Comidos vivos!

(aka: EATEN ALIVE)

This is the second of three cannibal films directed by Lenzi (filmed in Sir Lanka) with CANNIBAL FEROX (1981) being the third. To be honest with you, I saw both of these films one right after the other and I can truly say that they are both about the same. One isn't any more gross or gory than the other, imo.

Film starts in Niagara Falls where a policeman is killed by an asian fellow blowing poison darts. Then the movie cuts to NYC where the same guy kills two more people using poison darts before he is run over by a truck and killed. It's all a part of an ecological cult that Janet Agren is investigating in regards to the disappearance of her sister.

Her search takes her to 'New Guinea' where she hires a Viet-Nam deserter (porn star R. Bolla) to guide her to the village where her sister was last seen. On the way there, we get to watch snakes eating animals, natives gutting and skinning crocodiles and our two heroes being chased by cannibals.

They finally reach the village and meet the cult leader (Ivan Rassimov) who has absolute control over everybody. He's an obvious copy of Jim Jones.

Gross food scenes include:

Cannibals eating native girl's arm and left breast. Not bad...

Then we see three native guys screw another native girl in a ritualistic soft-porn scene. One goes down on top of her, right after the other.

Janet Agren, naked, covered in gold paint getting a snake blood covered dildo inserted into her. It doesn't actually show it, but it's implied by the pain shown on her face.

A native guy who has betrayed the cult, getting his dick cut off before he is gored to death with a stick. Cool !!

Another native girl and Algren's sister being eaten by cannibals after they escape from Rassimov's camp. They are first disemboweled and then their organs are eaten before they are hacked and gored to death with spears. You know it's all fake because the bodies look like full-size rubber latex mannequins. It's still a cool scene, anyway.

The Shriek DVD is taken from an excellent wide-screen print with a few film extras such as an interviews with Lenzi, Bolla and Rassimov. Lenzi says that his next film, CANNIBAL FEROX did better at the box office, but he equates both of these films as being of the same quality. So do I.

In these politically-correct times, films like these wouldn't get made today. It get's a 6 out of 10 for being interesting and un-PC misogynistic at the same time.

If you've never seen an Italian cannibal flick before, Umberto Lenzi's Eaten Alive might seem like the perfect slice of bloody exploitation, packed as it is with lashings of gore, sex and general nastiness. However, anyone au fait with the genre will identify many of the film's gory highlights as being stolen from earlier movies by Lenzi's contemporaries Ruggero Deodato and Sergio Martino. This is a shame, since the story has loads of potential and could have been developed nicely without resorting to pilfering footage.

Sheila, a rich young heiress from Alabama, is searching for her sister Diana, who has gone missing. When she discovers that Diana has been brainwashed by Jonas, a Jim Jones-style cult leader, and is living in a compound in the jungles of New Guinea, she enlists the help of Vietnam veteran Mark and ventures into the New Guinea wilderness on a rescue mission. But freeing Diana is a tougher job than it at first seems: the cultists will not let her go without a fight and the surrounding area is inhabited by cannibals. Only with the help of native woman Mowara can they hope to escape.

In addition to the gore, Lenzi packs his film with plenty of nudity from his female stars and includes some entertaining and gratuitous sex scenes: Mowara (Me Me Lai) is gang-banged amidst her recently deceased husband's ashes and spends most of her time topless; Janet Agren, who plays Sheila, is defiled by Jonas wielding a blood coated dildo; and Diana (Paola Senatore) gets it doggy-style from a randy cannibal.

Eaten Alive is a glorious exercise in bad taste and exploitation that would have got a higher rating from me had all of the footage been original.

This is not so much a film as it is a clip-show "best of" reel with about 60 minutes of original footage to fill in the gaps. Most of this film was shot in Sri Lanka with a few (quite obvious) sections shot in southern Italy and a few completely gratuitous New York scenes thrown in to try to pass the film off as American. Mel Ferrer makes a completely pointless cameo appearance as a professor who gets to interact with two porn actors playing cops (the poor guy!).

