ChainsawChick Goes To The Movies: Eaten Alive (1976)

Oh, what it would be like to see inside Tobe Hooper's imagination! Tobe Hooper, the man behind "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "The Funhouse," the Spielberg-produced "Poltergeist" and "Salem's Lot." Born and raised in Texas, Tobe's at his best when doing twisted Southern Gothic horror films. Nobody really taps into the twisted Southern psyche like Tobe does. A lot of young filmmakers working in the genre nowadays simply make one low-budget horror film, then once that gets them a little bit of recognition, they move onto more "serious" filmmaking. Not Tobe -- he's still out there making films about backwoods sickos and twisted maniacs. My kind of guy ;-D Tobe's most famous for the best lil' film to ever come out of Texas, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" but tonight's drive-in feature is his similarly themed follow-up to that genre classic, a great piece of sick cinema called "Eaten Alive"...

EATEN ALIVE
***
(1977) Directed by Tobe Hooper. Cast: Neville Brand, Mel Ferrer, Carolyn Jones, Marilyn Burns, William Finley, Stuart Whitman, Robert Englund, Crystin Sinclair, Kyle Richards, Janus Blythe.

Tobe Hooper’s follow-up to his genre masterpiece, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE isn’t quite up to par with its predecessor, but it’s got a sick, Southern Gothic charm nonetheless. If William Faulkner passed out after drinking too much Southern Comfort and had vivid, insane nightmares, the end result might be something like this. Psychotic Judd (Neville Brand), like the cannibalistic Sawyer family from CHAINSAW, is a disenfranchised American from the Deep South, managing a decrepit motel out in the swamps. Contributing to his failing business is his penchant for murdering his unfortunate guests and feeding them to his pet crocodile living in the swamp right underneath his porch. Filmed entirely on studio sets with lurid red lighting, EATEN ALIVE has a surreal, nightmarish quality and an atmosphere of degeneracy. Like CHAINSAW, the film is about the anger of rural America. Neville Brand’s crazed performance as Judd carries the film and he’s supported by a great cast of veteran B-movie actors playing equally eccentric characters: Mel Ferrer as a distraught father searching for his missing daughter (who’s of course fallen victim to Judd’s crocodile), Stuart Whitman as a Southern gentleman sheriff, Carolyn “Morticia Addams” Jones as a crotchety madame, William Finley of PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE fame as a deranged dad who may be more insane than Judd, CHAINSAW heroine Marilyn Burns as his pill-popping wife, Janus Blythe (Ruby from THE HILLS HAVE EYES) as a Southern-fried Lolita, and Robert “Freddy Kruger” Englund as sex-crazed good ol’ boy, Buck. Even Kyle Richards, the little girl from HALLOWEEN, is here! Aside from its terrific cast, Hooper fills this one with loads of sleazy charm from gruesome scythe murders (my favorite being a particularly nasty scythe-through-the-neck), a soundtrack of oddball country tunes, silly croc FX, and – as if to make up for the lack of nudity in TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE – gratuitous T&A. Seriously, what’s not to like about a movie where a little girl in a leg brace gets chased by a crocodile? Sick fun for the whole family.

DRIVE-IN TOTALS (Joe Bob-style)
5 dead bodies, 6 breasts, 1 gratuitous tit close-up and 1 gratuitous butt shot (both from Janus Blythe), Robert Englund in tighty-whiteys, Marilyn Burns tied to a bed, 1 wooden leg, death by rake, scythe through the chest, scythe through the neck, puppy dog snacking, leg chomping, gratuitous feather-dusting, 1 scythe chase through the woods, 1 little girl chased by a phony-looking crocodile, bar-brawling, head-chomping, bad wigs a-go-go, cheeseball country-tunes a-go-go, crocodile a-go-go. ChainsawChick says check it out.

Note: Several reviewers have stated that the film is set in Louisiana. While it is never explicitly stated where the film takes place, I would have to disagree and say it takes place in Texas. All of the references to other cities and towns are places in Texas (Judd states his motel is only about an hour from Tyler, Mel Ferrer’s character and his daughter are from Houston), the sheriff has a Texas license plate, and the film is even loosely based on Lone Star croc murderer, Joe Ball.

DRIVE-IN QUOTES

"My name's Buck. And I'm rarin' to fuck."
- Buck, "Eaten Alive."

