EATEN ALIVE (1977)

What a bizarre movie.  Instead of doing the logical thing and following up THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE with a cash-in sequel (who knows, maybe there was an legal issue) TCM director/producer/writer/composer Tobe Hooper, writer Kim Henkel and main actress Marilyn Burns created this almost fever dream-like story of an old coot (Neville Brand) running a hotel near a swamp.  Despite the fact that the hotel is completely dilapidated, there's no road nearby and the owner is clearly insane the place still gets a steady stream of customers...whom, the owner, kills about as quickly as they show up and then feeds to his huge crocodile.  It makes no sense at all.

Still, there's something about EATEN ALIVE that you can't take your eyes off of it.  It's just so strange that it's more fascinating than it is entertaining.  Over-the-top acting by an whole cast of weird characters, sudden unexpected spurts of violence, gritty camerawork that reminded me at moments of TCM, eternal nighttime, two surprisingly nice topless scenes, strange set design, fake as hell looking crocodile, Marilyn Burns underused (she should have had a bigger role), lots of fog (at one point - 1:19:53 - I swear Neville does the Leatherface dance, but there's so much fog it's hard to tell), old timey country music playing almost non-stop, surreal colours, Freddy Krueger topless.

Not horrible, but not good either.  Just strange.

976-EVIL (1988)

Twenty-four year old high school student Hoax is an introverted nerd who lives with his overbearing mother and his bad boy cousin, Spike.  Hoax and Spike get along, but Hoax is jealous of Spike's ability to defend himself and bang chicks with his penis.  Both cousins get involved with calling the "horrorscope" phone number 976-EVIL.  Spike quickly grows tired of it, but Hoax is hooked.  Soon he becomes possessed by a demon and goes on a killing spree.

I had vague memories of watching 976-EVIL back in the day and watching it just now, I fully understand why I couldn't remember much about it...it's a boring ass movie!  The build up to the demon possession takes forever and when it finally does happen it's nothing special.  Just Hoax running around looking like a dried out lizard with pointy fingernails slashing people.

Very little blood, split second topless scene that wasn't even worth taking a screencap of, tons of awesome horror posters, interesting graffiti, dingy looking sets, 80's clothes, slow pace, unsatisfying ending.  976-EVIL is just cheesy enough to be mildly interesting, but slow enough to be boring as fuck!  Skip it.

Part 2 - 976-Evil II (1991)