Eaten Alive

Eaten Alive title

AKA: Mangiati Vivi, Mangiati Vivi dai Cannibali, Eaten Alive by the Cannibals, The Emerald Jungle, Doomed to Die.

Tag Line : They didn't have a chance!

Not to be confused with the film Death Trap by Tobe Hooper (which was titled Eaten Alive for its US release), this film is actually another vile cannibal offering from the infamous "sicko" Umberto Lenzi, who also directed the brutal "Cannibal Ferox".

Shelia Morris (Janet Agren) is searching for her long lost sister Dianne, who's run off with some bizarre religious cult, who operate a purification sect in the jungles of New Guinea. Setting out to try and find her, she hires former Vietnam-veteran Mark Butler (Robert Kerman), to help her track down the location of the cults headquarters.

Unfortunately as they venture deeper into the jungle they have a bit of a run-in with a rather unfriendly alligator, which overturns their canoe and eats one of their guides. Forced to make the rest of the journey on foot, they then have a run-in with an even more unfriendly cannibal tribe, who subsequently eat their other guide, before they're rescued by some members from the religious cult they're searching for.

After being taken to their camp, they are then introduced to the cults leader, the mad Jonas (Ivan Rassimov) who's favourite passtimes are drugging and brainwashing his followers, sexually assaulting the females in his sect and trying out different shades of eye shadow to see which one makes him look the most menacing.

Deciding that they should leave as soon as possible, they grab Shelia's sister and with the aid of one of the other members named Mowara (Me Me Lai), they grab some supplies head off into the jungle to try and escape. Unfortunately, Dianne and Mowara get recaptured by Jonas's followers, who in turn get captured by the local cannibal tribe (who rather resemble a Hawaiian, an Oriental and a sun-tanned American), who proceed to start cutting off their extremities and munching on them in front of them.

Sheila and Mark manage to get away from Jonas's followers, only to then get chased around the jungle by the local cannibals, who want to turn them into their next meal. But as luck would have it, they're rescued in the nick of time by the authorities who've been combing the area in helicopters trying to find Jonas's encampment.

Now, depending on which version of this film you see depends on the overall mark I've awarded for this film. The heavily edited UK version is quite enjoyable, indeed it comes across as being a cheap and cheesily cheerful jungle adventure. The full uncut version however is a very different story and is equally vile and twisted as "Cannibal Ferox", featuring lots of unnecessary GENUINE animal butchery, which ranges from a muskrat fighting a snake, to an alligator having a knife rammed through its skull and an iguana being skinned and gutted in graphic close-up.

Overall Marks :	4/10 (for the edited version).
	1/10 (for the uncut version).

Other Information.

The former soft-porn star Robert Kerman (also known as Richard Bolla) had previously starred in "Cannibal Holocaust" by rival genre director Ruggero Deodato, he also went on to star in Lenzi's "Cannibal Ferox". Ivan Rassimov and former TV presenter Me Me Lai had previously starred in Lenzi's "Deep River Savages" (aka Man from Deep River) and also Deodato's "Cannibal" (aka Ultimo Mondo Cannibal).
Janet Agren also starred in Lucio Fulci's "City of the Living Dead" and Mel Ferrer, who played Professor Carter, also appeared in Tobe Hooper's "Death Trap", which coincidentally enough was also entitled "Eaten Alive" in the US.
I couldn't help but notice distinct similarities in this film and in the directors later pic "Cannibal Ferox". They both start off in New York, the intro music to both films is very similar, featuring 70's detective sort-of style music, the incidental music in this was re-used for Ferox, they feature similar cast members and the same style of cheap special effects shots of disembowelment and castration. To make matters worse, Lenzi also used stock footage from his earlier "Deep River Savages", for certain scene's along with footage "borrowed" from "Mountain of the Cannibal God" and "Cannibal" .
The film was apparently available in the UK prior to the introduction of the "Video Recordings Act" on the "Vampix" label. I am uncertain as to whether this version had been cut or not, but I do know that it was never listed on the governments "Video Nasties" hitlist.
The current UK release on the "Vipco" label was passed without any cuts being made by the BBFC, although the distributors had already pre-cut approximately 5-mins of footage prior to submission. These removed all the scene's of animal killing and toned down or totally removed some of the more violent scene's.
"Vipco" also released the uncut version in Denmark. The film is also available uncut in Holland on the "Professional Cine' Media" and "E.C. Entertainment" labels. An uncut US DVD by "Shriek Show" is also available.