Psychotic Judd (Neville Brand) runs a dilapidated hotel on the edge of an East Texas swamp. The place is called "The Starlight Hotel". The hotel sits near a swamp lake that is the home of a giant Nile crocodile. In town is a cat house run by Miss Hattie (Carolyn Jones). One of her new girls, Clara Wood (Roberta Collins), is with a client named Buck (Robert Englund). When Clara refuses to do certain favors, Buck complains to Hattie. Hattie fires Clara and kicks her out. Clara ends up looking for a room for the night at the Starlight Hotel. When Buck finds out that Clara was a prostitute, he attacks her and tosses her into the swamp for the crocodile. Judd doesn’t like hookers.
Sometime later a couple, Roy and Faye (William Finley and Marilyn Burns) arrive with their little girl Angie (Kyle Richards). The crocodile eats their pet dog. The little girl freaks out. Judd gives them a room where they can take their daughter to try to calm her down. Roy, who is not packed too tightly himself, decides he’s going to shoot the crocodile that almost ate his daughter. Judd takes exception to having his crocodile shot and feeds Roy to the croc. Judd then beats up Faye and ties her to one of the beds. Angie manages to run away and hides in the crawl space under the house.
For some reason more people end up at the hotel on the night Judd went off the deep end. Harvey Wood (Mel Ferrer) and his daughter Libby, (Crystin Sinclaire) arrive looking for Harvey’s other daughter Clara. The same Clara that Judd fed to his croc. The Woods secure a couple rooms and then contact Sheriff Martin (Stuart Whitman), at the police station, to inquire about Clara. Libby ends up having dinner with Sheriff Martin. Harvey goes back to the hotel, and to his death by crocodile.
By now Judd is talking to himself and just about foaming at the mouth. But the night is young, and more people show up at the Starlight Hotel.
“Eaten Alive” AKA “Death Trap” AKA “Horror Hotel” AKA “Starlight Slaughter” was released in 1976 and was directed by Tobe Hooper. It is an American horror film and a slasher film with black comedy elements. The film didn’t do well at the box office but has since garnered a cult following.
Most of the movie is rather campy with some shucking over-the-top acting and insane characters. The atmosphere is a little creepy and misty. Color is used to set the mood of the film. There is lots of red lighting. The music was also really strange, almost as if it was part of the sound effects or dialogue. It’s not a great film but it has some very artistic touches to it. The rubber crocodile is mostly submerged so don’t expect to see a lot of it. The movie has some good points and some bad points but overall, it is an artistic, yet average, slasher film.
The movie is supposed to be based on a real-life killer, Joe Ball (AKA “The Bluebeard from South Texas” or the “Alligator Man”). Sometime in the thirties, Joe owned a bar in Texas that had a live alligator attraction. When several women disappeared, it was believed that Ball killed them and disposed of their bodies by feeding them to his pet alligators. He committed suicide when the police were about to arrest him.
The special effects included a 16-foot mechanical model croc for water scenes and a 3-foot “walking” model for the scenes in the hotel crawl space. The large crocodile ended up getting a little waterlogged and had to be dried out before they could finish shooting.