Anthropophagous

AKA Anthropophagous: The Beast / The Grim Reaper / The Savage Island / The Zombie’s Rage / The Beast / Man-Eater

Director: Joe D’Amato

Oh boy, I’ve been looking forward to this one! I initially bought this just on the strength of the cover, which as you can see is bloody amazing! Then when I realised it was from the same director as “Beyond The Darkness” and starring George Eastman, I knew I was in for a treat. Safe to say I loved the film after my first watch but something wasn’t quite right, not least the fact that at times it was so dark I couldn’t see what was going on. After a quick bit of research I realised I had bought the German release of the US cut version of the film, under the title of “The Grim Reaper”. This version features a different opening, a largely different soundtrack (taken from another film I believe) and some funny moments where the film flips between English to Italian with German subtitles several times – all within the same scene. This DVD also includes a Super 8 version of the film which is interesting to see, if totally pointless.

Originally released in 1980, the film made its way on to the video nasties list and eventually banned in the UK in 1983. A version of the film was passed uncut by the BBFC in 2002, however, this was the aforementioned US “Grim Reaper” cut. It wasn’t until 2015 that the uncut version of the film was passed by the BBFC and released by 88 Films under the title “Anthropophagous”, although the title card on the film calls it “The Savage Island”. It is this version which we will be looking at today.

The film begins with some footage of a German couple wandering around a Greek town whilst a very cheap sounding Casio keyboard version of “Zorba’s Dance” plays. This may seem hypocritical to say after my complaint of the similar opening in “Night Train Murders”, but I really like this opening. Firstly, shots of an old Greek town are way more pleasant to watch than shots of a busy German city with people Christmas shopping, and I find the music choice here quite funny. It’s very on the nose but at least it’s not offensive to the ears, unlike Demis Roussos’ “A Flower’s All You Need”, which makes me want to puke just thinking about.

Anyway, the couple eventually arrive at a secluded beach where they stop to sunbathe and have a swim. Hilariously, no attempt was made to dub or subtitle the German actors, not that it really matters as it’s quite obvious what’s going on… still pretty funny though. It’s also worth noting that the couple now seem to have a dog with them, even though the dog was nowhere to be seen in the previous shots as they walked through the town – did they pick up a stray en route to the beach?!

The woman goes off to have a swim in the sea whilst the man decides to throw a towel over some incredibly spiky looking rocks and lies down. Surely laying on the sand would be more comfortable?! The actor looks physically in pain as he reclines back! The sunbather also whips out the LARGEST headphones known to man and listens to some of the most psychedelic 70s/80s electronic music I have ever heard, which sounds like it was made using the same Casio as the intro music.

As the woman swims out into the sea, she spots an empty rowing boat drifting along. Curious as to why the boat is there, the woman swims up to it and peers in. We get some nice shots of her swimming from under the water (presumably meant to be a POV shot) and the woman is then attacked and pulled under, followed by a cloud of blood. At this stage you could be mistaken for thinking this was an Italian “Jaws” knock off, but Joe D’Amato wouldn’t make that for another 8-9 years in the form of “Deep Blood”.

Back on dry land, the dog, realising danger, tries to get the attention of the sunbathing man to no avail, and then decides to run away. We then get a shot from the killers POV approaching the man, and considering he is now walking on the beach, it’s fairly safe to say it’s not a shark. The sunbather opens his eyes just at the last moment as the killer strikes his head with a meat cleaver.

Meanwhile, in a cable car on a different Greek island, we meet the bulk of our main characters. I’ll introduce the members of the gang later but what you need to know is that one of the group is a pregnant woman… that’s quite important… but more on that in a bit. One of the group (the husband of the pregnant woman in fact) lightly bumps into a young woman in the cable car causing her camera to break. The young woman is Julie (played by sister of Mia and star of “Zombie Flesh Eaters”, Tisa Farrow, in her last acting role before retiring). Julie is trying to get to a small island to meet some friends, which for some strange reason does not have any scheduled boats going to it. The group invite Julie to join them, partly because one of them clearly wants to bang her, but also because they are going on a boat tour with a friend and they offer to drop Julie off at the island as part of their route. It’s also worth noting that Joe D’Amato makes a cameo appearance as another holidaymaker using the cable car.

