Eaten Alive (Special Edition) by Tobe Hooper

Fueled by an undeniably eccentric and psychotic performance by the great Neville Brand, "Eaten Alive" is one of those forgotten, greasy, drive-in horror classics that belongs in every true film collector's stash of titles, and DarkSky Films has done an absolutely fantastic job on this set. While the print quality of the film is not necessarily re-mastered (it's an oldie, recall) in terms of cleaning and sharpening, this is a collector's item of a release if anything is. You probably won't be finding this one at Wal-Mart around Halloween.Tobe Hooper (whose "Poltergeist" was simply too stylish to have been concocted entirely by his own hands, but we needn't get into that here) has perfected his gritty, underground, exploitation filmmaking style with this one. Now, read me here, "Eaten Alive" is not for every taste...if you enjoy today's hyper fast editing and silly filmmaking techniques which go FLASH! and AH! at you as if you are a short-attention-spanned geek on "medication," then you won't be in this audience for long, but if you appreciate slower building tension, films that focus upon acting rather than special effects presentations, and movies that have truly lower-brow but nonetheless honest drive-in theatrical intentions, then you may end up endearing to this one as I have. Brand's performance elevates what could have been seedy material into the 'must-see' category--has there ever been a more reliable character actor than him in Western cinema? Viewers should know that there are a couple of nude scenes in the film, that come rather late into the movie...nothing too graphic (for this kind of story) but I'm giving you a heads up--still, Hooper does not eroticize these sexual situations, and that right there tells you something about his more serious intentions as a horror filmmaker. Of course, there is also some blood and gore flying about, but nothing as drastic or hair-raising as in the "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (another classic which used sound to great effect rather than expensive blood buckets). There is some screaming going on (of course), but it's not as annoying here as it is in other horror films--a cheap effect which I feel depletes the tolerability of some horror films which house pretty intense and serious narratives otherwise. And let's not forget that alligator! "The Alligator People" was not nearly as much fun as this.The DarkSky extras on this release are equally collectible and intense. Quality interviews with star Robert Englund and Marilyn Burns are very nice to listen to, while the documentary upon the real-life crazy who inspired this story is fascinating and well-done indeed (kudos to producer Michael R. Felsher, who has done a lot of great work in preserving interest in these old movies via his Red Shirt "making of" productions--titles of which also turn up on recent Blu-Ray and DVD release by the unbeatable Shout/Scream factory). This is the way that an extras disc should be done! Also, a rare (but not terribly revealing) interview with director Hooper is included...he is apparently a rather reclusive and hard to track down figure upon the movie scene (nothing wrong with that in my estimation, but odd for a horror film director with so many unusual pictures on his hands). If you consider yourself a horror collector or a horror fan, you must have "Eaten Alive" in your collection. Otherwise, forget about it being complete. Brand was one hell of an actor, and that's all that can be said about this time capsule of horror cinema. A+

Let me start by saying this is definitely not a great horror movie. It has a low budget, B type movie kind of atmosphere. There are too many long shots of main character mumbling to himself incoherently. We watch his face for minutes as he talks to himself and walks around. Screenplay is thin. Acting is not too bad. Overall, I think the movie is probably 2-3 stars out of 5. However, given its flaws, it still delivers the goods in the right moments. It still manages to create suspense. I give it credit for that. Crocodile effects could be better but they are not horrible. Again, the way it is shot and edited, its flaws are aleviated. I give it credit for that as well. Given the fact this movie wasn't all that popular, I think Arrow video gave it an amazing treatment. Video/Audio quality are quite good. There are a lot of bonus features. I listened to the feature commentary which was very informative. They did an excellent job with this product. I am glad I picked up the blu ray.

