This early foray into comedic horror finds Farmer Vincent (Rory Calhoun) dividing his time as a backwoods innkeeper and a regionally famous purveyor of smoked meats. Things have been going just dandy for years until one fateful night when he falls for one of his secret ingredients.
See, for years, Vincent’s made a cottage industry of ambushing passing motorists and turning their corpses into jerky. That’s until a biker bunny named Debbie (Monique St. Pierre) happens his way and unknowingly threatens to betray Vincent’s long-kept secret by her stirring of his loins. When she isn’t nosing around, Vincent continues to spend his nights clobbering folks like Ivan and the Terribles (featuring Cliff Clavin of "Cheers"), boring huge holes in a hidden garden where he then PLANTS them feet first with nothing more than their heads twitching above ground. Thankfully, his rotund sis (Nancy Parsons) has a ghastly gift for keeping these future fritters quiet. Through it all it’s Calhoun’s charm that really makes this a winner. Especially following the climatic double-chainsaw duel when he utters one of the funniest final lines in cinematic history.
CineSchlockers should note that when German-born Ms. St. Pierre made this flick she was the reigning Playboy Playmate of the Year and, curiously, listed her favorite foods as "Escargots, trout cooked on a campfire, watermelon, carrots, jalapeno peppers, which I eat till I perspire."
Notables: Four breasts. Eight corpses. Pig calling. One untethered wangdoodle. Fainting. Chest shaving. Bullwhip cracking. Gratuitous "Damsel Strapped to Conveyor Belt" scene. Tubing. Multiple shotgun blasts. Cork popping. Psychedelic hypnosis. Gratuitous "Swingers."
Quotables: He may be a homicidal maniac, but Vincent is certainly a thoughtful man, "Sometimes I wonder about the karmic implications of [my] acts." Even cannibals need catchy slogans, "It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent’s Fritters!" and "Meat’s meat and a man’s gotta eat!"
Time codes: Plaintive strains of Kregg Nance‘s "You’re Eating Out My Heart and Soul" (5:44). The Monster that Challenged the World was also featured in Piranha (40:27). The great Wolfman Jack pastors the Crainville Eurekaistic Church (51:55). Monique enters a one-woman wet T-shirt contest (58:32). Vincent sends rockers on a neck-snapping trip to Mars (1:09:55). Attack of the Gurgling Dead (1:22:50). Here comes Porky! (1:31:06).