Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

The Corpse Grinders Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf October 31, 2017

Some people will go a long way to make a buck. The premise of 1971’s “The Corpse Grinders” is a hoot, detailing the struggle of two men using dead bodies to manufacture cat food, hoping to make a fortune by feeding felines rotting human meat. Certainly there are more efficient, less disgusting ways to pay the rent, but lunacy is part of the film’s charm. There’s no logic here, no moment of thought to consider alternate vocational routes. There are only cadavers and cat food, with director Ted V. Mikels making sure to keep the macabre study of food processing at least passably revolting. While “The Corpse Grinders” is ultimately more of a detective story than a gross-out extravaganza, there’s still plenty of ghoulish fun to be had with the feature’s low-wattage charms and strange misadventures with kitties. Sure, it could be more, but this is Mikels, and he rarely goes above and beyond what’s necessary to sell a picture.

Business at the Lotus Cat Food Company is booming, and owners Landau (Sanford Mitchell) and Maltby (J. Byron Foster) are having trouble keeping up with demand. Their special recipe calls for the grinding of human corpses, using help from Caleb (Warren Ball), a Farewell Acres Cemetery caretaker, to collect enough stiffs to keep the business running. Unfortunately, there’s a problem growing in the town’s cat population, with felines developing a taste for human flesh, attacking their owners. Witnessing this rage firsthand are Nurse Angie (Monika Kelly) and Dr. Howard (Sean Kenney), two medical professionals curious to understand while such docile animals would be interested in feasting on people. While Landau and Maltby struggle to keep their business a secret, financial distribution and loudmouths threaten exposure, while Angie and Howard begin their own investigation into the situation, coming closer to the realization that something seriously sick is happening at the Lotus Cat Food Company.

Mikels (“The Doll Squad”) isn’t a perfectionist, and he doesn’t have a lot of money to bring out the true madness of “Corpse Grinders.” However, there’s a distinct effort made here to create a comic book-y nightmare, finding Mikels bathing the picture’s weirder moments in extreme lighting, and he maintains a cinematic stance with some quick camera movement and attention to editing. It’s not much, but it’s more than others would offer, giving “Corpse Grinders” a screen presence when it’s really just junky genre entertainment, meant to offer cheap thrills with the sight of dead people situated on a conveyor belt and fed into a boxy machine, turned into meaty goop that drips out of a pipe, filling sloppy buckets with the recently deceased (along with some grain to maintain pet food appearance). These scenes are simple but effective, with Mikels returning to the image of the filling buckets multiple times throughout the film. As would any horror director worth his salt.

Actual corpse grinding is a highlight in “Corpse Grinders,” which balances pronounced gore with sleuthing from Angie and Howard, a couple who perhaps unwisely keep a cat inside their hospital, growing concerned with feline behavior when the pet decides to take a bite out of her owners. Mystery isn’t a concern to the screenplay, which finds more interest in tracking Angie and Howard’s discoveries as they work their way up to a visit to the Lotus Cat Food Company, showcasing their scientific study and meetings with food officials who find nothing curious about the business. There’s also trouble brewing between Landau and Caleb, with the dim-wit caretaker (husband to an insane wife who carries a doll around with her) growing anxious about late payments for fresh bodies, putting pressure on the small business owner to protect his system of supply and demand, which is complicated by a pair of wacko morticians and Maltby, who doesn’t have the stomach for the job. There are a numerous characters to follow in “Corpse Grinders,” which keeps the effort somewhat lively, though more screen time is devoted to conversations about awful business than actual awful business, which, in a post-“Blood Feast” world, seems like a lost opportunity. Mikels isn’t exactly subtle here, but there’s some hesitation with violence, with the production focusing more on strangeness than gore.

The Corpse Grinders Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation opens with a note identifying issues with the source material, which was the best that could be found for "Corpse Grinders." Damage is periodic, and there's wear and tear, along with a few missing frames and cigarette burns. Detail isn't strong, reaching about as far as it can go (focus issues are common, and the source is slightly blurry), picking up on set particulars, along with make-up and costuming achievements. Colors are respectfully refreshed, keeping the comic book look with strong greens and reds, while hospital blues remain potent. Skintones maintain their intended range of illness. Grain is heavy but managed. Delineation is acceptable. Judder is common.

The Corpse Grinders Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 1.0 DTS-HD MA isn't built to dominate, offering a basic listening event that emphasizes dialogue exchanges, working with performers of various abilities and volume. Scoring is flat but understood, without defined instrumentation. Sound effects are basic. Reels vary in quality, with muffling most prominent in the last reel. Hiss is detected.

The Corpse Grinders Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary features director Ted V. Mikels.

• "Ted Talks" (18:00, SD) is an undated conversation with Mikels (likely recorded around 2007) who only briefly discusses his time with "Corpse Grinders," sharing stories about the purchase of the original script and the construction of the grinding machine, making sure to clarify that the ghoulish creation isn't a cardboard box. Mikels offers a tour of his Las Vegas studio, showing off equipment and the editing duties on his latest work, "Demon Haunt." Mikels sits down to explain the evolution of B-movie distribution, lamenting its downfall in the 1980s, which led to financial struggles and a string of shady businessmen who promised the director much but failed to deliver.

• Still Gallery (:38) collects a few lobby cards and a poster.

• A Theatrical Trailer has not been included.

The Corpse Grinders Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mikels keeps exploitation interests up front in "Corpse Grinders." There's plenty of screen time devoted to the collection of dead bodies, but the production also zooms in on any actress willing to get undressed for the camera, adding a touch of sleaze to the massacre. Anything of unease tends to help the feature, which becomes a little stale when tracking Angie and Howard's hunt for evidence, which doesn't pay off as explosively as imagined, while antagonism between Maltby and Landau remains fairly uneventful, lacking a harsh showdown between two sickos trying to pull off a major pet food scam (cat fans should be warned that felines are tossed around a bit in attack simulations, but nothing is too violent). "Corpse Grinders" runs just 73 minutes, but it feels longer when away from the essentials of the viewing experience, finding Mikels trying to pad the effort with dialogue and financial woes when viewers are probably more interested in the bizarre extremes of the Lotus Cat Food Company and the creation of their special recipe. It's a little clunky, but as this type of entertainment goes, Mikels at least adds some hustle when he feels inspired to do so.