Zombie

Del Tenney's I Eat Your Skin was filmed in Florida in 1964, under the working title Zombies. Alot of films were made at this time to cash in on the James Bond craze, Like this one. The opening and closing scenes are filmed at Miami's Fountainbleu Hotel, the same hotel where a few scenes of Goldfinger take place. This movie was originally titled Voodoo Blood Bath, but Tenney couldn't find a distributor and didn't have another feature to release along with it for a drive-in double feature. The movie sat on the shelf for years until, in 1971, producer Jerry Gross began searching for a film to release along with his I Drink Your Blood. Gross bought the rights for Tenney's film and retitled it. All of this explains why there is no skin eating in I Eat Your Skin.

I've seen this movie at least a dozen times. This is definately one of those, so bad it's good spook movies. The makeup effects, although cheap, are at the least memorable and not just grease-paint. The acting is also memorable, if only because it's so bad. The Uber macho-ism of lead character Tom Harris (played by a mostly shirtless William Joyce) will make you laugh out loud. I cannot recommend this movie enough. I was more entertained by this flick than the last 3 big budgeted movies I rented from Blockbusters!

In I EAT YOUR SKIN (aka: ZOMBIE), Uber-macho writer, Tom Harris (William Joyce), is pried away from his gaggle of fawning, bikini-clad fem-bots, long enough to take a trip to Voodoo Island.

Why?

It seems there's a mad scientist there who's working on a cure for cancer, using snake venom (!). Plus, there are zombies! And young, nubile voodoo dancers! Annnd, bongo drums!

So, why not?!

Harris is soon off for the island, accompanied by his agent, Duncan Fairchild (Dan Stapleton) and his unbelievably squeaky, utterly annoying wife, Coral (Betty Hyatt Linton). Oh, and Coral's poodle.

Within seconds after crash-landing, Tom spots his first bathing beauty! Shockingly, she's being stalked by a pop-eyed zombie! No, seriously, his eyes are basically two fried eggs! From here, things get a tad absurd. Thankfully, voodoo dancing and mad science merge to get us through!

If you enjoy hyper-schlock, especially the films of Del Tenney, then, nirvana is your destination! This brain-hammer is a personal favorite...

On all the scenes with the very hairy arms and hands feeding and handling the venonous snakes were filmed at the Miami Serpentarium, those hands belonged to the late William Haast, I'm surprised that wasn't mentioned in the Trivia section. I believe that Mr Haast passed away at over 100 years old in spite of dozens of venomous bites that would have killed an Elephant.

What can I say about this one? It's odd - it uses snake venom modified to create the zombies. The natives believe in human sacrifice but it has to be a blonde virgin female. The movie really is nothing new as far as your average classic zombie movies go but adds its own twist like most all of them do - and it's kind of an odd one.

If you like the older style of zombie films then this one is just "ok" to watch - it's nothing special but not a complete snooze to watch either. Another slightly less than a middle of the road production.

I like the dancers in the film, in fact the scenes of the voodoo priest and his group are the best parts of this film to me. The rest of the film is meh! The acting is lacking but tolerable to watch. And the story, again, is just so-so. Watchable zombie film.

4/10

I've seen bad movies, but none quite as bad as this "I Eat Your Flesh". I feel sorry for the people who went to the drive-ins in the 1970's and had to watch this on a double bill with the far superior "I Drink Your Blood". Best I can say of that situation, plenty of make-out time in the back of the car while this dismal dreck plays.