Once out of the cable car, the group and their new member Julie, meet up with their friend Alan, who is going to drive them to the boat so they can begin their tour. As the group pile into the van, a child appears to walk into shot and then is clearly told to move out of the way, I suppose they could have done a second take but… na, fuck it.

Next we learn a little bit more about the mysterious island Julie needs to get to. The island is fairly remote and has a handful of residents and only gets some tourism during the peak summer months. That said, the island is a paradise and with this the group seems keen to not only drop Julie off but also to visit the island to see the beauty for themselves.

Now onboard Alan’s boat, we see the pregnant woman (Maggie, played by Serena Grandi) vomiting whilst her husband (Arnie, played by Bob Larson) rather firmly holds her over the edge. Meanwhile Danny (played by Mark Bodin) takes the opportunity to share a refreshing can of Coca Cola (other colas are available) with Julie to try and work some of his magic, much to the displeasure of Carol (played by Zora Kerova, who you may recognise from “Cannibal Ferox” amongst others) who is sulking in the background. Julie seems uncomfortable with Danny’s attention and moves away to chat to Alan (Carol’s brother, played by Saverio Vallone) who is steering the boat.

Later on, below deck, the girls are playing about with Carol’s tarot cards whilst Danny strums away on his guitar (not a euphemism). Maggie wants to know everything about her unborn baby so Carol asks her to pick out some cards. Upon seeing the cards Maggie has chosen, Carol seems to enter some sort of a trance before telling Maggie that the cards don’t always work and she can’t interpret what the cards are saying this time. When Maggie and Danny have left to help prepare dinner, Julie asks Carol why she seemed so worried about the cards not saying anything about the future of Maggie and her baby, to which Carol replies “if you ask the cards about the future, and don’t get any answer, that means there is no future”. Ahh, I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about…

I will say this: the sense of foreboding as the group get closer and closer to the island is really great, even with the cheap keyboard music playing away in the background. You might think I am being unfair by repeatedly calling it cheap but Joe D’Amato himself had called this possibly the lowest costing film of his career (what, even “Cop Sucker 2”?) and the soundtrack was made using only two synthesizers, so I’m not far off.

The next morning, Alan informs Julie that Carol seems to be acting strangely and had pleaded with him not to set foot on the island. Alan says it’s nothing to worry about though and that Carol is a “genuine lunatic” and blames her love of tarot cards on her weirdness. With that we see Carol throwing the cards overboard as she stares into the distance. We then see a man who we have not been introduced to before in any of the other scenes is steering the boat; where the hell did he come from?! The man (whom we later find out is called Stathis) informs the group that they are close to the island, so they get ready to anchor.

While departing the boat, Maggie sprains her ankle (in a not very convincing way I might add). After showing some concern, Alan and Arnie fuck off with the others, leaving Maggie and Stathis on the boat. Predictably, Carol is not so keen to leave the boat but does after some persuasion from her brother. The island seems to be deserted but the gang continue to wander the empty streets of the town trying to find Julie’s friends. It’s at this point we get another POV from our killer as he watches Maggie resting on the boat.

The group split up to search the island, with Julie and Alan making their way into a small shop where they find a telegraph machine which has been damaged, with the last recorded communication being sent over a month ago. Julie then casually explains there aren’t any phone lines on the island and that machine was the only means of communication. Meanwhile, Danny and Carol see a woman at a window and rush inside the building to talk to her. Inside the rundown property the woman is nowhere to be seen, however, she has left a message for them, written in the dirt on the window simply telling them to go away. They then spot the woman now out on the street, walking away from the building. Danny leaves to try and catch her, running past a room with a corpse in the doorway, wrapped up in cloth and sat up in a chair which then topples over giving Carol a fright. The initial reveal of the corpse is a nice, creepy little moment.

Back on the boat, Maggie is resting her foot in a bucket of sea water but asks Stathis to change the water as it’s now got too warm. We then get some underwater shots of the bucket being lowered into the sea on a rope, followed by Stathis being pulled into the water. Hearing the splash, Maggie gets up to see what is going on, and unable to find Stathis she lifts the bucket from the sea herself and plunges her injured foot into it – only to find his severed head floating in the water. I’m not sure how the killer managed to take his head off and quickly place it in the bucket before Maggie pulled it up but it’s a fun scene none the less, even if the head is incredibly fake looking.

