I found myself laughing in several scenes where I would normally turn away and say, "Eew!" The heavenly accented guy listening to Wagner, picking up a female hitchhiker and choosing an odd snack to much on; the same girl being chased through a huge Ralph's grocery store by a dozen of people she just found gobbling up raw meat, the theater done all in red...Something very profound about all of these scenes with a gentility at the core of its structure, and something that makes this stand out among the hundreds of similar grindhouse films in the 1970's.
The basic story has college aged Marianna Hill showing up in a beach town looking for her father and discovering that the town is practically abandoned. The only people there seem to be raw meat eaters, apparently preferring human meat but going for raw sirloin if raw college kid flesh isn't available. We get Michael Greer as an apparent cult leader as well as veterans Elisha Cook Jr. and Royal Dano as well. Hill is obviously an intended victim, and those who do get chosen for their filet get amusing farewells. It's easy to dismiss films like this as sleezy or exploitive, but every once in awhile comes along one where the ideas genuinely work. There are some slow moments that work against the film, but for the most part, this one is worth searching out for fans of good, well planned out horror.
The basic story has college aged Marianna Hill showing up in a beach town looking for her father and discovering that the town is practically abandoned. The only people there seem to be raw meat eaters, apparently preferring human meat but going for raw sirloin if raw college kid flesh isn't available. We get Michael Greer as an apparent cult leader as well as veterans Elisha Cook Jr. and Royal Dano as well. Hill is obviously an intended victim, and those who do get chosen for their filet get amusing farewells. It's easy to dismiss films like this as sleezy or exploitive, but every once in awhile comes along one where the ideas genuinely work. There are some slow moments that work against the film, but for the most part, this one is worth searching out for fans of good, well planned out horror.