SEE! dueling chainsaws!SEE! a pig's head used as a mask!SEE! Nancy Parsons (Buella Balbricker from "Porky's") attacked by a swarm of garden zombies!SEE! the performance that by all rights should have ended John Ratzenberger's career once and for all!HYPNOTISM!CANNIBALISM!SADISM!FRITTERISM...
Unfortunately, these here meats is not exactly what you would call kosher. In fact, they're HUMAN meats. And the way that Vincent "grows" them is pretty strange, yessiree bob. First you gotta capture some lowlifes like dumb bikers and dumber hippies. Then you hafta bury them...hmmm, better not give too much away here. The movie comes complete with a rousing chainsaw fight at the end, kinda making fun of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, cause in the fight ol' Vincent wears a wacko mask whose face I cannot reveal; it would spoil too much for ya.
Gosh darnit, if you wanna have some fun and really put your brain in a "don't let me think, whatever you do" kinda mode, this is the movie for you, pardner. SEE--Farmer Vincent convince middle class buffoons how tasty his meats really are. WATCH--as a poor unsuspecting pretty young thing is wooed by Vincent into believing she will be his wife. GASP--as Vincent's sister (never could remember her character's name, dag nabbit) applies her "magic" to the new meat recruits. And SCREAM--as our hero, a valiant young police guy does battle with the villainous Vincent.
Rory does a GREAT job here; he's a lot of fun to watch, and so is Nancy.
Pretty cool.
Saying the movie is about cannibalism isn't a spoiler, everyone will guess the secret to Farmer Vincent's "fritters" upfront. Instead, the writers save the surprises for the viewers in the bizarre methods Farmer Vincent uses to prepare his "product." It's evident the scares were largely influenced by Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but at the same time the writers intended to provide enough humor to appeal to the drive-in crowd.
Amid all the madness, the late Rory Calhoun and Nancy Parsons deliver straight and serious performances. The rest of the cast, well... acting was never a major requirement of horror movies. Look for John Ratzenberger, aka Cliff Claven, in a bit role as a drummer - you wouldn't even recognize him unless you knew upfront.
Descriptions such as "masterpiece" and "classic" may be a little strong. The entire movie feels like it was done on the cheap and the gore can't hold a candle to the ultra-realistic violence of today's horror movies (it did get banned in West Germany, however.) Consider the double-feature DVD that includes the thriller "Deranged."
You may think twice about buying that next piece of beef jerky.
