Search - Anthropophagus - The Grim Reaper on DVD

CULT CLASSIC (MEDIA BLASTERS/SHRIEK SHOW "ANTHROPOPHAGUS" ED

Anton Ilinski | Moscow, Russia | 08/28/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Finally! "Grim reaper" edition was severely cut, japanize edition was very hard to get and it was rather expensive, latest german or italian editions had technical problems... Now we'll have it as it was supposed to be - and here at Amazon! And rather cheap! Amazing! I've been waiting for this moment for so many years!
Now "Anthropophagus" may not be a masterpiece but it has become a cult classic very long time ago. In the beginning of 80s violence on screen were measured by the standards of "Friday the 13th" and so on. And only Italian filmmakers seemed to dare making something utterly different. They brought gore to the extent when it was really nauseous. In "Anthropophagus" you can see two scenes (one of them is an infamous fetus-eating scene) that are truly disgusting. By the way they were cut from many previous releases of the film. But excepting gore and guts I can say the movie has a really horrific atmosphere - a dreamy one like in many italian horrors. Watching "Anthropophagus" you have a feeling of fear, irreversibility and death - very unpleasant feeling which appears even when everything seems to be calm on screen. I'm pretty confident this is the best work of Joe D'Amato who's known for making cheap exploitative flicks. If you have seen some of them, don't make up your mind about "Anthropophagus" - it's totally different.
If you're in for horror, if you like giallo and such names as Argento, Fulci, Lenzi, Deodato and Bava mean something to you - this movie is for you. I repeat it may not have a big cultural value but you MUST have it on your shelf if you call yourself a horror buff"

Cannibalism: The Other White Meat

Holly Apollyon | The Overlook Hotel | 06/06/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I like this movie. It's just so damned screwball. You just don't, all that often, see defeated cannibals eating their own guts in anthropophagic effigy. It's just not an everyday occurrence. I know what you're thinking. I've tried all the other options, but is cannibalism really right for me?

The movie is bottlenecked on an island that has mostly avoided the wiles of civilized (1980) technology. Apparently, by the time our intrepid cast arrives, the cannibal, Nikos, has assaulted nearly everyone with his anthropophagic fervor. However, a note of admonishment: Nikos is extremely wasteful, leaving whole corpses, mostly uneaten, to lie around and rot. This is an affront to all the starving cannibals in the world.

It takes a while for the horror to regenerate its presence after Nikos' initial slipshot murder of two non-related tourists at the beginning of the movie, but it gets there eventually. One by one, the cannibal stalks and kills his prey. Down they go, a bite here, a bite there. During the mausoleum/gobbled fetus scene, Nikos actually suffers a flashback to the impetus of his anthropophagic transformation. Stranded at sea on a tiny inflatable raft with his voluptuous wife, he contemplates using his dead son as sustenance and the wife, so repulsed by the idea, throws herself onto Nikos' knife, demanding that he cannibalize her instead. Utilizing Nikos as an anthropophagic archetype, cannibalism will impart to its host the following: hair loss, rugose forehead, superhuman strength and endurance. (Consult your physician immediately if you experience nausea, constipation, dizziness, ocular bleeding or sleeplessness.)

Finally, Nikos meets his demise at the business end of a rusty mattock. Humbled by the blow, he slumps to his knees, then matter-of-factly loops his raw pink intestines through the grievous wound, and eats them with vigorous anthropophagic contempt. Cut and print! Look for Nikos' triumphant return in Anthropophagus 2: Electric Boogaloo, where he has to use his anthropophagic skills to save to local rec center when an evil tycoon threatens to replace it with a vegetarian farmer's market.
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Why Buy?

Sean Holland | Hog City | 03/25/2002

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Why would anyone even buy this knowing it's the [terrible], heavily-edited version? This makes me sick. All this talk about "freedom" and a silly 80's horror movie cannot even be viewed by adults. When the un-cut version becomes available, then I'll give 5 stars and purchase."

Eat Your Heart Out

The Black Swan | In The Highlands | 03/28/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Joe D'Amato's masterpiece Anthropophagus is both one of the finest and the least appreciated of the Italian Horror Golden Age. D'Amato had already established himself as the master of raw gore in Blue Holocaust (aka Beyond the Darkness aka Buried Alive), and the snuff movie footage in Emmanuelle in America (the inspiration for Videodrome). In his entry into the slasher genre, he enriches Anthropophagus with a steady build-up of layered atmosphere until he has recreated the old dark castle effect of the classic Universal monster movies of the 30s. Then he lets the blood flood. Released butchered in the states as Grim Reaper, this version is uncut and contains the films two highmarks: the scene where a fetus is pulled out of a pregnant woman and eaten, as well as the pull out your fingernails climax where cannibalism is taken to it's most extreme. Most haunting is the flashback explaining where the flesheater came from, it makes your stomach drop. This movie establishes D'Amato in the ranks of Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci as one of the masters of the spagetti nightmare."