• A true cult film- a supposed lost film until the 1990’s—hints (and pre-dates) of David Lynch’s Eraserhead and Tobe Hopper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (both films have odd family dining sequences that make it hard not to clump together or recall each other)
  • The family suffers from “Merrye syndrome”- told in flashback
  • Also known as “Cannibal Orgy”- great title
  • Lon Chaney Jr—excellent here- sings the creepy opening credit song
  • I could do without some of the hokey references to Chaney as the Wolf Man (his 1941 film)- he even recites lines
  • The girls are eerie- they want to “play spider” (kill)
  • Blue Velvet and Lynch again- we have a human ear as a souvenir
  • Repetition shot of an owl
  • A good chunk of the film is just the characters moving through a well-designed haunted house
  • The ending with a birth- the ominous cycle repeating- strong
  • Recommend