Devorado Vivo

Toby Hooper's follow up to his classic Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) was this atmospherically bizarre horror oddity.

Deep in the swamps, a crazed hotel owner is keeping a monster crocodile in his yard and occasionally feeding offensive people to it!

As with Texas Chainsaw Hooper gives this film lots of spooky atmosphere, but he really puts it into over-drive with Eaten Alive. The story is a bit disturbing and far more gruesome than Texas Chainsaw. The characters that parade through this film range from back-woods yokels to warped weirdos! Hooper gives the whole movie a kind of garish and bleak style that adds all the more to its off-beat weirdness.

The cast is good, Neville Brand makes for an especially convincing madman. Horror fans will see lots of familiar faces in the cast - Marilyn Burns (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), William Finley (Sisters), Robert Englund (Elm Street movies), Janus Blythe (The Hills Have Eyes), and young Kyle Richards (Halloween).

While Eaten Alive doesn't reach the nightmarish heights of some of Hoopers other films, it is a good B horror picture. For those looking for a twisted horror film it will more than suffice!

*** out of ****

Eaten Alive is a truly bizarre film with an almost nightmarish quality to it. I can't say I particularly loved it, because the lack of lighting often makes it hard to see what is happening. Yet at the same time, the lack of lighting also adds to the murky atmosphere. The motel owners performance is slightly over the top and annoyed me a bit, although he does play his part very well. There are some tense and disturbing moments such as when he's chasing the two women, which are excellently done. However the claustrophobic feel of the film got a little boring in parts and made it slightly hard to follow.

Overall, if you like your horror films creepy and bizarre, then this is for you. It has a similar grainy feel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, so if you loved that then this will be right up your street.

`The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' (of course) and `Death Trap' (less obvious already) are the only two films Tobe Hooper should be really remembered for as a horror director. They both are raw and chilling explorations of the angry rural America. The location of this film looks like a giant swampy area, homed by underdeveloped perverted rednecks and other freaks of society. Neville Brand terrifically portrays Judd, the isolated owner of the Starlight Hotel. Judd suffers a bit from the incapability to communicate with people and the guests at his hotel are doomed to die as soon as they enter his facility. He also has a pet crocodile swimming underneath the porch of his hotel, which is a pretty convenient method to get rid of human leftovers… A poor, rejected prostitute is the first to undergo Judd's murderous rituals. Her relatives soon come to search for her and are doomed as well. In the meantime, the croc feeds on some more unfortunate by passers. Although I regard this as Hooper's second best film, it doesn't come close to the power of TCM…Which kind of gives you an idea of how great I think TCM was! The settings and photography of Horror Hotel (one of the film's a.k.a's) look nasty and utterly cheap. Just as it did in TCM, this actually increases the macabre atmosphere and you constantly feel something wicked is about to happen. The characters – although pretty imaginative – aren't as convincing as the Sawyer family but they too seem to come running straight out of a freakshow as well! There's Judd of course, but also a very memorable Robert Englund who plays a retarded yokel with an obsession for anal sex. The scream-queen prototype Marilyn Burns returns as well before disappearing into actress-oblivion forever. The crocodile as well as most other horror scenery looks really cheap, but to me, this only increases the trash-fun value of this film. Highly recommended viewing as far as I'm concerned.

Delirious, surreal, and savage, Tobe Hooper's follow-up to his landmark debut ("Chainsaw" for those not in the know), is one of a kind while bearing the same signature stamp he left with his predecessor. A sheer unrelenting onslaught of pure madness, macabre and dark humor. Although not as entirely successful as Chainsaw, "Eaten Alive" is one messed up little drive in flick with good performances particularly by Brand as the psycho Inn keeper of "Starlight Hotel". Mumbling incoherently through most of his screen time and sputtering gibberish when audible, Neville Brand is eerily convincing. The beginning of this picture owes to Psycho in that you meet a character that you are led to believe is the (no pun intended) titular heroine but is quickly dispatched and we are left with the equally sleazy and\or oddball residents of the locale like ole' country boy Buck (Englund, who's a hoot) or that oddball couple who's dog gets chomped by the gator that lives in the swamp behind the hotel. It's that kind of movie folks so be aware what you're getting into. Creepy, oddball fun.

In Tobe Hooper's follow-up to THE Texas CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, Neville Brand is totally out of control! I could not believe my eyes seeing his twitching, nervous, maniacal, laughing psycho performance! He seems to be on some kind of high-powered drug from outer space! Thankfully, his acting is perfectly welcome in this film, where almost every bizarre character seems to be up to something devious.

Neville runs a secluded Louisiana hotel on the Bayou where various people show up. He kills them off (with a scythe, pitchfork, etc.) and feeds their dead bodies to his pet crocodile. Marilyn Burns, William Finley and their daughter eventually show up in disguise and are tormented by Brand. Family members and cops show up to search for missing prostitute Roberta Collins and become victims, too.

Brand hacks them up while hopping around uncontrollably and laughing with glee. Totally creepy. So is Wayne Bell's music score, which is similar to the one he did for TCM. Good make-up, lots of surprises, Hooper's direction and Brand give this film an edge over it's competition.