ANTHROPOPHAGUS THE BEAST

(A.k.a. ANTHROPOPHAGUS; THE GRIM REAPER; THE SAVAGE ISLAND)

The onscreen title is THE SAVAGE ISLAND.

A young couple gallivant through the quiet streets of a Mediterranean island, making their way to its secluded beach for a sunny afternoon together. The girl goes swimming in the sea while the lad slips his headphones on and lays back to chill out on the sand.

The girl is drawn to a seemingly deserted rowing boat drifting in the water. Bad move. Moments later, the water is polluted with her blood ... and an unseen fiend creeps stealthily onto the beach and up to the oblivious lad, who opens his eyes just in time to see a hatchet being buried into his face.

It's safe to say that this island isn't the best place to visit. But no-one thought to warn a group of witless tourists which includes heavily pregnant Maggie (Serena Grandie), dour tarot card reader Carol (Zora Kerova), and prize plums Andy (Saverio Vallone), Arnold (Bob Larson) and Daniel (Mark Bodin).

We first meet these hapless fuckwits on board a cable car, where they announce their intentions to fellow traveller Julie (Tisa Farrow). Despite knowing nothing about her, the men find her attractive enough to welcome her request to tag along with them.

Of course, upon their arrival the group are quick to discover that the island is all-but deserted. Or so it initially appears. The penny starts to drop for these halfwits when they begin discovering the mutilated corpses of residents, and stumble upon a diary which details (with the aid of flashbacks for us viewers) how a local man called Klaus (Luigi Montefiore) became shipwrecked, demented and mutated into a murderous cannibal a short time ago.

The island has never been the same since. And the worst news for our group of tourist clowns is that Klaus is still on the island, and he's now hungrier than ever...

Shot around Italy and Greece, the sun-kissed locations and distinctive architecture of rural Greece definitely aide the film's look. The setting very much becomes a character of the film in itself. Which is good because, aside from the monster, all other characters in the film are wooden one-dimensional affairs. It's great to see the likes of Farrow and Kerova on screen, of course, but the script gives neither of them much to do other than look confused and/or concerned for the most part. The males in particular are vacuous cretins who thoroughly deserve their demises.

Well-shot and quite smartly edited, ANTHROPOPHAGUS is actually better made than a lot give it credit for. Perhaps its reputation as one of the most notorious video nasties has, over time, overshadowed the fact that it's one of director Aristide Massaccessi's most comprehensible and technically tight horror films.

It's also worth noting that it's nowhere near as grisly as its reputation probably suggests. Sure, there is blood - charmingly crude gore effects are more effective than they have any right to be - but newcomers may be struck by how nasty the film generally ISN'T, and the fact that the violence is actually used quite sparingly. Still, the OTT finale is almost worth the price of admission alone.

Montefiore is always a powerful onscreen presence and he plays the monster perfectly here. There's a wild abandon in his eyes that elevates his crusty face make-up into something truly sinister, and yet the prolific actor (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Massaccesi) is savvy enough to imbue his character with the slightest hint of pathos: beneath the brutality, there is a vague sympathy to be had for this animalistic madman.

Marcello Giombini's score has mixed results. The synth-led horror tones are effective in that typical, almost nauseating early 80s manner. The rest of the time, the music plays like some ridiculously twee travelogue soundtrack. Either way, it's all oddly appropriate and memorable.

Ultimately a tad slow and hampered by risible performances, ANTHROPOPHAGUS is however a fun artefact from a time when the Italian film industry wasn't above showing graphic depictions of people devouring foetuses - or their own intestines - to win the hearts of hardcore horror fans.

Despite numerous DVD releases over the last 15 years or so, ANTHROPOPHAGUS has never looked great on home video. This new restoration by 88 Films is, however, by far the best it's ever appeared.

Presented as a decently sized MPEG4-AVC file, the full 1080p HD picture retains the film's original 1.66:1 aspect ratio and enhances it for 16x9 televisions.

Shot on 16mm and later blown up to 35mm for theatrical screenings, the film elements have never been fantastic. But colours, detail and depth are all significantly improved here over all previous presentations. A fine layer of natural grain remains throughout, ensuring a naturalistic filmic look and feel exists over any unwelcome noise reduction. Some inherent softness and watered-down colour schemes are unavoidable and are purely down to the manner in which the film was shot: it's safe to say this bright and clean presentation is easily the best ANTHROPOPHAGUS has ever looked, and most likely ever will look.

Audio comes in options of English and Italian soundtracks. Both are clean and, again, greatly improved over previous releases, where audio has always suffered from muffled, source-damaged problems. Here, the playback is reliable and consistent throughout (both tracks come in lossless mono forms). English subtitles are provided for the Italian track. These are well-written and easy to read at all times.

It's worth noting that the opening double-murder scene is presented in (dubbed) German language on both tracks. It does not come with English subtitles.

A static main menu gives way to a pop-up scene selection menu allowing access to the film via 8 chapters.

The best bonus feature by far is an all-new 82-minute documentary entitled "42nd Street Memories". Coming from High Rising Productions, this is shot in crisp HD and feels very much like a labour of love. More importantly, it tells the story of New York's legendary stretch of storefront and grindhouse cinemas in perfect, enthusiastic detail. Onscreen commentators include the likes of promoter Terry Levene, filmmakers Lloyd Kaufman, Jeff Lieberman, Sam Sherman, Frank Hennenlotter, Buddy Giovanazzo, Richard W Haines, Joe Dante, Larry Cohen, Matt Cimber and William Lustig, and porn star Veronica Hart, provide a priceless first-person account of how these sleazy outlets influenced life and fashion in the Big Apple during the 70s and 80s.

Interspersed throughout with great clips from key films such as THE EXTERMINATOR, BASKET CASE and ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST, along with an abundance of eye-grabbing original posters, the documentary is great fun - and an important historical document in that it captures a true account of this bygone era from the mouths of those directly involved. 42nd Street Pete also features heavily (minus his trademark hat and mac!), offering an encyclopaedic retrospective view which perfectly complements the other players' anecdotes.

The original Italian opening titles to the main feature are also included as an extra. These run for 103 seconds and boast a so-so DVD quality to them.

Three trailers follow: each bears a different title (ANTHROPOPHAGUS; THE SAVAGE ISLAND; THE GRIM REAPER) but are very similar otherwise. Despite grain, specks, print damage etc, these are enormously entertaining fare. They run for just under 10 minutes in total.

The disc is also defaulted to open with a new 60-second trailer for ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST. This HD affair generally looks very good, save for what looked to me like obvious noise reduction during a couple of bright daytime sequences. Hopefully I'm wrong there.

This limited edition packaging also comes with double-sided reversible cover artwork, 4 postcards and a slipcase proffering front cover art resembling the original UK pre-cert VHS (video nasty) cover from many moons back.

So ... infamous video nasty ANTHROPOPHAGUS THE BEAST comes to UK blu-ray. Fully uncensored and looking extremely good in HD. Backed up by a couple of trailers, a fantastic feature-length documentary on the legendary 42nd Street, and attractive packaging.

I probably don't need to say this but, yes, this one comes highly recommended indeed.

Also available on DVD.

Review by Stuart Willis