Eaten Alive

Eaten Alive (known under various alternate titles, including Death Trap, Horror Hotel, and Starlight Slaughter, and stylized on the poster as Eaten Alive!) is a 1976 American exploitation slasher horror film directed by Tobe Hooper, from a screenplay by Kim Henkel, Alvin L. Fast, and Mardi Rustam. It stars Neville Brand, Mel Ferrer, Carolyn Jones, Roberta Collins, Robert Englund, William Finley, Marilyn Burns, Janus Blythe, and Kyle Richards.

The film centers on Judd (Brand), a psychotic hotel proprietor in a Southern bayou, who feeds those who upset him to a large crocodile that lives in a swamp beside the hotel. The story is loosely based on Joe Ball, a Texas murderer and suspected serial killer from the late 1930s.

Although the film did not receive a warm reception when it was released, it has gained a cult following in its time, and with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre from 1974, Eaten Alive helped Hooper advance in his career, allowing him to direct his first major studio film, The Funhouse, in 1981.

Plot

After refusing a demand for anal sex from a scummy customer named Buck, naïve prostitute Clara Wood is evicted from the town brothel by the madame, Miss Hattie. Clara makes her way to the decrepit Starlight Hotel, located deep in the remote swampland of rural Texas, where she encounters the hotel's mentally disturbed proprietor, Judd. Judd chases her outside, then attacks and kills her with a pitchfork before feeding her to his pet Nile crocodile that lives in the swamp beside the hotel.

Some days later, a fractious couple, the well-dressed, pill-popping Faye and her disturbed husband Roy, arrive at the hotel with their young daughter, Angie. Shortly after their arrival, the family dog, Snoopy, is brutally attacked by the resident crocodile, which shocks little Angie.