Anthropophagus: The Grim Reaper Review

Written by: DemonToSome   

Anthropophagus: The Grim Reaper (Antropophagus) is a 1980 film by Joe D'Amato about a group of tourists, island hopping in the Greek Archipelago who end up being stranded on an island inhabited by a crazed cannibal.

It has gained a cult status most likely from being one of the "video nasties" during the 80's and getting banned from some countries. There's a couple of scenes which I won't go into detail for spoiling it, which I'm sure is the cause of it's notoriety.

The movie starts out with a couple getting killed on a beach. We then meet up with the tourists who are talking about a boat cruise. Julie (Tisa Farrow who starred in Lucio Fulci's Zombie 1979) over hears them talking and asks if she can go with them to meet friends on one of the islands. They agree to take her there. Carol (Zora Kerova who starred in Umberto Lenzi's Cannibal Ferox 1981 and Lucio Fulci's The New York Ripper 1982) is a tarot card reader and she isn't to happy with what she read in them. Then for most of the film we are watching them hanging around the island, with a few weird scenes thrown in to make us wonder whats going on...

About two thirds of the way in, we finally see the crazed lunatic (George Eastman who starred in Mario Bava's Kidnapped) for a moment, and he's hungry. Then again in about the last 10 min. which accounts for it's so called nastiness.

The movie doesn't have alot of gore in it except for a few scenes, plus the ones that were cut from some versions of the film. I didn't hate Anthropophagus but it's to bad the movie just drags on because it could have been better if only it had a tighter feel to it. Also for being on the Greek Islands, the cinematography is kind of bland but I guess it doesn't matter much since it isn't a site seeing tour documentary.

I give it a 5.5/6 out of 10.If you have any thoughts of wanting to see this make sure it's the uncut version. Shriek Show DVD is uncut.