Grim Reaper, The AKA ANTHROPOPHAGOUS BEAST (1981)
Starring: Tisa Farrow, Margaret Donnelly, Mark Bodin, George Eastman
Director: Joe D'Amato
Synopsis: Mad Cannibal on the rampage...sick shocker banned for years in the UK
Reviewed by: Omar Khan


"Trifling shocker " Maltin

"a flood of blood with bash and slash" Creature Features

"grim indeed" Blockbuster Guide

"cheap" Video Movie Guide

 "Tremendously effective " See No Evil - Kerekes & Slater

 

The film opens with some wonderfully dreadful 1970s-style titles accompanied by equally dreadful music before introducing us to a small abandoned boat drifting aimlessly beside a lonely pier.

A young couple arrive with their dog, clearly intending nothing more strenuous than a lazy afternoon by the water. While the lad strips off his shirt and busies himself with his headphones, the girl wastes no time diving into the sea. She notices the deserted boat floating nearby and swims towards it, while beneath the surface Joe D'Amato offers us the inevitable Jaws-style underwater point-of-view shot, making it abundantly clear that something unpleasant has already taken an interest in her.

Moments later she is violently dragged beneath the surface.

Her blood bubbles slowly upwards.

Meanwhile, boyfriend dearest remains blissfully unaware, his headphones drowning out not only her screams but even the frantic barking of the dog. By the time he finally looks up, all he sees is his own reflection in the blade of a hatchet moments before it splits his skull open with one mighty swing.

Our bloodthirsty Anthropophagous Beast clearly wasn't going to win Miss World.

The story then shifts to the mainland, where a group of tourists prepares for an excursion to a mysterious island. Amongst them are a heavily pregnant woman, an irritatingly nervous clairvoyant and Tisa Farrow, who simply happens to be looking for a lift to the very island everyone else seems so keen to visit.

Naturally, someone mentions that the locals warned them repeatedly never to go there.

Naturally...

...they ignore the warning.

Upon arriving, accompanied by suitably ominous music, the pregnant woman sprains her ankle and remains behind aboard the boat while the others explore the seemingly deserted island. Before long, an unseen presence begins stalking them through the abandoned village. The unfortunate fellow left guarding the boat is promptly relieved of his head, while the pregnant woman is dragged away into the darkness.

The survivors eventually take refuge in an abandoned mansion, intending to wait for the tide before attempting to recover their drifting boat. There they are unexpectedly attacked by a frightened blind girl who stabs one of them before finally calming down enough to explain exactly what has happened.

Years earlier, she tells them, a hideously deformed cannibal was forced by starvation to eat his own wife and child.

Now he feeds upon anyone unfortunate enough to wander onto the island.

More importantly...

...she can smell him.

Apparently the overwhelming stench of decaying flesh announces his arrival long before he appears.

Several increasingly unpleasant encounters follow. One unfortunate victim attempts to overpower the beast, only to have a sizeable chunk bitten clean out of his throat. Others fare even worse. Heads roll, limbs are hacked off and assorted body parts are enthusiastically chewed upon in true Joe D'Amato fashion.

Unfortunately, much of the carnage is photographed in such murky darkness that one can barely see what is happening—which, perhaps, is no bad thing.

For all its notoriety, Anthropophagous is actually a surprisingly tedious film. There is precious little atmosphere, less suspense and almost no interesting characters. It survives almost entirely on its reputation as one of the infamous Video Nasties and for the handful of outrageous gore scenes that made it legendary amongst horror collectors during the VHS era.

Joe D'Amato undoubtedly carved himself a place in exploitation cinema through his determination to push bad taste to increasingly heroic levels, but this is hardly one of the genre's finer hours.

One cannot help feeling rather sorry for Tisa Farrow.

Having already spent time battling Fulci's zombies, she followed it up by fleeing this flesh-eating monstrosity in the hope of establishing herself as a horror heroine. While her mainstream career never materialised, she nevertheless secured herself a permanent little niche in cult horror history through these memorable excursions into Italian splatter cinema.

As for Anthropophagous itself...

Its reputation is considerably more entertaining than the film.

This Grim Reaper is one most viewers can safely steer well clear of.