Eaten Alive (1976)

One of my all time favorites.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Well, you can certainly tell this was a Tobe Hooper film. For the age and genre, you would think this was just going to be one of those old creature features that everyone sees and only laughs at. Surprisingly, this was not the case for me. I was quite alarmed and surprised at how horrible and macabre this movie truly got. Who is the real villain here? The Crocodile (and or Alligator) or Judd, the animals strangely affectionate keeper. To be honest, the Crocodile is really not even involved in the film that much, it's more or less only the means of disposal for Judd's victims. He's truly insane, and even seemingly schizophrenic. This movie really gets you on the edge of your seat, if nothing more for the fact you're so horrified at what's going on. That's pretty rare with most films of its age.

Director, Tobe Hooper follows up on his "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" with this equally bizarre and maniacal exploitation film set in the deep south featuring a psycho scythe-wielding hotel owner who slices up his patrons and feeds them to an enormous crocodile that he keeps in the swamp beneath his property. Once again Tobe Hooper combines backwards redneck wacko realism with stark, gloomy terror to make his audience as uncomfortable as possible. Theatrically released in 1976 and subsequently distributed in 1977 under various titles like "Starlight Slaughter" and "Death Trap", this hidden gem was widespread across many drive-ins and Grindhouse movie houses everywhere and eventually made it to VHS with the rest of the "video-nasties" about nature's monsters run-amok. Similar to "Motel Hell", and "Mountaintop Motel Massacre" this also is heavily atmospheric with its piercingly loud synth-music and glowing-red ambient lighting, and is highlighted for some of its other attributes such as many zany characters, an attractive female cast, and Nevile Brand's eccentric performance as the mindlessly ranting and psychotic Judd. This was also one of the first performances of Robert Englund as the slimy redneck, Buck, who would eventually go on to portray the iconic Freddy Kruger in the popular "A Nightmare on Elm Street" series. Its considered a classic among gore and killer-crocodile movie fans. The high definition 2K restoration of this film is brilliant, and really brings it to life like never seen before by putting emphasis on lighting and color after years of washed-out looking VHS and DVD prints. It's truly remarkable, and earns the content of the film an extra star for the review! Its the only way to see this film, whether you are reliving it again or seeing it for the first time.

Tobe Hooper follows up his legendary breakthrough film with this similarly demented saga of an insane hotel proprietor, Judd (Neville Brand), who operates his business in remote rural Texas. Based loosely on a real-life character named Joe Ball, Judd just so happens to be keeping a crocodile as a pet, which stays in a pond next to the hotel. Every so often, if a visitor should upset good ol' Judd, they become crocodile food. Among those that could be on the menu are Harvey Wood (Mel Ferrer), an old man searching for his daughter, and a young family that includes William Finley as the father and Marilyn Burns of TCSM as the mother!You know good times are ahead when the first performer to make his entrance is the great Robert Englund, who, before insisting on doing it doggy style with inexperienced whore Clara (Roberta Collins), utters the memorable lines: "My names' Buck. I'm rarin' to *beep*." And so it goes with this glorious bit of cinematic insanity, which features some absolutely amazing, overwhelming atmosphere, intense lighting schemes, and an overall sense of weirdness. Hooper also co-composed the music score and it's decidedly offbeat, featuring a lot of atonal beeping.Brand is hysterical in the role of Judd. Often seen singing or talking to himself, he fully commits to the role of this backwoods boor. Englund is also great fun as the randy, raucous Buck. Finley really lets it rip as the unhinged dad, while Burns once again is required to scream her head off. Also among the cast of familiar faces are a heavily made-up Carolyn Jones in a frumpy character part as a madam, Kyle Richards as the daughter of Finley & Burns, Crystin Sinclaire as the forlorn daughter of Ferrer, the incredibly sexy Janus Blythe as Englunds' gal pal, and David Hayward as a lustful cowboy.If horror fans are looking for a really meaty story, they can look elsewhere. But for those hoping for strangeness and style, they'll get plenty of it. They can hardly fail to notice that this is more explicitly bloody than TCSM, and it's appreciably trashy, too, as Sinclaire and Blythe both show off their breasts. The crocodile created by Bob Mattey (best known as the creator of Bruce for "Jaws" a few years previous) isn't terribly convincing, but this viewer can forgive that aspect in view of the overall entertainment value.Eight out of 10.

