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1980s French cannibal feast.

If you were to watch a cannibal movie made in the late 70s or early 80s what is the first country of origin to pop into you head?  Italy, right?  That’s not an odd thing seeing as they were to country to crank out more of these over the top gorefests than anyone else.  Cannibal Holocaust is the most infamous of them all with it’s real animal death scenes and crazy faux documentary style which, along with the great FX work, landed the filmmakers in court over snuff charges.  The Italians also went other weird ways with an island inhabited by cannibals on one side and a Jim Jones-ish cult on the other (Eaten Alive).  Of the many countries to emulate the cannibal film France is not one who I would have ever thought to join in on this cannibal boom.  But they did.  In 1980 Raphaël Delpard released an interesting take on the genre with his elderly gut-munching pic Night of Death (La nuit de la mort).

A young woman named Martine (Isabelle Goguey) finally gets a new job after eight long months of unemployment.  Her new home and place of work is at Deadlock House, an out of the way retirement home where she will see to the needs of the select group of tenants.  Her duties should be light, especially in the kitchen since all of the guests are vegetarians.  She meets her co-worker Nicole, who was an orphan like her, and her suspicions are raised after she disappears over night.  Hélène, her boss, tells her that they argued and she ran off after being fired, but when she sees Nicole’s suitcase in the odd handyman’s quarters things just don’t add up.  It seems the inhabitants of Deadlock House do eat meat, it is just that of humans and Martine just might be next on the menu.

As with any cannibal horror flick do not expect to be blown away by this tale.  Things do not get very complex at all, but the fountain of youth aspect of cannibalism is a bit more exciting after every other film’s take - crazy tribe in the jungle eats people and there are crazy amounts of blood and guts.  I’m not saying anything is wrong with the cannibals of Papua New Guinea but a fresh take is nice every now and again.  The acting could be a bit better but I love the way the film is photographed.  They style of shooting, along with the very dramatic score, takes you back to an earlier style of film.  Admittedly the film does bare some similarities to Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby like the contrast of the tenants in the daytime and nighttime personas.  Is this really a bad thing. 

One of the big rewards you will get in watching this is the level of gore.  This time period in French horror there was not a lot of graphic violence.  If you’ve watched any of the more recent offerings from this country you no doubt know this policy has definitely changed.  In Night of Death there are quite a few scenes of grizzly organ munching, and digging through the body to get the snacks. 

Sadly this disc from Synapse has no extra features, unless you count the removable subtitles.  I understand that this is a more obscure film, but it would have been really cool to at least the trailer.  Even though the ball seems to have been dropped on the extras the transfer kind of makes up for most wrongs.  When looking at the cover and reading the back I expected a very dirty, shaky print but boy was I wrong.  There are very few scratches or burns on the picture and while it is a wee bit dark that is nothing to be upset about when the clarity is so good.  A pleasant surprise.

This is a must-see for horror fans, especially fans of the Italian cannibal stuff.  Check out the different take the French give this subgenre.  Good times will be had.

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