George Eastman returns for second helpings in Joe D'Amato's 1980 sequel to his original ANTROPOPHAGUS (AKA GRIM REAPER). But unfortunately, D'Amato's (here billed as "Peter Newton") film proves the wisdom that the leftovers just aren't as good as the original meal (or film, in this case). Regardless of the ultimate outcome, however, ANTROPOPHAGUS 2 (AKA ROSSO SANGUE and ABSURD) will be remembered as one of D'Amato's more honest and surprisingly formulaic efforts not entirely bereft of redeeming value.

Fleeing from a priest who is mysteriously tied to the "man eater", Eastman arrives severely wounded at an innocent family's door. Literally holding his guts, Eastman is soon rushed to a hospital and laid on the operating table. Despite his critical situation, Eastman regains consciousness, to the surprise of the surgeons, on the operating table. Baffled, the doctors are at a loss for an explanation for such phenomena. But Eastman allows them little time to hypothesize, for soon he takes a nurse hostage and brutally spears her head via a surgical drill (strongly recalling John Morghen's infamous power drill slaying in Fulci's CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD-made two years prior). Now let loose from the hospital, Eastman leaves a path of bloody destruction in his wake, and it seems he is unstoppable due to his truly strange (and contrived) condition. It seems that he was part of a radical biochemistry experiment conducted by none other than the priest pursuing him, and as a result his "body can regenerate dead cells." Rendered practically immortal (quite analogous to more celebrated, seemingly immortal American slasher icons as Freddy Krueger, Jason Vorhees, and Michael Myers), the town's only hope is a small gathering of town officials including an embittered cop (Charles Borromel) and the priest who is responsible for Eastman's reign of terror (Edmund Purdom). The priest kindly tells the police department that the singular way to dispatch of him is to (gasp!) shoot for the brain, as that is supposedly the only location that cannot regenerate.

Because of said conditions, Eastman's character is less of a cannibal and more of a zombie/terminator hybrid this time around. It really doesn't matter, because the bloody outcome will undoubtedly be the same. And regardless, Eastman's acting abilities are still never stretched beyond the taxing responsibility of grunting and looking menacing (in fact, he speaks nary a single sentence in the film). D'Amato has fashioned his beloved icon as yet another madman in yet another slasher film. But that is hardly surprising, given the film's vintage. Filmed in 1982, ANTROPOPHAGUS 2 finds itself smack dab in the middle of the slasher craze of the late 70's and early 80's. The film itself owes quite a debt to the slasher genre, as Eastman dispatches random victims wholesale and stalks a family in the grandest tradition of the genre.

What about those murders! Any viewer even remotely accustomed to his style of filmmaking knows that D'Amato is all about visceral thrills, and this film is certainly no counterexample. Coupled with the said murder of a nurse is an excellent band saw skull slicing (recalling yet another slasher film murder- that of the 1988 Scott Spiegel film INTRUDER), a bloody pickaxe through the head, stabbings, and more. Unfortunately, however, the gore is spread too thinly over the rest of the film (a common affliction in many of D'Amato films) and subsequently, even the film's relatively short running time seems too loose a fit. But when the blood flows smoothly the film flows smoothly, especially when Eastman is lumbering around. But the insistent emphasis on a threadbare plot and the lame acting (especially in the woefully clichéd interrogation scenes) peg the film as a merely serviceable horror diversion.

The elements that uphold the film beyond truly awful slasher films of the period (such as Juan Piquer Simon's PIECES) are worth mentioning, however. The soundtrack by Carlo Maria Cordi is quite striking at times, honorably melding piano and guitar work with synth undertones. Many of the otherwise dull scenes are livened by the often-eloquent score. Undoubtedly aided by the sonic excellence are some of D'Amato's best suspense scenes to date. The climatic duel between the beast and the family are quite good, especially when the family's invalid, bedridden daughter Katya (Katya Berger) frantically fumbles with her binding straps to rescue her younger brother from certain peril. The climatic fight between Katya and Eastman is also quite tense and lively. But unfortunately, D'Amato's flat and lifeless direction (he freely admitted that he was no phenom behind the lens) bars him from reaching the dizzying plateaus of suspense that such contemporaries as Dario Argento and Michele Soavi (who actually has a small unbilled cameo here as a biker) achieve with their optical wizardry.

Further weighing down the film are maddening contrivances in the plot. Why, for example, is Katya suddenly able to frantically scramble throughout the house and ward off Eastman's attacks with pugilistic vigor when for the first three quarters of the film she is immobilized due to a crippling disease? The final slaying of Eastman doesn't help the case either. Katya emblazons herself a virtual Lizzie Borden, viciously hacking at Eastman with a clumsily large axe, spurting his blood on her white dress.

Possibly because it is sandwiched between some of D'Amato's most renowned work (1979's BEYOND THE DARKNESS) and his extreme hardcore pornos that would begin in the early 90s, the film's restlessness and lack of solidity can be put in perspective more effectively. This film is a sort of transition piece for D'Amato, as he would never truly return to pure, gory, and primal horror (although he evidently wanted to but was robbed of the opportunity due to his untimely death). Therefore the film seems even more melancholy, as one wonders what might have been if this tremendously iconoclastic and one-of-a-kind director had been able to build upon such films as this.