Meanwhile in the town, the group are looking over the newly discovered corpse when they suddenly realise that Maggie is on her own on the boat and rush back to make sure she is ok… only she wasn’t on her own on the boat, Stathis (you know, the guy steering who we had never met before) was with her… sure he’s dead now but they don’t know that. When the group arrive back at the port they find the boat has been untied and is drifting out to sea with Maggie nowhere to be seen. In a panic, Arnie begins to undress so he can try to swim over to the boat but is stopped by the others who calm him down by saying that Stathis probably took the boat out due to the tide, that he and Maggie will be fine, and the boat will be moored up again in the morning. With the light fading, Julie suggests they go to her friends house for the night so they can get some rest. During this scene, unbeknownst to the group, Maggie’s body is dragged away just a few feet from them. Again, the sense of foreboding is brilliantly handled, with spooky shots of the boat drifting away from the island.

The gang make it over to Julie’s friends house just before a big storm starts dominating the island but they find the house abandoned; it is as if Julie’s friends had packed up their things in a hurry and left. The group bed down for the night but it’s not long before Julie is awoken by the sound of a piano playing in the distance. Rather than doing the sensible thing of waking the others, she decides to light a candle and go investigate by herself. As she wanders around the house amidst the loud claps of thunder and flashes of lightening, an arm holding a meat cleaver appears behind her… Don’t worry though, it’s only Danny giving her a jump scare. Dick. The pair continue to explore the house when they find the piano and a cute kitten walking over the keys. Just as the pair think the panic is over, a screaming woman covered in blood appears from behind and hacks Danny with a knife. Serves him right for that meat cleaver gag earlier.

The rest of the group coming rushing into the room and find a badly wounded Danny on the floor and the blood soaked woman continuing to slice the knife through the air aimlessly. Alan manages to remove the knife from the woman’s hand and calm her down and it’s at this stage we find out that this is Julie’s friend, Rita (played by Margaret Mazzantini), who is blind. After that excitement, Danny has his wound treated and Julie cleans the blood off Rita and puts her to bed. Rita keeps talking about calling out for her parents, but they never answer, that she can always smell when “he” is around, as all she can smell is blood. Not fazed by this information, Alan and Arnie arm themselves with a knife and run outside, through the town to the shop they found earlier to get some medicine to help stop any infection getting into Danny’s wound.

Back at the house, Carol kisses Danny but her affections are shunned and Danny simply asks where Julie is in response. Once Carol is asleep, Danny finds Julie and tries his luck again, claiming that Carol might be in love with him but she could never give him what he needs in a woman. Danny then tries to kiss Julie just as Carol enters the room. Upset, Carol runs out of the house and into the dark, with Julie in pursuit. After a lengthy chase, Carol hides and then locks Julie in the church grounds. I’m not being funny Carol, but it’s not really Julie’s fault that Danny is attracted to her. Julie continues to run around the graveyard in an attempt to find a way out, manages to scale a small brick wall, and bumps into Alan and Arnie on their way back from the shop. After explaining what had happened, Julie and the boys decide to go back to the house in case Carol had decided to go back there.

We then cut to Danny having a cigarette as Rita sleeps when suddenly the front door goes and Rita shoots up claiming that “he” is here and she can smell him. Danny picks up his trusty meat cleaver and goes to investigate but finds it to be the wind which has blown open the front door. After informing Rita that it’s a false alarm, he closes the bedroom door. Here is when we get our first glimpse of the killer, who was hiding behind the door. I’m not really sure what I should call him at this stage… “The Grim Reaper”? “The Beast”? “Anthropophagous”? He does actually have a real name which we will find out later, but for now I shall continue to call him “The Killer” for ease. The Killer is played by George Eastman, a big bloke with a very intimidating presence, even in films where he isn’t caked in cannibal zombie make-up. Props to D’Amato for waiting until after the half way point of the film before showing the villain, yet still managing to make the first part of the film creepy and ominous.

Danny hears Rita screaming and runs back to the bedroom to find The Killer leering over her about to attack. Danny tries to fend The Killer off but is easily over-powered and ends up with his throat being ripped open and dies. The rest of the group (sans Carol) arrive back at the house to the screams of Rita but The Killer has already left the room through the window which is now blowing open in the wind.