EATEN ALIVE Not my favourite Tobe Hooper film but still enjoyable to watch lots of suspense & Horrorbrilliantly written script by Kim Henkel who co-wrote the Texas chainsaw massacreand of course Great Directing by Tobe Hooper himselfan interesting little Horror film which was filmed on a soundstage actually in Hollywood California, not on Locationthe main story is about a mental propertier who owns a Hotel & feeds his Guests to his pet Crocodile/Aligatornot before knocking them out firsti prefer TCM than this story, as i said still enjoyable to watchfirst released on DVD by Dark sky films about 10 years ago now.U.K.'s Arrow films have taken over and released the film on blu-ray with a new 2k HD restoration approved by Tobe HooperArrow films made the effort big time giving this film a new HD transfer making the region A & B for U.S. fansthe picture quality does look excellent very nice restoration in the colour of the film approved by Tobemuch better quality than the very old dvd version i thinkthe sound quality for this new blu-ray is only a Mono sound which i think is a poor effortthe sound mix could've been boosted big time with a new master audio stereo mix at least, not mono sound how stupidArrow films have also added new special features aswell as carrying over all the extras fro the old 2 disc dvd setyou get new interviews with Tobe Hooper, Actress Janus Blythe, and special effects make up man Craig reardonthis new interview with Tobe only goes for 14minsits an alright interview Tobe has memory problems about his recollection of the filmwhich doesn't surprise me he's close to 80 years old nowthe Archive Tobe Hooper interview from the 2 disc dvd set i think is more informative detailed interview about the filmwhich is on this blu-ray aswellthe new interview with Janus Blythe goes for 11mins, i didn't think was very interesting to watchshe only briefly talks about her role in Eaten alive which is about 3mins maybethe rest of the interview is about her Acting careerthe Craig reardon interview was interesting aswellplus all the old extras from the 2 disc dvd set are carried overthe old dvd commentary with producer Mardi rustam & Actress Roberta collins who sadly Died back in 2008 from Drug overdoseas said the old archives interviews from the dvd version are on this blu-rayTobe Hooper interview, Robert Englund, Roberta collinsplus stills Photo Gallery, original trailerif you have the old Dark sky films dvd release, throw it outUpgrade to this new blu-ray version, 5 stars i gave itArrow films have made it region A & B, region 1 & 2 for dvd which has same content as the blu-rayso U.S. fans can buy this release aswell

The atmosphere and actors in this movie are amazing! This movie is horribly slept on and is an amazing movie.The special features really give you a lot of knowledge of what this set was like. Very very cool!Lead actor is a war hero 👏 🙌 💪 ❤️Amazing screams! 👏Must watch!I watched it twice in one night and had a very long nightmare that night with music very similar to the movie lol Love this film.

DVDの品質について文句はないが、内容がｗ　２０年前に一度VHSで見たがこんな感じだったかな。これはフーパーのせいというよりはたぶん「悪魔のいけにえ」が凄すぎてそれを期待したプロデューサーらが映画をダメにしたのだろうと考えている。DVDの品質のおかげで照明とかはきれいなんだが。なんかH・G・ルイスの映画みたいに安っぽい。フレディ・クルーガーを演じて大成するロバート・イングランド。「ファントム・オブ・パラダイス」で大きな印象を残したウィリアム・フィンレイ、そして「悪魔のいけにえ」でトラウマのような名演を残したマリリン・バーンズ。フーパーも含めてみんな滑ってるｗ　主演の狂人は「悪いけ」のオールドマンの演技を求められていたようで、それがモロに出てた。これが伝説の「悪いけ」の次作で、これの次作があの傑作「死霊伝説」とは思えない。

It’s not the best of flicks but it’s a pretty solid,lesser known Hooper outing that is a cross of a Proto-Slasher & a Jaws Ripoff. Also of course Arrow is great with their bonus features.

ARROW comes through again. Another forgotten gem from Tobe Hooper... and this restoration is beyond expectations, especially with all the weird lighting and camera angels. A true art house splatter fest. And a ton of extras... a ton. If you haven't bought an ARROW release yet... well... check yourself... before you wreck yourself... haha they are the criterion of genre releases. Great quality and always many many features.

You better stick with Texas chainsaw Massacre,Not a bad movie but the acting is lame and the story too!