Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Death Trap / Eaten Alive



Death Trap is a story about a mental scythe stabbing killer called Judd, his son Buck who likes to fuck, a crocodile, and some prostitutes.
Judd owns a dirty run down hotel called the Starlight, as well as an imported African crocodile who lives in a swamp facing. This man is an absolute nut case who constantly regurgitates nonsense to himself about “not needing eyes to see” and all kinds of fictitious facts regarding his beloved crocodile. Whenever Judd feels threatened or is put in an uneasy situation, he gets out his scythe and proceeds to slice his problem up, before feeding it to his crocodile. He strangely seems remorseful upon the realization of what has occurred, but in the next instance is as giddy as a child at the mere sight of someone close to death.
In my opinion, Judd has lost his marbles through loneliness and not having anyone to talk to who would listen, which is probably why he confides in his crocodile. But he does love to do drugs and seems a lot more mental and stab happy when he does them. ………………. I reckon he’s just a lunatic and doesn’t need analyzing.
The film is visually beautiful. The combination of unconventional lighting, abstract colour and way too much fog, creates a very unique and unexpected setting for this kind of film. The dialogue is few and far between with Hooper concentrating more on creating a chaotic collage of noise through use of country radio, screaming, mental ramblings and avant-garde synthesized composition to good effect.
The film is fantastic and shouldn’t be compared to Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Psycho, because it is a different film entirely.

7.5/10        


Sam sketched out a quick illustration of Judd and the love for his crocodile: 




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