1980
Director- Kevin Connor
Cast- Rory Calhoun, Nancy Parsons, Nina Axelrod, Paul
Linke, Wolfman Jack
In the
sub-genre of cannibal films, I guess you can put movies into two categories.
First are the movies (mostly European) that feature Westerners lost in a
wilderness with prehistoric people that ritualistically consume human flesh
(Cannibal Holocaust being the most famous, or infamous, example). The second is
the more American type that features cannibalism seeping into everyday life. Of this group, Motel Hell is definitely the
most original, and maybe the best.
Vincent
(veteran cowboy actor Rory Calhoun) and his sister Ida (Nancy Parson best known
as Ms. Ballbricker in the Porky’s franchise) run a roadside motel and sell smoked
meats to travelers and the locals. “Farmer Vincent’s” smoked meats are famous
for a hundred miles around, but what is his secret recipe? You guessed it.
Human meat.
Vincent goes out “hunting”
late at night and bushwhacks travelers to take back to his farm. But he doesn’t
“harvest” them then, oh no. He drugs them, keeping them alive, buried in the
ground up to their necks. He slits their vocal chords, turning them into
gurgling, growling animals. He keeps them there, fattening them up, until he is
ready to kill them and process the carcass for his smoked meats.
He and
Ida have got the whole business running pretty smoothly until a wrinkle
appears. One night, Vincent’s trap ensures a pretty young girl, Terry (Nina
Axwlrod). Vincent seems to have a genuine affection for her. It isn’t clear if it’s
fatherly or romantic love, but it doesn’t seem unwholesome. However, Vincent’s
kid brother Bruce (Paul Linke, best
known as Grossman from Chips) is not only the Sherriff and completely unaware
of Bruce’s activities, but he’s also got the hots for Terry. Ida also resents
the introduction of this young thing in their life, seemingly stealing her
brother’s attentions away from her. Terry, who seems to have some daddy issues,
develops romantic feelings for Vincent and things come to a head when they
decide to get married.
Amidst
all of this family drama are the disturbing visuals of Vincent and Ida harvesting
humans with no more ambivalence than someone feeding cattle that they will one
day lead to slaughter. In fact, that’s exactly how Vincent sees it. He’s not
the deranged sadist of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Quite the opposite, he takes a
pride in his work and sees it as useful.
The real
genius of this film is not the bizarre cannibal plot but that those elements are
only the backstory. It still manages to make the family drama the focus of the
story. Kevin Conner had a successful career directing fantasy-action movies in the
70s and had a career all the way through the 21st century. Every
actor was a perfect choice for their role. The musical score, rather than the cheap
sounding background of an 80s horror film, is a string composition that seem
fitting to a bigger budget drama.
Motel
Hell is not as gross out gory as many of its cannibal cousins, but it is
certainly the funniest of the genre. In the words of Vincent, “It takes all
kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent’s fritters.”
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