Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Sam Panico Texas Chainsaw Massacre co-writer Kim Henkel was inspired by Joe Ball, the Alligator Man, who owned a live alligator attraction in the 1930s. Despite being suspected of several murders, legend had it that Ball would feed the dead women to his alligators. Ball started as a bootlegger before opening his Sociable Inn in Elmendorf, Texas, which was surrounded by a pond where he'd charge people to watch him feed them live cats and dogs. After former girlfriends, barmaids and even his wife went missing, two policemen tried to question him. He pulled a gun and shot himself — either in the head or the heart. That said — there are many that believe the stories about Joe Ball to be simply Texas folklore. He did exist, though.Working under the title Death Trap (the film is also known as Horror Hotel and Starlight Slaughter), this entire film was made on a soundstage, using the Raleigh Studios pool as a swamp. This enabled Hooper to create what he called a "surrealistic, twilight world." True to form, issues with the producers took him away from the film before the shooting ended, but he had a decent relationship with the actors. Cinematographer Robert Caramico finished the direction of the film once Hooper left.This movie starts grimy and stays that way. Buck (Robert Englund in an early role) demands kinky sex from Clara Wood (Robert Collins, Matilda the Hun from Death Race 2000!), who refuses. This scene contains the line, "I'm Buck and I'm here to f," line that Quentin Tarantino used in Kill Bill.No one says no in Miss Hattie's (Carolyn Jones, who is better known as Morticia Addams!) house of women, so Clara is kicked out. One of the girls takes pity and gives her money to stay at the Starlight Hotel, a rundown motel in the swamp. There, she meets the owner, Judd (Neville Brand, famous for playing Al Capone in The Untouchables TV series and The George Raft Story), who we soon learn is a demented sex maniac. He attacks her, chasing her into the swamp where a Nile crocodile eats her. Yep — don't get too attached to anyone here. This is very Psycho territory, where bad people meet even worse ends.A couple soon arrives — Faye (Marilyn Burns, Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and Roy (William Finley, Winslow Leach from The Phantom of the Paradise), along with their daughter Angie (Kyle Richards, Lindsey Wallace from Halloween!) and dog Snoopy. Don't get attached to Snoopy, who isn't long for this world. As Angie finds a dead monkey and screams, the dog runs into the swamp where he is eaten. Roy goes to kill the gator, but is stabbed by Judd's scythe. Then, the insane motel owner ties Faye to the bed and tries to grab Angie, who hides under the porch of the building.Read more at bandsaboutmovies.com/2017/09/15/eaten-alive-1977/

Stephen Abell I've never been a great fan of Tobe Hooper's (I find him pretty average, though I do like quite a few of the movies he's shot) so I was happily surprised to find this was a treat to watch. The thing which I was unprepared for was the stylish way that Hooper directed the movie, full of vivid and startling reds and blues. Not the usual fair for Hooper though it does add an extra element to the atmosphere of the movie, as did the constant twangy country soundtrack about the most depressing things in life.The story about a Motel owner and his crocodile. Though, it's never stated you get the feeling that Motel owner Judd may be a veteran whose seen more than his fair share of action and has returned shell-shocked and schizophrenic, as some of his rantings have this impression. Either way, this man is mentaly broken. When a runaway girl takes a room for the night he get's the idea that she's a hooker who worked at Miss Hattie's place and he doesn't like those types of girls. She ends up being the entree for the crocodile who will be well fed before the end of the night.There's not much to the story and it all takes place in or around the motel, what makes this a really watchable film is the characterisations and the actors and actresses who portray them. In particular, Neville Brand who does a brilliant job with Judd from mannerisms to ticks to different personalities when the voices start speaking to him. He was the right choice for this role and very strong within it. Another strong actress is the beautiful Carolyn Jones (of King Creole and The Addams Family fame), though it's really hard to make her out as Miss Hattie. To be honest, the cast is pretty top-notch and has the likes of a young Robert England, Mel Ferrer, and Stuart Whitman.However, there is one family that turn up at the motel and the dynamic between the mother and father is damn strange, in fact, the father's personality is downright weird. This does deter from the power of the film and it's characters, to the point of severing the link of believability with the audience.Overall though this is a film that I would recommend to everybody who likes a good psychological thriller. It is definitely one to watch with the curtains drawn and the lights turned off.

