Video Nasty #1 : Anthropophagous (AKA The Grim Reaper)

Synopsis: A bunch of twenty-something Americans who are less likeable than the Manson Family charter a boat to a remote Greek island to meet up with their English friends. When they arrive on the island it is seemingly deserted apart from a mysterious (i.e. old) woman who keeps popping up in windows and disappearing. One by one the jerks are killed by a heavy breathing beardy cannibal (If you're going be stalking people, work on your cardio). Towards the end of the film we discover that the man was driven to cannibalism after accidentally killing and eating his wife and son.

In 2010 i'm attempting to watch and review all of the films on the DPP Video Nasty list.Click here for an explanation.

You know when you wake up after a night out and realise that you've agreed to do something stupid in a drunken stupor? I had that exact feeling when I received my first three Video Nasties in the post. Staring at the man with his head imprisoned in a bamboo box on the cover of Deep River Savages I didn't know whether to feel more sorry for him or me - Yeah, you're about to a human entree, but at least you don't have to watch Killer Nun. Regardless, I committed to this stupid endeavor and im going to finish it.

Anthropophagous eased me into the process gently and I actually enjoyed it much more than I could ever of expected. The production values are relatively high (emphasis on relative w.r.t. the list) and it moves along at a decent enough place. The film is directed by Joe D'Amato, who's name pops up on the DPP list a few times. The man has directed 196 movies, although the word 'Movie' is a probably a little kind considering most of them have titles like Sexy Treasure Hunt Show and Robin Hood: The Sex Legend. Like many horror films of the era the script isn't the film's strongest point; the dialog is forced and unnatural, especially when exposition is involved.

The soundtrack is heavily orchestrated, which would be impressive if it didn't sound like it has been lifted from a Thundercats episode. The biggest problem was the lighting. I wouldn't be surprised if the lighting guy had an Alsatian in a high vis. jacket. There are a number of scenes where someone is carrying a candle in a dark house. The lighting solution to this was to shine a torch in the actor's face. If this wasn't bad enough the torch was being held by someone with a hand shakier than Jimmy Saville.


Something that really distracted me was the eponymous beast. He reminded of someone and it took a while to figure out who. At first I thought it was Björn Ulvaeus from Abba, but then I realised. It was Non, one of the three evil Kyrptonians in Superman 2.

My favourite scene involves a disembodied head in a bucket. Not because it was scary, the head looks like a rejected prop from Wurzel Gummidge's head shelf. The writer obviously had an idea that he thought would be terrifying: A female puts her foot in a bucket of water only to find the captain's head in it. How terrifying! Unfortunately to get this convaluted scene to work an actress has to pull up a bucket on a rope onto the boat, put the bucket on the floor and then put her strained ankle in the bucket, all without looking at the bucket. Because the woman's eyes were fixed on the middle distance through out the scene it was entirely predictable and all the more hilarious.


So why was it on the list? The two scenes that probably earned it a reputation as a Video Nasty were cut from my version of the film (apparently the distributor mistakenly submitted the heavily cut version to the BBFC). The original ending had the beast being disembowled and eating his own intestines, which makes sense really. If I was a cannibal i'd like my last meal to be myself - I've been rearing this livestock since I was born, I don't want some other cannibal getting a slice. I'm pretty sure this scene would remain uncut by the BBFC as eating innards is the mainstay of most zombies films since Dawn of the Dead. I don't think the other scene would get passed the BBFC at all, which sees the reaper pulling a featus out of a pregnant woman and chomping on it like it was a happy meal (the effect was achieved using a dead rabbit).

Personally, I think the biggest factor in its banning was probably the VHS cover. Due to the general furore over Video Nasties, many were added to the list for arbitrary reasons, not least of which the VHS 'big box' covers. With the home market being flooded with low-budget horror imports the small independent distributors had to rely upon advertising and video artwork to get their videos sold, always trying to outdo their competitors on the gore stakes. And as you can see from the original video cover above, it's a pretty fantastic and gory cover.

One down, 60 to go.