Review #358: 'The Corpse Grinders' (1971)

The Lotus Cat Food company are facing financial ruin, until they discover that by incorporating human flesh into their product, cats go wild and sales go up. But soon, cats go a bit too wild and start murdering and drinking the blood of their owners. When Dr. Howard Glass (Sean Kenney) is attacked, and performs an autopsy on another victim, he starts an investigation into the strange goings-on. Landau (Sanford Mitchell), the big boss at the company, seems to start enjoying the butchery, and employs various heavies to do the dirty deeds. But he finds himself at odds with his co-workers, who disapprove of the murders, and local gravedigger Caleb (Warren Ball), who has yet to be paid for his exploits.

One can only go into a film called The Corpse Grinders with a certain level of expectation, that being extremely low. Yet although the film is almost profoundly terrible, it's really not as bad as I expected. Helmed by exploitation hack Ted V. Mikels (director of the also wonderfully titled and fellow Grindhouse Project members Blood Orgy of the She-Devils (1972) and The Doll Squad (1973)), he at least attempts to put some directorial skill into the film, leaving out usual Grindhouse traits such as long, static, and uneventful shots, and scenes of women dancing to repetitive music. The film is pretty well paced, shifting from Glass' investigations to Landau's increasingly murderous schemes to keep things moderately interesting.

However, I'm saying this is half-decent for a Grindhouse film. As an actual film, it is admittedly bad. The few scenes depicting the cat attacks are laughable (I mean, how can a cat overpower a human being? Just throw the fucker against a wall!), and the gore predictably ropey. The actual 'corpse grinder' machine looks made of cardboard, and poses so many questions about functionality that I'm not going to get into it. I did laugh out loud at the ridiculous made-up sign language that Landau uses (he just seems to shake his hand a lot), so at least there's some fun to be had. As hard as it is to say it, I'm actually looking forward to seeing more of Mikels' films, as he seems to be in the same vein as one of my guilty pleasures, Herschell Gordon Lewis.


Directed by: Ted V. Mikels
Starring: Sean Kenney, Monika Kelly, Sanford Mitchell
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie