Kelly WandEaten Alive
October 29th 2006 03:51
The Cannibal Genre is not the easiest to justify in terms of artistic merit. Ruthlessly vicious, they maintain a power to shock and offend whilst all around them garner belated respectability. The combination of documentary style footage of animal butchering with the special effect slaughter, mutilation and consumption is effectively visceral. Rather oddly, viewers of the “Cannibal Holocaust” special anniversary edition are given the option of viewing the film without animal cruelty. If that doesn’t raise an interesting debate, I don’t know what will.
To top that off, these films contain a lot of sexual violence and “Eaten Alive” is particularly guilty in this department. Whilst the slaughter and violence of “Cannibal Holocaust” and “Cannibal Ferox” are given moral context by story lines that touch on imperialism and exploitation, “Eaten Alive” offers very little besides exploitation.
The inclusion of cannibals seems merely to be the way director Umberto Lenzi was able to raise funding for the film he wanted to make. “Eaten Alive” is primarily the story of a Reverend Jim Jones style religious community who have vanished into the jungle to escape civilisation. Whilst the cannibals are used as a kind of symbol of where the Reverend’s inevitable decline into savagery will eventually lead, I think it is safe to assume Lenzi only included them grudgingly.
An interview with the director shows a peculiar duality. On one hand he demands recognition for his creation of the Cannibal genre whilst simultaneously trying to distance himself from it. Writing this review, I know how he feels. “Eaten Alive” is one of Lenzi’s best films but I could not recommend it to anyone. It is probably the vilest entry in the genre but, as I haven’t seen “Jungle Holocaust”, I can’t say this with total certainty. If any film ever earned the title of Video Nasty then this one did.
And yet it haunts me. Its raw, primal energy is extraordinarily confronting and – even more strangely - life affirming. Whilst Hannibal Lector has become a pantomime villain who begs our sympathy because he only eats the rude, the cannibals of “Eaten Alive” at least show us the reality of cruelty.
“Eaten Alive” is also the name of a contemporaneous unrelated film directed by Tobe Hooper. Even more confusingly, both feature Mel Ferrer. Hooper’s film was also released under the title of “Death Trap” which shouldn’t be confused with the unrelated film in which Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve indulge in a quick game of tonsil hockey.
To top that off, these films contain a lot of sexual violence and “Eaten Alive” is particularly guilty in this department. Whilst the slaughter and violence of “Cannibal Holocaust” and “Cannibal Ferox” are given moral context by story lines that touch on imperialism and exploitation, “Eaten Alive” offers very little besides exploitation.
The inclusion of cannibals seems merely to be the way director Umberto Lenzi was able to raise funding for the film he wanted to make. “Eaten Alive” is primarily the story of a Reverend Jim Jones style religious community who have vanished into the jungle to escape civilisation. Whilst the cannibals are used as a kind of symbol of where the Reverend’s inevitable decline into savagery will eventually lead, I think it is safe to assume Lenzi only included them grudgingly.
An interview with the director shows a peculiar duality. On one hand he demands recognition for his creation of the Cannibal genre whilst simultaneously trying to distance himself from it. Writing this review, I know how he feels. “Eaten Alive” is one of Lenzi’s best films but I could not recommend it to anyone. It is probably the vilest entry in the genre but, as I haven’t seen “Jungle Holocaust”, I can’t say this with total certainty. If any film ever earned the title of Video Nasty then this one did.
And yet it haunts me. Its raw, primal energy is extraordinarily confronting and – even more strangely - life affirming. Whilst Hannibal Lector has become a pantomime villain who begs our sympathy because he only eats the rude, the cannibals of “Eaten Alive” at least show us the reality of cruelty.
“Eaten Alive” is also the name of a contemporaneous unrelated film directed by Tobe Hooper. Even more confusingly, both feature Mel Ferrer. Hooper’s film was also released under the title of “Death Trap” which shouldn’t be confused with the unrelated film in which Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve indulge in a quick game of tonsil hockey.
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