Once the sun has risen, Julie, Arnie, Alan and Rita make their way across the island in an attempt to find Carol. During their travels, they come across a large villa which Julie informs us belongs to someone called Klaus Wortmann who had recently disappeared at sea with his wife and child. The only other relative of Wortmann was his sister who, according to the newspapers, had gone out of her mind after the tragedy. As the group approach the villa we see a figure at the window, Klaus’s sister, Ruth (played by Rubina Rey).

The gang enter the grandiose villa whilst Julie provides an audio tour stating such facts as: “The Wortmann’s have lived here over a century” and “The Wortmann’s have more or less been masters of the island for years”. I’m not sure why we are getting these super interesting facts. Maybe the gang paid extra on admission? Just as the group decide to check out the upstairs, Ruth jumps off the upstairs balcony and hangs herself. Clearly not a fan of having guests over to the house. Arnie tries to cut the rope but it’s too late, she is already dead. Whilst upstairs though, Arnie does find Carol asleep in one of the bedrooms. Carol took refuge in the villa and was looked after by Ruth, who Carol claims was very kind to her, but Ruth had already told Carol that Danny had been killed. Not really quite sure how Ruth knows this. From the bedroom window, Arnie and Alan spot that the boat has begun to drift back towards the island, so the boys rush out to the dock before it’s too late.

Julie, Carol and Rita stay put in the villa and come across a family photo of the Wortmann’s and a part burnt diary, presumably written by Ruth Wortmann making reference to the murders of the German tourists and other incidents on the island and that she has been hiding the bodies of the victims. If you hadn’t guessed already, Klaus Wortmann is The Killer and it would seem he has been on some sort of rampage on the island but his sister, Ruth, has been trying to cover for him by hiding any evidence. But what turned this well dressed, good-looking gentleman pictured in the photo into the blood thirsty beast we saw earlier?… Well, all will be explained soon enough… sort of.

Outside the villa, Arnie and Alan are struggling to find a way down to the boat so split up. We follow Arnie as he wanders across the grassy terrain before he finds one of Maggie’s shoes. His exploration also sees him happen upon an old tomb where inside he finds dead bodies at various stages of decomposition (along with some rats and rubber bats on strings for good measure). The soundtrack here is at its most effective, with an eerie industrial, almost wind sounding noise playing as Arnie makes his way deeper into the tomb. Suddenly a hand touches Arnie’s back. It’s Maggie, still alive but exhausted, so Arnie picks her up to leave the grizzly confines of the tomb.

Back at the villa, Julie has gone exploring and finds a room that has been blocked off to stop anyone from entering. To gain entry, Julie smashes a mirror, which leaves a small piece left in the frame perfectly capturing Julie’s face. I dread to think how many takes that took to get right (and how many mirrors); maybe that’s why the shot from earlier with the stray child couldn’t be re-done! Unless of course, the broken piece of mirror was already placed in position behind the mirror… which is probably more likely. Inside she finds lots of corpses covered in white sheets. It’s a pretty creepy scene but it does beg the question, how on earth did they not smell the room before! It’s got to absolutely hum in there!

Meanwhile in the tomb, our old friend Klaus has appeared through the mist and is slowly making his way towards Arnie and Maggie. “Go away, my wife is pregnant” Arnie feebly says to Klaus as he gets closer and closer. Clearly this talk of children jogs a memory for Klaus as we get a flash back to what happened to him and his family whilst lost at sea. As the hot midday sun beats down onto the family in their boat, Klaus (looking less beastly) approaches his wife as she cradles their son. Klaus is approaching with a knife, claiming their child is dead and they can survive on his meat. I’m not 100% sure if the son is actually meant to be dead though, as when Klaus approaches you can clearly see the boys eyes are suddenly open. Klaus’ wife is obviously not keen on the idea of cannibalising her son and a struggle ensues, resulting in her getting accidentally stabbed. Klaus then lets out a blood curdling cry having now lost both his wife and son. It’s a great little scene and good visual story telling although it doesn’t go all the way to explaining how he fully transformed into a cannibalistic zombie but oh well.

