Eaten Alive (1977), My Second Must See Pick for the Halloween Season

Tobe Hooper's follow up to his cult hit "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Eaten Alive" sets the tone that will define Hooper's legacy as a horror director and is my second pick for the Halloween season.

Judd, a  psychotic redneck, runs the Starlight Hotel,a dilapidated hotel in rural East Texas out in some sort of swampy place and is unfortunately a few slices short of a loaf. Judd has a pet crocodile conveniently placed on the other side of the hotel's front porch railing that he happens to feed with various people who upset him or his business: A reformed hooker, an unlucky family, and the father and sister of the hooker all suffer various rates of attrition as Judd tries to implement damage control.

'Eaten Alive" is loosely based on the story of Joe Ball (also known as the Bluebeard from South Texas or the "Alligator Man") who lived in  Elmendorf, Texas sometime after Prohibition ended. Ball owned a bar with an alligator pit serving as an entertainment attraction. Several murders of women ensued, but it was never proven that the flesh found in the pit was human. However, Joe did commit suicide upon possibility of capture.

You might recognize a young Robert Englund who was a largely unknown actor at the time.

Until next time...