Looking back these days at the movies on the list of Video Nasties drawn up in the early 80s by the UK's Director of Public Prosecutions, one is often left wondering what all the fuss was about. In the case of "Antrophagus: The Beast" AKA "Antrophagus: The Grim Reaper", with its infamous ripping-out-a-fetus-and-chomping-on-it scene, it is easy to see. However, fetus grimness aside, 'Antrophagus' is a disappointing horror which neither lives upto the hype of its infamous set-piece or the promising first act of the movie.The film begins with the slaughter of a young couple on a pleasant beach on a remote Greek Island by something which emerges from the sea. Sometime later a young group of holidaying tourists (friends of the slain couple) arrive and find the island deserted Mary Celeste style. They begin to investigate, catching glimpses of a mysterious woman before they finally stumble upon a hysterical blind girl who tells them of a monster whose presence she can smell from the odor of blood it carries. From there the members of the group are gradually picked off by something which is eventually revealed to us to be a disfigured and insane George Eastman.Unfortunately, while the first third establishes a convincingly uncomfortable atmosphere courtesy of the island and the house, and the build up to the monster's reveal is quite well done… after this the film deflates quite quickly. For all its hype there is actually very little in the way of action/gore and after the plot has revealed itself we still have to suffer a lot of shots of people walking around like they have done for the whole of the film upto that point. However, it should be noted that the film does attempt some modicum of character development and has some only-just-sub-par acting in order to carry the viewer through the boredom…even though it falls short of the mark. And then, the fetus eating scene (in fact a skinned rabbit)! Sure, this is a gruesome and repugnant idea, but to be honest the scene isn't shot that well, doesn't really make sense, fails to repulse, and so ultimately disappoints.It's a shame really as every now and then you catch glimpses of what could be a great movie, but the editing, the acting, and (to be honest) the monster, let it down and (while it's much, much better than the follow up 'Absurd') still bores where it should scare, and elicits yawns where there should be screams.

A group of tourists head to a Greek island where they are puzzled to find no one around. Eventually, they run into a blind girl who can't solve the mystery but tells them of a man who smells like blood. That man would be George Eastman, who was forced to commit some horrible acts while stranded at sea and was so traumatized, he had no choice but to go cannibal on his friends and neighbors when he returned home.No one watches this for the story, and there are a few standout gore pieces. However, if you're watching it for the gore, be sure to avoid the cut versions. If you get one of these instead of a full version, it will make even less sense and you get no payoff. :) Anthropophagus isn't as shocking as I'd been led to believe, but it does have its own grimy, nasty charm.

The plot is simple- a group of tourists wander around a deserted island and fall victim to a zombie-like, cannibalistic killer. The pacing is a bit slow for about the first half of the movie and the acting isn't Oscar worthy but if you've seen any other movies by Joe D'Amato that will come as no surprise. That being said I found it to be very atmospheric, the island had a cool, creepy look to it. That, for me, made up for the pacing. Once the movie gets going it definitely delivers the goods in terms of gore. You've got fetus eating, stabbings, some facial reconstruction, disembowelment, intestine eating, etc. It's all done in graphic detail and the fx are pretty decent. Over all I thought this movie was pretty good and it lives up to it's reputation.

Antropophagus is the first Joe D'Amato film I have seen, having heard quite a bit about the director and his works. I was kinda excited to finally sit down and watch this, as I have heard a lot about it, and I am currently trying to watch all the video nasties so having got a hold of another one delighted me! Unfortunately this one, after getting to a promising start, descends into nothingness for too long, before finally getting to the gore in the last 20 minutes.The story is extraordinarily simple: a group of people arrive at an island to find it is totally abandoned. Unluckily for them, everyone is actually dead, and a deformed cannibal is running loose murdering and eating anyone he can. So, over the course of the night and the next day the group are one by one dispatched in gruesome ways.Now, the lack of an interesting plot does not annoy me, in fact, this movie COULD have been very good. The opening is quite promising, but most of the middle section of the film consists of the group wandering aimlessly around the island. These scenes drag on for way too long, and eventually become very annoying. There are some scenes here and there which are well shot and are full of atmosphere, with a sense of dread permeating the air. When the maniac is first revealed in the house, it is a pretty terrifying scene, and the build up is fantastic. Likewise, the chase at the end is fantastic and incredibly tense. It is moments like these which show that D'Amato has some skill as a director, but he does not know how to build tension and keep it for a long period of time and he just does not know how to keep a story going.For example, there is a subplot with a lady in black who we see stare out of a couple of windows. This is all though, the obvious mystery surrounding her and the murderer is not developed at all, leaving nothing at all. The acting and dialogue are god-awful, and there are numerous unintentionally funny scenes (like the awesome product placement segment on the boat, you will know it when you see it). However, the gore, when it comes around, is well done and suitably sick. There are two scenes in particular which have become rightly famous for being over the top and depraved.Overall, Antropophagus is not a bad movie, nor a good one. Despite the many poor qualities, the movie definitely has strengths which lift it above being poor. I would recommend it to people who are intent on seeing everything nasty, but with a warning that it is very slow.2½/5