Anthropophagus 2000 Review from Massacre Video!
AKA: Grim Reaper X, Anthropophagus Year Zero, Ressurection, Man Eater 2000, Blood Orgy, Cannibal 2000, Man Beast 2000, L’anthropophage 2000, Anthropophagus 1999: The Devil.
Directed by: Andreas Schnaas
Written by: Karl-Heinz Geisendorf, Joe D’Amato (Based on)
Produced by: Sonja Schnaas
Cinematography by: Marc Trinkhaus
Editing by: Karl-Heinz Geisendorf, Marc Trinkhaus
Music by: Marc Trinkhaus
Special Effects by: Jens Bauhuf, Bernd Meissner.
Cast: Andreas Schnaas, Oliver Sauer, Andre “The Body” Sobottka, Britt B, Andreas Stoek, Cornelia Pablos, Maja Carstens, Sven Carstens.
Year: 1999
Country: Germany
Language: German
Runtime: 1h 16min
Distributor: Laser Paradise, Massacre Video
I am one of a rare breed it seems. I’m somebody who fully loves Joe D’Amato’s Anthropophagus. It’s a product of a time where nasty bloody monsters stalked the film worlds and offered no apology to the sights they showed the viewer. The original Anthropophagus started at a sleepy pace, only to become a ravishing beast full of graphic guts. (I haven’t seen a D’Amato flick yet which I’ve written off as total trash). This one begins as it means to go on and be remembered.
Andreas Schnaas created more of a remake with Anthropophagous 2000. It’s a love letter to video nasties. It’s cheap, it’s crap, but so is a majority of his output and he doesn’t care. His Violent Shit movies are fun! My review for Zombie ‘90 hopefully captures the sheer madness of his mind. Quite simply, with this one, Schnaas has compacted the story and locations to a minimum, and then upped the crimson stuff. That’s something which no critics can ever ever take away from him. His films score a 10 on a gore score scale and always will it seems.
So in this nutshell barebones plot, a few corpses have been discovered in a cave, god knows where. Interpol agents have met up to investigate after handshakes. Bauers, the older and fatter of the three, stays behind in the cave as the others head off to get back up. I think it was mainly down to the fact, one lad spews his dinner up over the neat pile of gory remains. Bauers strolls the cave with his gun, surveying the carnage.
Through a handy and helpful diary which is kicking around the cave, he learns something of the mystery. Flashbacks to Nikos, a big guy on a boat with his family. Hitting bad weather and terrible music, Nikos struggles to keep them safe. In the chaos, his daughter, Vicky, has her head smashed open. What happened next, we will have to wait, for it’s onto the credits and the soundtrack greedily steals your soul.
In keeping to its roots, this version has the beach couple, called Mary (who’s a tattooed Suicide Girl looking gal) and Stuart. This time around, they are in a few minutes longer, having a bit of the old in-out (“Mary you look so wonderful!”) before Mary pops out to look for wood (ha ha). Upon her return, Stuart has had his face ripped off. Trying to escape, Mary is savagely axed to pieces almost in a prolonged violent scene by the hands of an unseen assailant. Additionally, she has one side of her face peeled for a laugh.
Cut to a quiet train station and the arrival into this remake of our jolly gang on their way to die. “Hey-hey! Hi!” and lots of hugs. These are the dead couple’s pals who are going to meet them. Vincent, Marc, Rita — gotta dig their names. There’s also pregnant and heavy Carroll. Driving for ages through the streets, blasting dead Scooby Doo style rock music, they chance upon a quiet and possibly empty village. There’s a glimpse of a woman in black. Finding a grisly sight, there’s also a newspaper which explains the beginnings at least of the end for this village. Georg chases after the woman in black whilst Marc has an asthma attack. Georg finds a message for him written on a window.
Back at the van, Vincent is with Carroll who’s hurt her ankle. He’s chilled out playing his acoustic guitar until a blade is thrust through his neck. Meanwhile, the investigating trio at the village are suitably upset by their findings, so they hide away in the vacation cabin, after discovering someone has nicked the RV. In perfect Jason style, Nikos is keeping busy waiting for them by slaughtering a few woodland campers.
In the basement, they are attacked by Audriet, the blind sister of Mary. She’s probably the only survivor of what happened. Desperately seeking any help, they chance upon the woman in black and watch her die. More corpses are found, plus the journal of Nikos.
Bumping into late arrival, Stan, who’s Carroll’s hubby, they figure out any way possible to fight back. Very soon we see Nikos himself. Expect much more blood to spill.
Nikos (played by Andreas himself) isn’t too badly made up. A cut-price copy of George Eastman, of course. The thing is, he looks way too friendly. Plus it’s revealed he has a conscious, a few emotions. Fuck that! Big George was a rabid animal!
Everything which occurs in the original is in this one (minus the hairy girl armpits luckily) aside from a different set up, and the ending itself. The murders are truly insane. I won’t go into details, but believe me, Andreas Schnaas specialises in pure demented murder-set-pieces. I think the only thing he fails to outdo is the infamous abortion scene, in this version it looks silly. The locations are wonderful, giving it all a feel like Burial Ground (aka Nights of Terror) or Rollin’s Grapes of Death. All rather homely, to be honest.
Andreas has made a lengthy career from gory flicks, directing, acting and putting effects together. He’s one of those people whispered and chuckled about by cult horror followers worldwide. Anthropophagous 2000 passes the time if you go in and realise you won’t see any miracles.
Massacre Video has released a subtitled edition of the low budget epic, but mine unfortunately has none. Released on Laser Paradise as a Red edition, it has decent sound and picture quality (this is a curse sometimes because sharp images kind of reveal some of the effects as cheap), but lacks any extras at all aside from pointless deleted scenes. Apparently, Laser Paradise has been known to suffer German Police raids.
DVD SPECS:
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Region: PAL R2
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:
– Deleted Scenes