Another Bad Future

 

 (imdb)

THE NEW BARBARIANS (aka Warriors of the Wasteland)-1983-In 2019 AD “the nuclear holocaust is over” but bad film making in Italy still goes on. A group of fancy men called The Templars led by One (George East-man), roam the land killing survivors. A loner named Scorpion (Timothy Brent aka Giancarlo Prete) saves a woman, Alma (Anna Kanakis) from the gang. When some of them trap Scorpion, he's saved by bow and arrow using Nadir (Fred Williamson), another loner. Later, the trio meet The Sect, a tribe that believes in God led by Father Moses (Venantino Venantini; also in CANNIBAL FEROX (1981)). When Scorpion is captured by The Templars, Nadir once again saves him. They team up with a little kid mechanic (Giovanni Frezza from THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY (1981)) to save The Sect from the sadistic One. 

Mindless ROAD WARRIOR inspired junk by director/co-screenwriter Enzo G. Castellari (ESCAPE FROM THE BRONX the same year; also with Prete). Bad guy Eastman was also in Castellari's 1990: THE BRONX WARRIORS (1982) along with the former football playing Williamson.

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Yes It Is

ABSURD-1981-The makers of ANTHROPOPHAGUS teamed up again for another gore film.

After seemingly coming back from the dead on the operating table a guy named Nikos (George Eastman, with the same first name and basically playing the same role from ANTHROPOPHAGUS) escapes after killing a nurse with a drill through her head. A mysterious priest (Edward Purdom, in PIECES the next year) shows up claiming Nikos is a "creature of evil" and "his body can regenerate dead cells". Nikos kills a butcher with his own electric saw and a biker then after much talking Nikos terrorizes a baby sitter (Annie Belle) and a bed ridden young woman Katia (Katya Berger) and her young brother. A long time is spend with Nikos trying to put the baby sitter inside a kitchen oven! Meanwhile the priest, a hard ass police detective (Charles Borromel) and his dumb assistant search fr the killer.

Katia somehow rises from a sick bed and does battle with the monster (who she blinds before chopping off his head!) in this drawn out craziness from low budget auteur Joe D'Amati. Future director Michele Soavi has a bit role. Listen closely during the operation scene and you can hear the director say "cut" and "action"!

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Italian Cannibal

ANTHROPOPHAGUS-1980-In a long opening scene a couple go to a beach. She's killed underwater and he gets a meat cleaver in the head. An American woman named Julie (Tisa Farrow with a dubbed voice) joins some tourists for a vacation on a secluded Mediterranean island. After fooling around with tarot cards they do some exploring and find the town there mostly deserted except for a young blind girl (Julie's friends' daughter). Of course it turns out that there is a mad cannibal (George Eastman) on the loose who used to be a guy named Niklos. Through a flashback we learn Niklos and his wife and young son were stranded in a raft. Niklos accidentally stabbed his wife when they argued over eating their dead son's body. Niklos wound up eating both and going mad. Niklos stabs several victims, decapitates another and rips the baby from a pregent woman and eats it. Before he dies he even attempts to eat his own guts.

The gore effects are typical for the time in an Italian horror film and the Niklos zombie is effective but much of it is way too dark.

Eastman (real name: Luigi Montefiori)  co-wrote the screenplay with director Joe D'Amati (real name: Aristide Massaccesi) who'd already made things like SEXY NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and EMANUELLE AND THE LAST CANNIBALS. D'Amati would go on to make many more horror films in Italy (many in collaboration with Eastman) featuring bloody SFX and low budgets. Tisa Farrow (younger sister of Mia) co-starred in Fulci's ZOMBIE the year before. She'd make one more horror film in Italy HUNTER OF THE APOCALYPSE directed by Antonio Margheriti before retiring.

This played in US theaters as THE GRIM REAPER and was also known as ZOMBIE 7!

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