Review of Anthropophagous (1980) by Robin W — 29 Mar 2009

This horror film has developed a bit of a cult reputation and lot of notoriety for some horribly graphic gore scenes that include a cannibal killer eating a fetus, and pulling out and eating his own intestines after he's been stabbed; unfortunately, the heavily cut print I watched was missing these moments, but from all accounts, the ultra-gory scenes are very brief and hardly make up for the hour-and-a-half of boredom that surrounds them.

A huge chunk of this movies is nothing more than the characters aimlessly wandering around, which I guess is supposed to build up suspense, but mostly just feels like padding the film and filling time; even worse, the plot contains quite a few loose ends and undeveloped plot threads, like this mysterious woman who keeps popping up on the deserted island, and then randomly commits suicide before the movie bothers to explain who she is! Director Joe D'Amato delivers the odd clever moment (like a false scare where a cat actually leaps onto a piano in order to create the music cue), but mostly just shows why he would soon abandon horror movies and finish out his career directing porn.