cinema history class: antropophagus (1980)

The session: Work-Aways
Four Movies with horrible horrible characters who remind Keith of some of our craziest work-away stories

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.

Week 1: Antropophagus (1980)
Directed by Joe D'Amato

My Level of Prior Knowledge
Never heard of it.

Plot:
A group of tourists, stranded on a remote Greek island, discover that its inhabitants have been slaughtered by a monstrous, cannibal. As they explore further, they’re hunted one by one by the deranged killer.

Reaction and Other Folderol:

Antropophagus is one of those grimy Euro-slashers that, at first glance, looks like it’s going to follow the standard “tourists stumble into trouble” formula — and for a while, it does. The first act feels almost poky, like the movie is wandering around the island with the characters. But slowly, almost imperceptibly, it becomes a genuine slow burn: the dread keeps tightening, the atmosphere gets heavier, and by the time the violence fully erupts, I realized I was basically holding my breath.

And when the gore comes…wow, they did not phone it in. This thing goes far beyond the usual knife-in-the-dark slasher kills. We get the disturbing “impromptu abortion” sequence, with the killer literally eating a human fetus, someone being pulled through the roof of a building by the scalp, and of course the finale where a monster sees his own guts spilling out of his abdomen and decides to eat them. It’s disgusting, yes, but it’s also surprisingly well-staged and legitimately unsettling. There’s a nasty kind of artistry to it.

The throbbing electronic score is another huge part of why the movie works. It worms its way into your nerves — pulsing, buzzing, vibrating beneath everything like a diseased heartbeat. Even in scenes where nothing is happening, the soundtrack insists that something awful is about to.

And for extra fun, the movie isn’t shy about wearing its influences on its sleeve. There’s a scene lifted so blatantly from Jaws that I half expected the characters to hum the theme. Later on, the film pulls a Carrie-style shock moment that feels like it wandered in from another movie but somehow still fits the vibe.

Antropophagus is revolting, often ridiculous, sometimes sluggish, but ultimately effective — a weirdly well-made piece of Euro-nastiness whose reputation is absolutely earned.

Joe missed this one, so he couldn't rate it a 10. He would have tried to give it a 12, but Bobbo wouldn't have let him