I Was in the mood for something a little different today so thought I’d give “I Eat Your Skin” a go. The film hails from 1972 and is shot on black and white film. It opens up with a bizzare voodoo ritual, so from the outset it had my attention. I knew nothing of the film before hand, but some of these punts have been the best finds in my horror watching career. Can’t hurt to hope for another one, right? The film then switches to a luxury resort in which writer Harry Harris is busy entertaining some females by the pool. His publisher shows up to harass him for some more literary output. Harris is the kind of alpha male James Bond type character. Harris makes the film a lot more interesting than it could have been.
I know many don’t like black and white films, but I’m quite happy to these films. Infact I’ve gained quite the appreciation for them over the course of writing this blog. Anyway, back to the film. The publishers coerce Harris into leaving the women and resort to go to a remote island. A remote island where the aforementioned voodoo tribe are still performing voodoo rituals. The publishers further try to push the concept saying that there will be zombies, sacrifices and many many virgin native girls. Harris’ hears only virgins. His interest is now piqued. Anyway regardless to say Harris, his squeeze of the moment and his publisher crash land their small plane on the island. This is the point where it all falls apart.
The Verdict
The production for this one is cool enough. I found the black and white aesthetics gave the film a really authentic feel. The tribal drums spattered through the soundtrack, really add a creepy atmosphere to proceedings. The zombies are not the undead type zombies made famous by the “Night of the Living Dead” movie, but the African voodoo zombies that are more entranced than undead (But they are undead). The violence in this is not extreme either (infact, pretty tame, possibly comical by todays standards) nor do think it would have been over the top for the time either. I’d say the gore sits somewhere around the same level as “Psycho” so quite tame really.
Over all I Eat your Skin is a pretty cool watch. It’s not a masterpiece but it flows well, and kept my interest the whole way through the film. I had fun watching it. If you can track it down I think you guys will enjoy it too. My only real complaint was that it was a film called “I Eat Your Skin” and from what I could tell, no skin was eaten.
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