feel of the film is like an EC horror comic come to life. The people are blown out of porportion carictures,the atmosphere is calaustraphobic and scummy,and the bad guys get theirs in the end.
And a good time is had by all in the audiance.
