(Reviewed by Snake-666) -One of the lesser entries in the Italian cannibal sub-genre.  Following a spate of killings in Canada and New York City by an unknown assailant, Sheila (Janet Argren) learns that the mysterious assassin was in possession of a piece of film which features scenes of cannibalistic rituals and, even more remarkably, Sheila's long-time missing sister, Diana (Paola Senatore). After consulting with an expert, Sheila sets off for the jungles off New Guinea in the hope of finding her missing sister. While on her way she encounters Vietnam War veteran-turned-traitor Mark Butler (Robert Kerman) who, after some discussion, reluctantly agrees to assist in finding Diana.

Umberto Lenzi, who started the cycle of Italian made cannibal films with the repellent ‘Deep River Savages' (1972) and then effectively ended it with the nauseating ‘Cannibal Ferox' (1981), directed this precursor to the latter just one year beforehand and, sadly, this movie lacks any real moments of interest which forces it to degenerate into simple, mindless exploitation completely lacking in storyline or morality. One may be deterred enough by the seemingly endless displays of animal cruelty which offer nothing more than a cheap alternative to make-up effects. However, Lenzi was not willing to merely just stop at exploiting animals. In addition, Lenzi's ‘Eaten Alive' features a rather obvious and morally corrupt attempt at cashing in on the unfortunate disaster of 1978 regarding Jim Jones and The People's Temple Cult. Around nine hundred people (including almost three hundred children) lost their lives in the jungles of Guyana thanks to the deranged Jim Jones and remarkably Lenzi feels that it would be in good taste to portray a similar cult a mere two years later. Obviously, the exploitation sub-genre was never intended to be pleasant or sensitive yet one has to question how Lenzi can use such a tragedy as a catalyst for profit-making ventures, and then condemn the actions of those who exploit the weak a year later in ‘Cannibal Ferox'. The word `hypocrite' springs to mind.

Discarding the somewhat unforgivable atrocities of ‘Eaten Alive' the movie remains a tedious entry in the cannibal sub-genre laced with the standard fare such as castration, rape, dismemberment and obviously cannibalism. To be fair, the grotesque effects in this movie were generally of a decent standard although slight lapses in quality are apparent. The movie may appeal to gorehounds (despite being less gory than many of the other movies in the sub-genre) but for those who would like some sort of production values to be evident in their movie viewing ‘Eaten Alive' will surely fail to satisfy. Something that may come as a surprise is the amount of `borrowed' footage that is present in the movie. The cannibal sub-genre was somewhat famed for the recycling of ideas but never before have I witnessed footage from other similar movies actually present in another film. The most apparent use of another film's footage comes about three quarters of the way through when scenes from ‘Mountain of the Cannibal God' (1978) are quite obviously displayed for all to see. It would appear that ‘Cannibal Rip-off' may have been a more fitting name for this movie. Luckily (depending on your point of view), there is nearly enough gore and nudity for one to forget about the `borrowed' footage and completely ludicrous and ineptly written dialogue. Even the acting performances bordered on the bizarre at times and for once Robert Kerman (pornstar Richard Bolla) was actually made to look like an incredibly talented actor in the face of wooden, monotonous and (on occasion) ridiculously hammy performances from the rest of the cast.

Despite the rather morally distorted sentiments present in ‘Eaten Alive' there is a little sense of justice, albeit perverted, as the weak do to an extent exact revenge for those who exploit other put-upon races on the other side of the globe. Unfortunately any real morality message that was attempted to be portrayed in ‘Eaten Alive' is over-shadowed, and even hidden, by the unnecessary exploitation of animals and history. Sadly, ‘Eaten Alive' had the potential to be a little bit more than just a cheap exploitation movie but the option was never taken. Instead the viewer is left with a barely watchable and ultimately boring movie with no real redeeming features. For the cannibal fanatic this movie may prove to be a worthwhile purchase but for the regular (horror) movie fan, ‘Eaten Alive' is not really worth the time. The majority will probably be better off skipping over this rather poor entry in the sub-genre and going straight to ‘Cannibal Ferox' (1981) which was a much more sober, arranged and enthralling movie. In my opinion ‘Cannibal Ferox' is the best movie that the sub-genre has to offer; closely followed by ‘Cannibal Holocaust' (1979). For all its faults ‘Eaten Alive' is kind of entertaining the first time round but fails to hold up to repeated viewing. My rating for ‘Eaten Alive' (1980) – 5/10.