What if a murderer were living in a remote motel similar to the one in Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), holding a huge sickle reminiscent of a chain saw? What if an alligator as big as the shark from Jaws (1975) opened its mouth in a swamp near the motel? What if the movie was “too much,” combining all of that with a red tone and dissonant sounds, filled with frequent violence and nudity? Eaten Alive , one of Hooper’s early works, pushes the concept of a person being eaten alive to the extreme, as the title suggests. Although most scenes were shot on set, they still convey a sense of wildness. The speedy editing done during the climax guides the audience to feeling a living hell. This movie is often seen as a variation or an expansion of his previous work, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre , and also marks the beginning of the relationship between Hooper and Robert Englund, famous for playing Freddy Krueger. This film is a loose adaptation of a true story from Texas in the 1930s. (KIM Hyung-seok)