Back in the tomb, Klaus overpowers Arnie and stabs him with his own knife before attacking Maggie. This is a scene which caused the most controversy with the censors, as Klaus appears to strangle Maggie, pull out her unborn baby and then eat it as Arnie looks on in horror. It’s hugely over the top and in some ways feels out of place when compared to the level of bloodshed that has come before it… although maybe not when compared to what comes after it…

Foetus now devoured, Klaus makes his way over to the villa and stabs Carol in the neck before chasing Julie. Julie makes her way up the stairs and grabs Rita before making their way up into the attic. Unable to open the locked hatch, Klaus gives up and disappears leaving the two women to catch their breath. A few moments of silence is quickly ended as Klaus’ arms burst through the roof and grab hold of Rita’s head. Not sure how he managed to climb onto the roof that quickly given how slowly he walked in the previous scenes but just go with it.

With her head now sticking out of the roof, Klaus begins chowing down on her neck before Julie manages to puncture his leg with a pick axe, causing him to fall off the roof in agony. It’s too late for poor Rita though, who is dead by the time Julie is able to pull her body back down into the attic.

Julie makes her down the stairs and outside the villa with the pick axe to confront Klaus. This act of bravery is quickly undone though when she peers over the edge of a well and is pulled down it, with her hand trapped in the rope, leaving her suspended above the water whilst Klaus begins to creep his way up the ladder from the bottom. I’m fairly certain that Klaus falling from the roof to the depth of a well may kill, or severely maim, a man.

Luckily, Julie manages to get a foot hold of the ladder and begins making her way up to the top of the well, rather stupidly letting the rope still dangle below so that when she does make it out of the well, Klaus is able to stop Julie from running away. Things are looking bleak when suddenly, out of nowhere, Alan slams the pick axe into Klaus’ stomach. As he grumbles in agony, Klaus takes hold of his intestines, pulls them out of his stomach and begins eating them. I’m not sure if this is because he is feeling hungry or because he thought re-ingesting them would solve the problem of the massive wound he had just received. Either way, it’s pretty graphic and again, over the top, but a fun way to end the film and obviously gave us the image used for the amazing poster artwork. The film then ends, with Alan and Julie looking at each other in utter shock at what they have just seen… probably not too dissimilar to that of the BBFC upon first viewing the film back in the 80s. I can’t help but wonder how funny it would have been if they had decided to play the jolly tones of “Zorba’s Dance” after all the carnage at the end instead of the ominous score, but it’s probably best they didn’t.

I love “Anthropophagous”, it has everything I want from an Italian horror/exploitation film. A dark menacing atmosphere, questionable dubbing, unintentionally funny moments of dialogue and over the top gore. George Eastman is excellent as Klaus Wortmann, a scary and intimidating figure with seemingly no rationale for his bloodshed. The rest of the cast are ok, probably not helped with some pretty poor dubbing (from some very recognisable voices) with Tisa Farrow being the standout as Julie. It’s a shame she decided to retire from acting after this film.

The score by Marcello Giombini is effective at points but not so at others. I do remember liking the score on the “The Grim Reaper” version of the film more but clearly that music was lifted from a film with a far bigger budget. I would love to see the uncut version of the film with that score over the top but I doubt that’ll ever happen due to rights. That’s not to say Giombini’s effort is bad, it’s just it is noticeably cheap sounding when compared to “The Grim Reaper” score but I doubt I would have even noticed if I hadn’t seen the other version of the film prior. The music used during the tomb scene works a treat though.

Joe D’Amato is a great director and the film is well shot and put together. D’Amato and Eastman would collaborate yet again a year later with a “sort of” sequel to “Anthropophagous” entitled “Absurd”. A remake of “Anthropophagous” was released in 1999, entitled “Anthropophagous 2000”, directed by Andreas Schnaas, which I haven’t seen, but the cover doesn’t fill me with much hope.

There’s not much more to say really. If you can stomach the gore then this film is a treat. It gives you pretty much everything you could want from a film like this, gratuitous gore, a cannibalistic zombie… the only thing missing is some naked flesh! It is genuinely creepy and scary at points whilst also having a few unintentionally funny moments. I have heard some criticism that the middle of the film drags but I have to disagree. There’s always something going on and the film feels like it zips along at a steady pace in my opinion. I do think “Anthropophagous” gets forgotten about when people talk about the Italian horror genre, often it’s the films of Argento, Fulci, Deodato and Bava which get the most attention, but that’s not to say this film doesn’t have fans, because it does and I am one of them! I will always fly the flag for this film, for D’Amato and for Eastman… gents, I salute you.