Director Tobe Hooper's follow-up to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre presents yet another Southern-fried psycho (this time in Louisiana) in the form of a scripture-mumbling, one-legged cracker named Judd (Neville Brand). The proprietor of a seedy bayou inn, Judd keeps a pet gator in the nearby swamp, to which he frequently tosses the remains of his unfortunate victims -- including anyone who offends his delicate sensibilities. One such casualty is Harvey Wood (Mel Ferrer), arriving at Judd's hotel in
search of his missing daughter... who, unbeknownst to her old man, has already met her own doom courtesy of the scythe-wielding madman. Other patrons include one of the most annoying families on record -- with Chainsaw veteran Marilyn Burns as the strangely-bewigged mom, William Finley as the browbeaten husband and future Halloween tyke Kyle Richards as the endlessly-shrieking daughter (whose adorable puppy becomes a light gator-snack). Nightmare on Elm Street fans can spot a young, pre-Freddy Robert Englund in a small role as a lecherous cracker. Originally titled Death Trap and known by many aliases, including Starlight Slaughter, Horror Hotel Massacre and Legend of the Bayou. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
A bizarre and largely flawed little beast, but I was pleased with the injected anarchy and direction from Hooper. However, it's clear from this that Hooper really wasn't destined for big things after "Massacre"...
This bayou-set, thinly imagined Psycho knock-off is little more than a derisible piece of slasher mayhem, notable for Tobe Hooper's association and costar Roberta Collins' assertion that star Neville Brand later tried to sexually assault her.
How did Tobe Hooper retrogress so far as to go from 'Texas Chainsaw', my absolute favorite horror film to this sophomore effort which could rank as one of the worst? The gap is quality is astonishing as are the formulaic similarities. Neville Brand is a rabid hotel owner, but he is not spine-tingling; he is just
unkempt, shambling and tiresome doppelganger of Scott Glenn. The film is also extremely redundant with the same patterned structure: guests arrive and shortly after, Brand attacks them with a scythe. On top of that, the assaults are ineptly directed (a struggle on the stairs is very clumsy) and the crocodile is rarely shown. The whole film looks like it was filmed on a horribly artificial soundstage with fog pumped in and lit with a distracting red gel. In summary, 'Eaten Alive' is sluggish, shallow junk that is scored with a shrill, frequency-scrambling soundtrack and edited with anticlimactic crossfades. At least Robert Englund's scenery-chewing Bud character inspired Tarantino for 'Kill Bill'.
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