I Eat Your Skin

(1964)**

Surrounded by a bevy of bikini-clad beauties, novelist Tom Harris is first introduced lounging poolside and reciting the more sultry portions of one of his novels. Tom’s agent, Duncan, whose sarcastic comments suggest annoyance with his lazy meal ticket, quickly interrupts this giddy scene. It seems that Tom has yet to produce any pages from an upcoming novel. Duncan convinces Tom to fly with him to “Voodoo Island”, an uncharted island that Duncan hopes will inspire Tom’s creative juices. Initially balking, Duncan lures Tom by noting that as the result of a recent hurricane, there are 5 women to every one man on said island. He also casually mentions that the island is supposedly crawling with zombies. Zombies aside, Tom agrees, after all he has a healthy libido to think about. Along for the journey is Duncan’s annoying, Marilyn Monroe-looking, loud, grating, idiot of a wife. As always seems to happen in these films, the plane runs out of fuel and the gang is forced to crash land on the beaches of Voodoo Island. Tom, who up to now has been portrayed as a vapid playboy, suddenly takes charge and basically becomes Indiana Jones. A very similar story structure and character was seen in the earlier She Demons (1958). Within 30 seconds of landing, Tom stumbles upon and naked girl swimming in a swamp. In the jungle lurks a zombie [it was either a zombie or a large man with oatmeal plastered on his face with golf balls for eyes]. Tom, of course, thwarts this attack. The gang eventually stumbles upon a scientist and his daughter (the one swimming in the bog). Despite being told that the locals are harmless, Tom suspects that there is more going on than meets the eye. What follows is a series of zombie attacks and science gone amok.

Never pretending to be anything other than a make out b-movie, most likely the second billing at the local drive-in back in the day, I Eat Your Skin is marginally watchable. As noted earlier, this film borrows heavily from the much-more-fun She Demons. What’s hilarious about this film is that the action is punctuated by horrible 60s-style “beach” music. Low rent special effects (e.g., ariel shots of the island look like paper machete) only add to the kitschy vibe. Oh yeah, Duncan bears an uncanny resemblance to Kyle McLaughlin (or at least what Kyle McLaughlin will look like at age 50).