Eaten Alive! (1980)

You won't be disappointed!

Such a frustrating disappointment

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

What happens when you throw assassins in New York City, cannibals in the jungle and a Jim Jones-like cult leader into a big pot and set it to boil? You get Eaten Alive!Sheila (Janet Agren, City of the Living Dead, Hands of Steel) is searching for her sister, Diana (Paola Senatore, Emanuelle in America) who has disappeared in the jungle. She hires Mark (Robert Kerman, Cannibal Holocaust) to help her find her way through the jungle. Oh yeah - and there are killers in the city using blowdarts. That doesn't matter so much once we're in the jungle.When they find Diana - after being chased by cannibals - they learn that she has joined the cult of Jonas (Ivan Rassimov, everyone cheer when he shows up to make this movie awesome), who abuses, murders, manipulates and ********* everyone and anyone he gets close to. Seriously, the minute Jonas shows up, this film goes off the rails. First, he burns a man on a funeral pyre and ordering his wife Mowara (Me Me Lai, who thanks to appearances in this film, Last Cannibal World and Man from Deep River is pretty much to this genre as Edwich Fenech, Barbara Bouchet or Nieves Navaro are to giallo)to be ritually raped. Then, he hypnotizes Sheila and takes her on an altar using a snake phallus covered in venom and blood (yep, really). He pretty much owns everyone he can get his hands on, but Mowara, Sheila,Jonas preaches the Book of Isiah and pretty much owns everyone he can get his hands on, but Mowara, Sheila, Mark and Diana all attempt to escape. Diana and Mowara are overtaken by cannibals, with Diana graphically devoured while her sister and Mark watch helplessly. A helicopter arrives at the last minute to save them while the film goes into full exploitation mode, with the cult killing themselves ala Jonestown, leaving only one female survivor.Oh man, I forgot! Mel Ferrer (The Visitor, Nightmare City) shows up as a professor!Director Umberto Lenzi knows how to make a down and dirty film. He also knows how to keep it entertaining. Just witness other films he's done like Ghosthouse! Plus, he's the master of recycling, as this film re-uses the crocodile death and a woman being eaten from his 1972 film Sacrifice! (also starring Rassimov and Me Me Lai), Me Me Lai's death from Ruggero Deodato's Jungle Holocaust and a castration, a monkey being devoured by a monkey and a man being eaten by a crocodile from Sergio Martino's Slave of the Cannibal God. You could say he...cannibalized those movies! Sorry.Again, keep in mind that these are rough films. They're nearly indefensible, to be honest. I kind of wish the story of Jonas and his cult was more of the movie, with less of the cannibals. But you know, I can't send notes back to Lenzi with a time machine or anything!

I Thought that Eaten Alive! was a good film. It is one of the less gruesome cannibal films. In New York a mysterious person hunts down certain victims on the streets and kills them with darts dipped in Cobra venom. The killer is eventually killed himself, and it is found out that he was a member of a strange religious cult deep in the New Guinea jungle. A religious cult of cannibals. A woman from New York goes to search for the cult, and tries to find her sister who has gone missing in the jungle. There is a lot of gore and nudity in the film which can be strong. This was a great film which was directed by Umberto Lenzi.

Eaten Alive! (1980) *** (out of 4)Sheila Morris (Janet Agren) is looking for her missing sister and hires Mark (Robert Kerman) to lead her into the jungle where the police believe the sister is. It turns out that the sister is there in the jungle but is with a religious nut (Ivan Raassimov) who is forming a cult.Umberto Lenzi previously kickstarted the Italian cannibal genre with MAN FROM DEEP RIVER and then Ruggero Deodato took it to the more extreme with both JUNGLE HOLOCAUST and CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. Many people consider EATEN ALIVE! to be the most disgusting film that the genre ever delivered and in many ways they are probably correct. It's certainly not as well made as some of the other films I mentioned but there's no question that Lenzi clearly wanted to top Deodato in terms of trash and sleaze.The most controversial thing about these Italian cannibal movies is the fact that they featured a lot of animals being killed for real. If that sort of thing bothers you then you're really going to hate this movie as I think there are more animal deaths here than in any of the other films from the genre. There are some ugly killings here so one needs to be warned. With that said, this type of "violence" was expected in films like this and in the end it really adds to the sleaze factor.I've always enjoyed these cannibal movies because to me they are basically action and adventure films. They are cheap "B" movies just like the old Tarzan films were and that's part of the charm. The jungle locations just seems very taboo and you often think that the filmmakers were crazy for filming out there. The settings are perfect and there's certainly a lot of sleaze in the real violence as well as all of the nudity and the graphic fake violence, which does offer up what the title says: people are eaten alive! Kerman and Agren are both good enough to keep you entertained in what's going on. You've got Rassimov turning in a good performance and it's fun seeing Paola Senatore, Me Me Lai and Mel Ferrer in smaller roles. EATEN ALIVE! certainly isn't a masterpiece but it is a good trash picture that offers up what you'd expect in a film like this.

Umberto Lenzi's "Mangiati Vivi" aka. "Eaten Alive By The Cannibals" of 1980 is one of the gruesome Cannibal-movie classics of the early 80s. It is not quite as (in)famous as Lenzi's "Cannibal Ferox" of 1981, but it's easily equally effective, and definitely one of the absolute must-sees for fans of shocking Italian Horror exploitation. Alongside Ruggero Deodato, who is responsible for the only true masterpiece of the Cannibal sub-genre, the brilliant "Cannibal Holocaust" of 1980, director Lenzi is THE master of this nasty and controversial sub-genre, and may also be credited as its pioneer, since his very own "Paese Del Sesso Selvaggio" aka. "Deep River Savages", was the first movie of the kind in 1972. This "Mangiati Vivi" is easily one of the nastiest highlights of the genre, and has a particularly interesting plot, as the film is, among other things, about a bizarre purification cult that resembles Jim Jones' infamous 'People's Temple'. The film features a lot of sleaze, and the violence is extremely disturbing and engrossing, and even though these vicious scenes are not as frequent as it is the case in "Cannibal Ferox", they are extremely vicious and sometimes hard to watch, even for well-trained exploitation lovers like myself. The cast contains several Cannibal-genre regulars, Robert Kerman ("Cannibal Holocaust", "Cannibal Ferox") and beautiful Me Me Lai ("Deep River Savages", "Jungle Holocaust), who plays a native girl, as always, and Exploitation-star Ivan Rassimov. The music was generally great in these Italian Cannibal flicks, and "Mangiati Vivi" has an excellent score (actually, it's partly the same score as in "Cannibal Ferox"). People who are sensitive about violence should avoid this film since it shows what the title promises - people being mutilated and eaten alive. Animal-protectors and vegetarians are also not well-advised to see this, due to the vicious scenes in which actual animals were killed (probably more than in any other Cannibal movie). To all the fans of shocking exploitation and ultra-violent Eurohorror out there, however, "Mangiati Vivi" is an indispensable Shock-classic that must not be missed. Definitely not a movie you'll forget quickly! Highly recommended!