Review of Eaten Alive (1976) by Justin A — 04 Oct 2015

It's a big letdown for fans expecting something like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. While it has a similar kind of premise (unsuspecting victims come across a backwoods, southern maniac) the movie has none of the style that made The Texas Chainsaw Massacre a classic.

I think the biggest problem is that probably 90% of the film takes place on an obvious set. While the red mood lighting is nice, the problem is it feels too clean compared to Chainsaw which was such a gritty film.

It feels like Tobe Hooper went with whatever would be a much easier filming experience and it dulls the movie. As far as I could tell, there were no real alligators shown in the movie (which would have helped) and the sets make it feel more like a soap opera than a horror movie.

There's nothing wrong with shooting a film like that, but something like this that could have used alligator stock footage and them going out in the woods at night to film would have boosted this movie tremendously.

Not to mention there are so many characters that share the screen time, making it nearly impossible to get attached to any one single character. It's not a complete mess, but it's a big disappointment as a followup.