Yup, that's right. Before Quentin Tarantino borrowed that line for "Kill Bill" it was spoken by none other than future "Nightmare on Elm Street" star Robert Englund. Rock on, Robert ;-D

This one's got such a great cast, I thought for my outro I'd give you some factoids on 'em. The great Neville Brand as Judd, born in Griswald, Iowa but raised in DeKalb, Illinois. He was a former military man, but got into acting through army recruitment films. With his rough features and gravelly voice, he was a natural for "rugged" Lee Marvin-type roles. He starred in many westerns as well as the underrated "The Ninth Configuration" with Stacy Keach (another one of my drive-in favorites). Sadly Neville's no longer with us, having died of emphysema. Rest in piece, Neville.
Stuart Whitman, who plays the sheriff here, was used to doing the same kind of rugged, Western-leading man type roles. He was an ex-military man as well, spending three years with the Army Corps of Engineers where he won thirty-two fights as a light-heavyweight boxer. Most famous for his Academy-nominated performance as a child molester in THE MARK and the sixties TV-series "Cimarron Strip." Born and raised in California, but I think he does a pretty dead-on accent in this film.
CHAINSAW heroine Marilyn Burns is here too playing Faye, the mother. Marilyn was born in Pennsylvania but raised in Houston, Texas (same place I was born and raised). Other than CHAINSAW, Marilyn's probably most famous for playing Linda Kasabian in HELTER SKELTER. She also co-starred in FUTURE-KILL with fellow CHAINSAW star Ed Neal. Sorry to say, Marilyn hasn't done much acting since, but she directs and produces plays in Texas and used to work for the Houston Film Commission.
William Finley plays her whacked-out husband. Most of you probably recognize Finley from Brian DePalma film's, most notably PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE. Finley and DePalma were classmates together at Sarah Lawrence, where Finley starred in many of DePalma's student films. Tobe Hooper also used Finley again in the underrated THE FUNHOUSE as Marco the Magnificent.
And yes, underneath that sickly make-up that's the wonderful Carolyn Jones playing Miss Hattie. Carolyn Jones, most well-known for playing Morticia on TV's "The Addams Family." She also co-starred in HOUSE OF WAX (the Vincent Price classic, not the slasher movie with Paris Hilton) as an ill-fated bimbo as well as the original INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. Carolyn's a Texas girl, born and raised in Amarillo. She suffered from severe asthma all through her childhood, but she survived through her vivid imagination and absorption into movie magazines. She was able to study at the famed Pasadena Playhouse and was at one time married to Aaron Spelling, who never really got over her. Non-horror fans may also recognize her from KING CREOLE, Elvis Pressley's most famous film. Alas, Carolyn is no longer with us as well, having died of cancer in 1983. Rest in peace, Carolyn.
And I can't forget to mention Robert Englund, the man who would be Freddy, as Buck. It's not his first film role as many have cited, but it was one of his earliest. I'm still surprised at how young he looks here. Born and raised in Glendale, California but like Whitman I think he nails the accent and characterization on the head in this film. He attended UCLA for three years and used to work as a TV/radio-host before he changed horror history forever by donning the fedora hat and finger-knives as Freddy Kruger, a hero to a new generation of horror junkies. Robert's made a career with horror film roles, also starring as the Phantom in the '80s slasher remake of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and reuniting with Tobe Hooper for the cheeseball killer laundry-machine flick THE MANGLER. He also did a little directing of his own with the '80s teen horror pic, 976-EVIL, which a lot of people hated but I thought it was a cheeseball classic. Us horror freaks love the man. We'll sit through the worst B-movies just to catch a glimpse of his greatness. And now he's starring as Mayor Buckman in the upcoming remake of 2000 MANIACS. Yee-ha!!
The most famous of the bunch here is probably Mel Ferrer. Jersey-born Ferrer had been acting in summer stock since the age of 15. He went on to be a chorus dancer on Broadway and later a respected New York City stage actor. A struggle with polio kept him off the stage, but Ferrer bounced back doing a successful stint in radio in Texas and Arkansas, then becoming a director/producer for several top-rated shows on NBC. Many will remember him from screen roles like WAR AND PEACE and the puppeteer in LILI. He was also married to Audrey Hepburn. Who'd've thought we'd be able to link Audrey Hepburn back to EATEN ALIVE?
And let's not forget the twisted visionary behind it all, Tobe Hooper. A native of Austin, Texas. Tobe attended University of Texas and started out as a documentary cameraman, before making horror history forever by introducing us to Leatherface and his deranged cannibal clan. He hit something of a slump in the mid 1980s with a seris of commercial flops, but I think his great contributions to the genre really outweigh the lesser ones. He's done a lot of TV-work since, and it seems he's headed for a comeback, directing an episode of the new Showtime series "Masters of Horror" and with upcoming projects MORTUARY and ZOMBIES in the works. Drive-in fans gotta love, Tobe.

Until next time kiddies...pleasant nightmares

Tomorrow night at the drive-in: Henry:Portrait of a Serial Killer