It's a surprise that Death Trap (Eaten Alive) was the film Tobe Hooper followed up The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with as, at first sight, TCM is totally and utterly superior in every way. However, that is not to say the Death Trap is not without it's charm. Albeit a warped, distorted, bizarre charm that leaves you feeling as if you've been watching the film through the bottom of a jam jar… after seven pints of beer.Okay, so right off the film lacks Gunnar Hansen's iconic, brilliantly unveiled antagonist, instead delivering… Judd. He is a mumbling, demented hotelier who looks a bit like a messed up version of my father-in-law, talks stream of consciousness nonsense and at one point sings a painfully elongated rendition of a song so annoying that you will want to murder him yourself. For all that, Judd is an interesting villain when set against the physical power of Leatherface. He doesn't look particularly sinister, almost certainly isn't particularly strong and due to his inability to speak properly, we can only guess at his motives and back story. In some ways these factors makes it more shocking when he lapses into hysterical, jittering psychotic episodes which are usually followed in short order by him feeding his victims to an extremely naff-looking plastic crocodile.On the subject of Judd's victims, this is one area where the film takes a pleasantly surreal turn and sets itself aside from it's peers. The crowd who visit the hotel on what appears to be rather a brisk day for trade are even weirder than Judd himself. We start with a messed up young woman sporting a wig so fake and pathetic looking that it would have stuck out like a sore thumb in an early 80's porno. Then you have the anal-retentive, deep-south John Cleese who comes looking for his estranged Daughter and Robert Englund, looking good as an angry southern hick who's only goal in life seems to be to get a female of the species to indulge him in the love that dare not speak it's name. Next onto TCM's lovely Marilyn Burns wearing, for reasons unknown, yet another really lame looking wig and her daughter, sporting a metal leg brace. But by far the craziest character here and, indeed, the most unhinged man this side of Frank Booth is Roy. This boy, to be fair to him, is a complete and utter raving lunatic who thinks nothing of lapsing into crazed animal impersonations and descriptions of having his eye burned out by his wife in front of his weeping child.Death Trap unfolds on a few scant, cheap and sleazy looking sets, none of it appears to be shot outdoors and all of the proceedings appear murky, often lit with a trashy red hue. These things should not be considered negatives to fans of this kind of cinema (myself included) as the whole thing looks like some ungodly, nightmare 70's theme park gone wrong and the constant soundtrack of either analogue synth bleeps or wailing atonal country and western music give the film a truly evil and otherworldly atmosphere.Personally I love the days of these crude, surreal, trashy films which now seem so far behind us and if the above are to be considered pluses then sadly there must be minuses. For me my single biggest gripe is that some scenes where nothing really happens, play out just too long and too uneventful. The problem here is that Judd's character is established as being so one-dimensional that once we have discovered he is a murderer, there isn't really anywhere else to go other than to show him shambling about being irritating. I guess Tobe Hooper wanted this film to more closely follow the perpetrator, rather than the victims (as in TCM), but with so little psychological meat, it just doesn't work.The overall film is also hindered by the fact that it doesn't gather pace heading towards the climax a la TCM. There is no real feeling of ratcheting up the suspense as Judd's actions get increasingly more risky and threaten to expose him.Tobe Hooper should be applauded for following a runaway indie hit with something that was so different. Can you imagine a writer/director these days under contract to some big shadowy corporation choosing to buck a winning formula and try something completely distinct in style? It simply wouldn't be allowed to happen. Which is why we need to treasure these films and our memories of the times they come from. Because it was a time when challenging, even assaulting the audience was the film maker's first goal and if you left the drive-in after seeing Death Trap feeling like you needed a shower then Tobe had done his job.He did his job.P.S.. I love you Marilyn Chambers.