Anthropophagous 2000 (1999)

Joe D’Amato’s Anthropophagous the Beast is not a film that is likely to be remembered for its’ high quality acting or involving plot line, but rather for its’ outrageous gore scenes, including a foetus being ripped from the womb and George Eastman attempting to eat his own intestines after being disembowelled by a pick! No surprises then to find that this remake/homage was helmed by Teutonic splatter maestro Andreas Schnaas, the director responsible for the crimson lashed Violent Shit trilogy and the equally red Zombie 90; Extreme Pestilence.

Plot wise Anthropophagous 2000 varies little from D’Amato’s original; a group of people arrive at a village only to find that the inhabitants have met bloody and gruesome deaths (a discarded newspaper bearing the headline of “Maniac Terminates Village”). Multi-millionaire Nikos Karamanlis has turned into a flesh-eating maniac and after cornering several imminent victims, a flashback sequence serves to inform us how Nikos the man became Nikos the man-eater. Stranded at sea in a dinghy with his wife and child, Nikos kills and eats his family following an argument with his wife.

It’s apparent from the off that Schnaas is here for the gore and although he tries to make something of the gossamer thin plot its’ pretty obvious that Schnaas is not going to let something as trivial as a story get in the way of a great deal of extreme, yet often crude, gore scenes.

The tone is set within the first ten minutes, when a girl on a beach is axed in the back, has her fingers chopped off and the skin ripped from her face! Two male campers are next, the first having his face smashed to a bloody pulp and his intestines ripped through a hole in his stomach and his friend has an arm snapped in two before Nikos sticks his arm down his throat to rip out his victims innards! There are numerous scenes of graphic cannibalism including some Zombie 3 style tit tearing! Nowhere near finished, Schnaas then dishes up a full-length, body impalement Cannibal Holocaust style! And didn’t you know that pregnant woman was going to come in useful! This time around, the man-eater becomes the child-eater (again) as the unborn baby becomes the main course in Nikos’ fearsome flesh feast – once its’ been ripped through a hole in its’ mothers’ stomach! Bleeuurghh!!! And there’s still time for a couple of beheadings and for Nikos to try and eat his own intestines before the credits roll!

Not content with directing, Schnaas also hands himself the title role with facial make up that looks like it was modelled on the old UK pre-cert sleeve! If you like fast and furious splatter then Anthropophagous 2000 will certainly hit the mark however despite clocking in at a lightweight 78 minutes there will still be times when your fingers will be hovering over the picture search button.

Rob Bewick