EATEN ALIVE

After making The Texas Chainsaw Massacre director Tobe Hooper's next film was Eaten Alive (aka Death Trap). It's a simple movie about a crazy old man who runs a motel in the swamps of east Texas and feeds his clientele to a pet crocodile. And that's about all there is to it. The movie is far removed from Chainsaw Massacre and is not the direction Hooper would have been expected to take. He re-teams with crew and actors from TCM and I guess he was trying to establish himself as a versatile, albeit still horror, director. I'm on the fence with the movie though... there's a lot to like about it and the setting is really appealing to me. It has that artificial sound-stage vibe about it and I love movies like that... and it owes a lot to Hitchcock's Psycho with its motel setting and story of a girl who goes missing and her family come searching... but nothing actually happens. While brutal a lot of the violence is off camera and its just a repetition of kill, feed, kill, feed. lol Every few years I return to watch the movie hoping to get a new appreciation for it... no improvement unfortunately. LOL I want to LOVE this movie but seriously doubt that will happen.

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