Scott LeBrun Tobe Hooper follows up his legendary breakthrough film with this similarly demented saga of an insane hotel proprietor, Judd (Neville Brand), who operates his business in remote rural Texas. Based loosely on a real-life character named Joe Ball, Judd just so happens to be keeping a crocodile as a pet, which stays in a pond next to the hotel. Every so often, if a visitor should upset good ol' Judd, they become crocodile food. Among those that could be on the menu are Harvey Wood (Mel Ferrer), an old man searching for his daughter, and a young family that includes William Finley as the father and Marilyn Burns of TCSM as the mother!You know good times are ahead when the first performer to make his entrance is the great Robert Englund, who, before insisting on doing it doggy style with inexperienced whore Clara (Roberta Collins), utters the memorable lines: "My names' Buck. I'm rarin' to *beep*." And so it goes with this glorious bit of cinematic insanity, which features some absolutely amazing, overwhelming atmosphere, intense lighting schemes, and an overall sense of weirdness. Hooper also co-composed the music score and it's decidedly offbeat, featuring a lot of atonal beeping.Brand is hysterical in the role of Judd. Often seen singing or talking to himself, he fully commits to the role of this backwoods boor. Englund is also great fun as the randy, raucous Buck. Finley really lets it rip as the unhinged dad, while Burns once again is required to scream her head off. Also among the cast of familiar faces are a heavily made-up Carolyn Jones in a frumpy character part as a madam, Kyle Richards as the daughter of Finley & Burns, Crystin Sinclaire as the forlorn daughter of Ferrer, the incredibly sexy Janus Blythe as Englunds' gal pal, and David Hayward as a lustful cowboy.If horror fans are looking for a really meaty story, they can look elsewhere. But for those hoping for strangeness and style, they'll get plenty of it. They can hardly fail to notice that this is more explicitly bloody than TCSM, and it's appreciably trashy, too, as Sinclaire and Blythe both show off their breasts. The crocodile created by Bob Mattey (best known as the creator of Bruce for "Jaws" a few years previous) isn't terribly convincing, but this viewer can forgive that aspect in view of the overall entertainment value.Eight out of 10.

acidburn-10 "Eaten Alive" is directed by the same guy Tobe Hopper who also directed the infamous "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", but not as great, but a pretty decent movie though. The storyline is also quite interesting it starts off with a young woman named Faye who runs away from her father and ends up working as a hooker, but is thrown out and ends at the Starlight hotel which is owned by an unstable war veteran Judd who has a pet crocodile, and soon after Faye ends up getting butchered and fed to the crocodile. Faye's father and sister turn up looking for her and then more guests show up at the hotel, that's when the real trouble begins."Eaten Alive" firstly does echo Psycho in a way where at the beginning a blonde woman in trouble ends up at a motel and then meeting her end, and the film itself does have flaws but it's still a fascinating watch, and the quirky characters is what makes this film work also. Neville Brand gives an interesting performance as the unstable Judd, and even Marilyn Burns makes an appearance playing another screaming victim but pretty good at it and it was a stand out scene, and it was also nice to see Robert England in an early role as a sex addict which was rather fun. I must say though that this movie is well and truly bizarre and at some points does seem to lose focus like featuring scenes that are pointless, but I did like the mixture of genres by adding a killer crocodile, the scene in which it goes after the little girl, was a highlight, and the fact that this movie is more gory than Texas Chainsaw, as it contains plenty of stabbings and impalement's, each filled with plenty of blood, which I always enjoy. Another thing that works for this movie is the atmosphere and it really captures the eeriness of its surroundings.All in all I'd say that Eaten Alive is a decent enough movie and it does have charm.