FleshEater (1988)
5/10
An Overabundance of Flesh in this Flesh Eater
9 November 2009
This film was written, directed, and produced by S. William Hinzman, whose one claim to fame was his memorable role as the cemetery zombie in George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. This film might well have been titled The Further Adventures of George Romero's Cemetery Zombie, because that's essentially what it is -- except that it lacks even a trace of the talent that Romero brought to his masterpiece.

Once Hinzman's zombie rises from his grave early in the movie, the film becomes a non-stop killing spree punctuated with numerous scenes of gratuitous nudity. Now I am far from being a prude, and I appreciate gratuitous nudity as much as the next guy. But this film went too far, in my opinion.

Admittedly, some of the killings are interestingly executed (so to speak) and the gore effects are pretty good for a film this low budget. The acting is at times painfully amateurish, but according to the documentary that accompanies the Shriek Show DVD, the actors were paid only $25 a day. As the saying goes, "you get what you pay for."

The first and last part of the film are reminiscent of Night of the Living Dead -- victims trapped in a farmhouse surrounded by zombies; local yokels rounding up the zombies and shooting them. The middle scenes involving a family in their home preparing to go trick-or-treating and a Halloween party with a bunch of costumed drunken "teenagers" are somewhat more interesting and original.

This film is the definitely least interesting of the three films on Shriek Show's Zombie Pack 2, the other two being Zombie Holocaust and Burial Ground. It is, however, watchable, and the gore effects should please hard-core zombie fans who know exactly what they're getting when they watch this kind of movie. I found the documentary in the Extras section to be more interesting than the movie itself, as it explains how many of the effects were done and includes numerous humorous anecdotes about the making of the movie.

All in all, not a great movie but o.k. as part of a three-disc set.
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