I’m about the biggest Chain Saw nut on the planet.  Now, to clarify, I’m talkin’ the original 1974 masterpiece.  Didn’t much care for the remake (although the producers are great people and top-notch in their field), but dug the freakshow 1985 sequel quite a bit.  And I’m a vocal admirer of director and “Master of Horror” Tobe Hooper’s work in general... even the movies that left me wondering what the hell he was thinkin’.  For many years, though, I’ve puzzled over how the director who made the undeniably perfect ‘74 Chain Saw was also the same guy responsible bigger budgeted but lesser efforts such as Funhouse, Lifeforce, and more recently, the rather limp remake of The Toolbox Murders.  The key to unraveling this mystery, I’ve discovered, is his 1977 follow-up to Chain Saw, the bizarre cult classic, Eaten Alive.

Eaten Alive is the missing puzzle piece for me.  It’s Tobe Hooper’s bridge from his rough, early beginnings to his later studio sensibilities.  If you really want to know who Hooper is as a filmmaker, this movie is a must-see, for good and for bad.  Dark Sky Films has put together a nice little single disc special edition that’s worth picking up if you’ve never seen the film.  I heard about this film for many years but somehow never got around to watching until now.  I think it’s been out of circulation for a while, so I don’t feel too guilty about it.  Like Chain Saw, Eaten Alive is loosely based on real people and events.  It’s about a deranged guy named Judd (Neville Brand) who owns hotel along a foggy bayou that’s infested with man-eating crocodiles.  The film’s also packed with a bunch of prostitutes and other sleazy types.  And just when you think Quentin Tarantino actually comes up with all the cool lines in his movies, you’ll be shocked when Robert (Freddy Krueger) Englund takes the screen as Buck... who’s “here to fuck.”

This movie could only be described as a train wreck.  But, oddly enough, I didn’t hate it.  The big problem is the movie wants to have crazy scares like a little Chain Saw style film, but at the same time wants to be a big slick Hollywood movie.  And it also desperately wants to be Jaws.  The end result is that it’s just a mess, a tangle of weird choices with a few genuine creepy moments.  The most significant thing about the movie is that it now serves as the moment when Hooper made a clear decision about who he is as a filmmaker.  Chain Saw was shot in all real locations, no studio work.  Eaten Alive and pretty much everything since then has been trapped in a soundstage.  It’s obvious that as soon as he could afford to make the jump to stages, that was it, no turning back.  Everything in Chain Saw looks real.  Nothing in Eaten Alive even remotely looks real.  Every shot is overly stylized and the sets look like sets.  But I guess that’s what he wanted to achieve... like he was saying to the audience, Hey, look at me.  I’m shooting in a soundstage.  Isn’t that cool?  But I guess I can’t blame him.