Monday, July 7, 2008 - Review of Stuart Gordon's Eater (Fear Itself - Episode 5)

Have you ever wondered what The Silence of the Lambs would of been like if Stuart Gordon directed it? Well here is the film you have been waiting for. This is without a doubt Gordon's homage to Lambs and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. With a little voodoo black magic thrown in for good measure! Stuart Gordon has been around the horror scene for years and his films just get and better as the years progress. What I like about Gordon is he would rather make lower budget films and make the films he wants too, instead of making films for bigger name studios and have them tell him how to make his films. That's a true director in my books. And when you have such films under your belt as Re-Animator, From Beyond, Fortress, Dagon, and Edmond, your films are worth watching. Even if they are toned down Network TV films. Hell, he even wrote Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, so he is just a legend in my neck of the woods.

The film opens with a couple of officers dragging a 7ft tall bloke out the back of a police vehicle. They lead him up some stairs into a police station and throw him into a cell. It cuts to a room with 5 or so officers and we are introduced to the main character Danni, a female officer who is reading the latest issue of "Death Dance" - a fictional horror movie mag like Fangoria or something. The male officers give her a bit of crap for being into horror films but she doesn't really take it that serious. Like me! Anyway the Chief starts talking to them about the new prisoner and why he is there. He tells the officers that he is a 'Eater' and has killed and eaten 32 people and the FEDS will be there in the morning to escort him. Danni, being the horror aficionado she is, is very curious about the killer and reads his profile. As she reads the profile we see the Eater torturing his victims played back on screen. Most of the torture scenes happen off screen but you get the picture of whats happening. In the cell, the prisoner starts chanting in a foreign language. Danni reads that he is of Cajun descent in the profile and walks upstairs to the holding cell area to see him for herself. When she gets to the holding cell the officer on guard is not there and the prisoner is laying down on the bed in the cell under a blanket. Another officer comes up and asks where the guard is and she tells him he wasn't here. They hear a loud strange noise downstairs so the male officer goes to investigate. Danni walks over to the cell and is suspicious of the Eater and decides to open the cell to see if he is ok. When she pulls out her keys to unlock the cell, its already unlocked. The last 20 minutes are great, its becomes a bit of a stalk and run thriller and I wont go to much into it but I'll also say that the film also pays homage to The Thing in a big way. And the ending is something I just didn't see coming. A big 'what the' ending for me. Well done Mr. Gordon, you make me proud.

This is The Silence of the Lambs, made with a TV budget. No major bucks spent on flashy sets, just a very well made TV film by a very respected director. The acting is all what you would expect for television and I had no complaints about any of the actors. The 'Eater' gives us a pretty good performance of a Redneck-ish Cannibal. The script was written well and as I think will be the case with most of the Fear Itself episodes, the film is evenly paced and you don't get bored at all. I think that's mainly to do with the run-time though. There's some good gore effects and not overly gory, but enough to keep gorehounds satisfied. There is one pretty messed up scene near the end involving the female officers ear!

I can't really say its a scary film, but its a good film and does have a few creepy moments. It's a great way to knock over 40 minutes and if your a fan of either Silence of the Lambs, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or Stuart Gordon films, I think your going to enjoy it as much as I did. There is plenty of references to both of those films to look out for too which makes the viewing even more exciting, with plenty of lines that refer directly to the films to like "Hannibal, the cannibal", "Lamp shades made from human skin" etc etc. For my final words I'd just like to say that I honestly think Stuart Gordon is one of the best directors in the horror genre and I really want to see his next directional effort Stuck ASAP!