Lenzi is usually a great director, but he clearly was not on his A-game with this Cannibal turkey. Not one scene goes by without something completely laughable happening. I'll give you a few examples.

A) one scene showing Mel Ferrer entering a police station features his voice dubbed by another actor! Ferrer then can be heard with his actual voice moments later! B) Ferrer's audio is quite obviously recorded practically, while the other actors in the scene with him are dubbed. Jarringly obvious shift in quality.

C) shamelessly over-acting police-man saying "WHAT?".

D) a scene where a Sri Lankan (well this movie takes place in New Guinea though these people don't look it at all) allows an alligator to effortlessly chomp his dangling arm off. This scene gets double the embarrassment for actually being culled from another movie! E) when the actors "interact" with the Animal cruelty scenes, it's all just close-ups of them reacting intercut with shots from a different film with different filmstock.

F) When Kerman throws a spear at a native (haphazardly), it clumsily falls sideways into the dirt. The next shot shows a screaming native with a spear sticking out of his chest! G) One of the Sri Lankan helicopter pilots (who is dubbed, even) blows his line and they left it in! H) Kerman nonchalantly knocks Agren out with a punch so she doesn't see a gory evisceration.

I) whopping continuity error involving a character's body parts magically reattaching after they were eaten.

J) said scene includes a woman missing her right leg, with a native seen nearby eating a leg... but with a LEFT foot attached to it! Seriously! The list goes on and on. This film is so riotously daft, yet oddly competent in its staging and cinematography, that it's totally unique in the annals of film. The only other film coming close to the lunacy of this is Lenzi's NIGHTMARE CITY which was far more respectable.

This film, at least, is never boring and very accessible to those unfamiliar with bad Italian cinema. Personally I find it funnier than most intentional comedies, which is why it gets such a high rating from me. Whether Lenzi had this in mind or was seriously trying to make a good film is anyone's guess.

Eaten Alive (by the cannibals) is the least known of the three major Italian gut-munching cannibal movies, the other two being Rugero Deodato's "Cannibal Holocaust" and Lenzi's own "Cannibal Ferox". I use the words 'least famous' carefully because this film is still highly popular among cult collectors and a definite must see for exploitation fanatics. Even though Cannibal Ferox is more notorious, it's actually Eaten Alive that tells the most intriguing story! The feared cannibals of the New Guinean jungle are secondary to the story of a mad purification sect, of which the leader – Jonas – holds a wealthy American girl captive. Her younger sister goes on an expedition to rescue her, accompanied by a nihilist desperado who deserted during the Vietnam War. Eaten Alive (by the Cannibals) features loads of nudity, repulsive gore and inhuman cruelty and it is, of course, better not viewed by the faint-hearted and/or easily offended people. Even those with the strongest stomachs will have a hard time sitting through some of the nauseating sickness featuring! I can only say: Well done Mr. Lenzi!! But, if you do love this type of extraordinary film-making, you'll be impressed by the beauty and style Umberto Lenzi brings to the screen. The anthropology aspects as well as the stunning locations and images of wildlife are some of the most intriguing shots ever featuring in controversial cinema land. And then of course, there's the score! These films are actually worth watching for the music alone. The mesmerizing tunes that guide this atmospheric jungle adventure are almost too beautiful for words. Ignorant opponents of the horror genre will most likely disagree but I think "Eaten Alive" is essential viewing for the fans of extreme shock-cinema. Just make sure you watch a fully uncut version.

While I don't think that Eaten Alive is particularly very good, it's an OK waste of time. If you're used to cannibal films like Cannibal Holocaust then this will seem tame in comparison. It's not a particularly interesting or original story and you don't care much for the characters. But there are a few nice gore touches and shocking rape sequences to keep you awake (if that's your sort of thing). There's also a few decent action and fight sequences. The best scene is probably when one girl is literally eaten alive and her skeleton turned inside out. There's not a lot of gore and it's rather amateur, but it's not too bad.

Since this isn't my sort of film, I wouldn't recommend seeking it out unless you're a die-hard fan of the cannibal horror genre.