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Overall Rating : 5.5/10
Directed By : James Tucker
Melissa Bacelar (Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV)
Jack Dillon
Joshua Nelson (Aunt Rose)
Alan Rowe Kelly (I'll Bury You Tomorrow)
Supplied By : Savage Roses Films
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Feb. 28, 2007
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| PLOT A desperately lonely man finally meets the love of his life.....unfortunately for him, she is a prostitute who is feeding on the men of New York City. |
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| THE REVIEW In EAT YOUR HEART OUT, in the streets of New York, a beautiful young woman roams the city, her name is Pandora. Pandora makes her living as a prostitute, but she by no means is an ordinary prostitute. as she possesses an abnormal hunger - that hunger is for the human flesh of her clients. Meanwhile in another part of the city we meet Jeffrey Shapiro. Jeffrey is a seemingly hopeless loner that works as an insurance agent, and no matter where he looks, he is unable to find the soul mate he longs for. In order to fill the empty void in his life, he is often a frequenter of many call girl girl hotlines, in which a young lady would come in and offer him a moment of pleasure, but after the fact, he is once again all alone....but one day that seems to change. It all happens when he calls a different agent, and they offer him their best girl, and that girl happens to be Pandora herself! Jeffrey has no idea of the vicious woman's evil doings, but he somehow sees something special in Pandora. Jeffrey goes on to explain to her that he has feelings for her, the type of feelings he has never had for any other girl - Pandora finds what he says to be genuine, and soon they start a love affair. Jeffrey, for once in his life is finally complete, he is happy and he doesn't hesitate to tell everyone he knows - even his Sister that had been pressuring him for years to hook up with someone, but when he tells he he doesn't even know her full name or not much more about her, she becomes suspicious. By this time Jeffrey should also be suspicious, especially when she brings home a fellow hooker and devours her before his very eyes, but not Jeffrey, he is in love. He is so love struck that when Pandora's incurable hunger resurfaces unrepentantly, it isn't long before we see Jeffrey help his lady by bringing people home for her to eat away at. Prior to seeing and writing the review for EAT YOUR HEART OUT, the latest film from Savage Roses Productions, I saw and wrote about one of their previous efforts, entitled AUNT ROSE. When seeing AUNT ROSE, I was indeed impressed by the clever storytelling, but felt the filmmakers may have been later hindered by budget restraints - and I later found out that the studio had made numerous gore cuts - gore that consumed much of the budget. Here with the latest effort, it is safe to say that the cuts and hold backs they had prior are nowhere in sight as EAT YOUR HEART OUT is untamed and unleashed! There is no entertainment better than entertainment in which an artist is able to express themselves without someone holding their hand and telling them they can't include something in their art - EAT YOUR HEART OUT is such a product of a vision fully played out. The film has yet to be distributed, so there is really no way to tell you what will remain, and what will go, but for the Savage Roses crew, I hope their project can at least stay in tact in an unrated DVD(something I wish AUNT ROSE could've been). The gore is fantastic, the trim back I would agree with however, is that the film runs a little long, and if possible, it may need to be trimmed. The film mixes subtle hints comedy, as well as gruesome horrific images, but quite well I might add. The character of Jeffrey, is so far passed sympathetic that the things he will do for love, is so ridiculous that they become funny and entertaining - at first he is ordering ANY call girl, he has no reservations - the next thing you know he's in love, so in love that he even stays with is girl, long after she viciously eats another, you find yourself questioning how someone could be so naive and stupid?.... but at the same time you find yourself saying..."hey it's kind of funny watching someone be this naive and stupid", so yeah, you get the picture. I also have to give EAT YOUR HEART OUT credit for also being clever. There is a scene in which Jeffrey's sister, un announced, shows up at his house and Jeffrey then says he wants to introduce her to Pandora.....but one problem arises, she has suddenly disappeared, and as soon as the sister leaves....reappears Pandora, who was supposedly out back in the backyard. The director connects this strange occurrence with a scene later on in the film. As a subplot, during the film, we also followed a gentleman(played by the film's writer Joshua Nelson) trying to find Pandora, it turns out that his brother just so happened to be one of her clients in which she had eaten - he is out to kill her and eventually he crosses paths with Jeffrey and Pandora. In that confrontation, "The Stalker" as he is called, shoots Pandora in the head, but it does not seem to phase her and The Stalker soon finds himself on the other end of his tongue. Towards the films end Jeffrey, begins to question whether or not the girl of his dreams is real or just a figment of his obsessive need to be loved - is she even there, or is it his imagination? This question is never fully and clearly answered, but I think it's better unanswered, the twisted ending is good enough for me. The acting is decent but not great, I mean Jack Dillon's performance as Jeffrey is dry and somewhat over done in the believability department, but I think that is how it was supposed to be, the character was supposed to be somewhat unbelievable and comical. To pull off a movie about a cannibal Hooker, you have to have someone who is able to get deep into the character, and have the menacing look, and I believe that Melissa Bacelar(who is also a co-producer here) did a great job capturing the no remorse brand of evil a character like this should have - I love the way she rolled her eyes into the back of her head....my kind of chick! This time around unlike AUNT ROSE, writer/star Joshua Nelson has more screen time and a chance for more of a major presence in the film - I enjoyed his character who was full of revenge and no regret, as he went about his business in a cool and collective way. Overall, since I knew Savage Roses last film was heavily cut gore wise, I knew just what I was probably going to get with this version of their latest. which was uncut. This film is quite gory, and the effects are very good for it's budget. I see a lot of low budget pictures that try so hard to make gore it's focal point that they just end up over doing it and it looks, well...kind of ridiculous. Although the gore is a great effective part of EAT YOUR HEART OUT, it is not the focal point, the filmmakers instead of decide to focus on the relationship of the main characters, and some good humor, which seems to have been the right choice. |
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| GORE
METER 5.5/10 Eaten and torn apart flesh and blood make many appearances here, we also have sawed off body parts as well.....not the goriest i've ever seen, but in this case it is tastefully done (no pun intended), which in my book in a plus. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 4.5/10 The soundtrack consists of various techno/trance tracks, that gives the film a faced paced and upbeat feel at times. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Overall, the film may be low budget, imperfect or what have you, but one thing that is great about it, is that EAT YOUR HEART OUT is well written and creatively entertaining, and even at times, funny.. I really like this one although like I said before, it does run a little long for this type of Horror film - which really isn't a major problem anyway. Savage Roses is looking for distribution for this indy endeavor and after seeing it, it is safe for me to say that I believe it won't be long until they achieve their goal. |
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