‘Name’s Buck… and I’m rarin’ to fuck…’
Horror legend Tobe Hooper had a strange career. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre put his name on the map and eventually led to his work on Poltergeist (two incredibly different films) and the rest of his filmography is made up of curios and oddities. Eaten Alive, the follow-up to Texas Chainsaw, is typical of Hooper’s complete disinterest in making something that is palatable for the masses…
What is the plot here? A strange man (Neville Brand) who owns a dingy motel that has a moat around it that houses an alligator (or a crocodile depending on who you talk to) attacks his various guests with a scythe for reasons that are never really clear. Marilyn Burns (the protagonist in Texas Chainsaw) returns as another unfortunate victim and the cast also boasts an early appearance from Freddy Krueger himself – Robert Englund. Horror royalty indeed.
Eaten Alive is such a discordant and jarring experience that it’s difficult to say with any authority whether this film is good or not. It has moments that are frightening but the experience I felt most when watching Hooper’s film was discomfort. There are times when it felt like I was watching a snuff film. It’s grainy and lo-fo and just… weird. Even the score feels like a randomly assembled selection of unusual noises rather than something coherent.
With Eaten Alive, Hooper has created a strange, fever dream of a film that is visceral even though it isn’t always successful.
