The Corpse Grinders

Cheap effects and bad acting ruin what could have been a drive-in classic.

Warren Ball's over the top performance was amusing though. And did anyone notice Sanford Mitchell's constantly changing accent? I couldn't tell if he was supposed to be British or Brooklyn.

The machine itself was probably a trash picked fridge box.

Getting nearly all of the young actresses to do typical cheesecake poses kept this film from getting boring, but it didn't really help much.

The leads were OK. Only OK.

But this was a good idea that just was in the wrong hands. I wonder what a Romero or a Fulci could have done with this.

Worth one (and only one) look.

The Corpse Grinders is about as cheap and gritty as you'd expect, which is actually the best thing I can say about it. Even the worst low budget films of this era have that cheesy charm built into the celluloid itself.

As best I can figure out, The Corpse Grinders is about people who use human bodies to make cat food and then the cats that eat it turn into bloodthirsty monsters, attacking people at random as two boring scientist-type people try to figure it out.

The acting is as awful as you'd imagine, there's no pace to speak of, and at less than 75 minutes, it feels like it's at least an hour too long. Most of the film isn't even enjoyable on a "so bad, it's good" level. Don't waste your time.

I was almost going to totally write off Ted V. Mikels as one of the most talentless and boring directors of all time after watching his tedious turkeys 'Blood Orgy Of The She Devils' and 'The Doll Squad'. But after watching 'The Corpse Grinders' I'm now not so sure. This is arguably his best known movie, and the thing is it's actually quite good! Not "great" or "hilarious fun" mind you, but "quite good", and for him, that's high praise indeed. It's cheap, tacky and amateurishly acted, but strangely entertaining just the same. A doctor and his nurse girlfriend (Sean Kenney and Monika Kelly) investigate a spate of cat attacks (!) which they suspect has something to do with gourmet cat food. And it does, but in not exactly the most obvious way. This is a very stupid movie but surprisingly enjoyable, especially when you see that it was co-written by Arch Hall Jr, of 'Eegah' infamy! The best parts for me are the cat attacks, which have to be seen to be believed, and the oddball bodysnatchers played by Warren Ball (Caleb) and Ann Noble (Cleo), who are both wacky and creepy. I can't hardly believe I'm typing this, but I actually LIKED 'The Corpse Grinders', and I recommend it to trash lovers, especially fans of (early) Roger Corman and Herschell Gordon Lewis.

What happens when dead corpses are ground into meat and added to grain for a canned cat food factory is the heart of what The Corpse Grinders is all about. It turns out that this canned cat food has an effect on the cats, having given them the taste of eating man, now instinctually placing within them the desire to eat more human flesh....dead or alive. Pussy cats all over Southern California begin their preying on human owners due to their newly initiated killer man-eating instinct(Hey, I didn't make this up...it's the explanation used in the film!). Ted V. Mikels is responsible for this low-budget film geared at repulsing the audience rather than scaring it. Mikels tries to pull off a Herschell Gordon Lewis shocker here, and is, well, fairly successful. Yep, there is real bad acting. None of the actors looks sincere, but there are a couple of real hot babes. One is the much talked about secretary that disrobes to panties and bra and watches TV with a can of beer prior to being attacked. Monika Kelly plays the inebriated doctor's very busty blonde nurse who seemingly needs to change every time she goes out. Ok, I can live with it if I must. The rest of the "cast" is a who's who's of amateurish performers. Caleb and his dotty English-accented wife are truly some of the most ridiculous characters to be seen in any film. He goes around barking orders like someone totally unrehearsed in the art of stagecraft while she clutches a baby doll and screams being chased in one scene, stopping long enough for her attacker to hear her and then begins to scream again. Sanford Mitchell as the lead, the head of the factory, is just awful. These performances are not real boring though. They are so bad that they are very amusing to watch and that really sums up this film in a nutshell. It is very, very, very bad and yet a real hoot to sit through. I thought I was in for another snooze-fest like Astro-Zombies before sitting down to The Corpse Grinders, but I was pleasantly surprised. This film is nothing like that film other than it is equally very cheaply and ineptly made, but it has far more interesting scenes and is what is known as a "so bad it is good" film.

the best part of this movie is the deaf nurse. the actress obviously doesn't know sign language, so her solution is to act out random hand movements that sort of look like sign language. i find that hilarious.