When I think of exploitation, I think of a film which has no redeeming value whatsoever and is gratuitous in every conceivable manner for the mere sake of notoriety in order to turn a quick and easy buck. This is the problem I have with most of the films found upon the Director of Public Prosecution’s Video Nasties list. Many of them, Abel Ferrara’s The Driller Killer being the most notable, posit some facet of skill or craft during their cinematic venture. Joe D’Amato’s Anthropophagus is no exception. This isn’t to imply that the film is a masterpiece by any means, but it is far removed from arbitrary excess, which is what censorship and banning oftentimes hope to counter.
A set of friends–Andy (Saverio Vallone), the soon-to-be father of Maggie’s (Serena Grandi) child; Daniel (Mark Bodin), who is dating Carol (Zora Kerova); and Arnold (Bob Larsen)–decide to spend their vacation on a small Greek island which houses a family mansion owned by Julie’s (Tisa Farrow) boss. Julie is in attendance in order to meet her two friends (Simone Baker and Mark Logan), who–unbeknownst to her–recently perished on the beach. The group finds the island town deserted with the exception of one strange woman (Rubina Rey), who perpetually disappears as soon as she is spotted. Shortly after nightfall, Maggie goes missing. As her friends attempt to locate her, they find Rita (Margaret Mazzantini), a blind girl who states that something has killed everyone on the island except her, her survival due to her psychic ability to sense the killer’s presence. When Carol discovers Julie and Daniel kissing, Carol locks the seductress in an abandoned cemetery. As everyone goes in search of Carol, Daniel is killed. Will they be able to find Carol and Maggie before it’s too late?
The opening sequence is so well paced and shot that one would hardly expect that Anthropophagus, the ten-dollar term for cannibal, much like the film’s name, would go on to beleaguer itself by way of its own running time as D’Amato stalls in order to reach his feature-length quota. However, though the film does bare upon its audience at times, the cinematography for such a supposedly useless waste of celluloid forces one to pause, suspicious. The viewer is then given to question, once the killer is given a very plausible–if not empathic–alibi, that he or she might even inadvertently scoff at the powers that be who declared the film socially reprehensible. By the end of the feature, as we reflect back and realize that there was only a slight moment of nudity, we are forced to stop and openly declare that, undoubtedly, James Ferman, director of British Board of Film Censors, was to horror film in the 1980’s what Joseph McCarthy was to American free thought during the 1950’s for Anthropophagus by no means pushes any boundaries unnecessarily and when it does happen to cross the line, it first pauses to politely account for the need to do so. In all honesty, by ratio to the natural progression of the arts continually testing the limits of acceptability, Anthropophagus isn’t that far removed–especially in the realm of horror–from the norm.
Also of note, Anthropophagus sets the groundwork for Andrea Bianchi’s Burial Ground a year later as Bianchi all but xeroxes the setting, pacing, and locale scene-for-scene. The cinematic crime being that, not only did Bianchi plagiarize Anthropophagus, but Burial Ground was never banned even though, unlike D’Amato’s film, it never once attempts to justify its vicious, gruesomely carnal nature. Needless to say, the masterful editing by Ornella Micheli and cinematography by Enrico Biribicchi in Anthropophagus are never eclipsed in Bianchi’s tripe.
However, for all of the craft and skill which is evidenced during Anthropophagus, the pacing and dubbing oftentimes negate these salient features as the horrendous combination of the former unfortunately make D’Amato’s film a prime candidate for MST3K.
Overall, Joe D’Amato’s Anthropophagus is a notable work, very much on par with Italian horror cinema during its time. Of course, its misfortunate selection by the DPP to ban the work resulted in the paradoxical irony that the director and production company received quite a bit of free publicity as a consequence, the work even being rumored to have generated a blurb on the evening news as being a snuff film in order to deter would-be viewers. Obviously, after everything was said and done, Joe D’Amato and Co. had the last laugh. Not bad for an aggregation of former pornographers making their first outing as horror directors.
-Egregious Gurnow
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
