Classic Seventies Horror Cinema: "The Corpse Grinders"

During the earlier part of the Seventies we still had $1 theaters, sometimes showing double features. Amongst the cinematic masterpieces that many of us enjoyed on rainy Saturday afternoons, few could compete with "The Corpse Grinders," arguably one of the worst films of the decade.

Directed by Ted Mikels, the genius who also brought us "The Astro Zombies," "Bloody Orgy of the She Devils" and "Apartheid Slave Women's Revenge," the film depicts the ups and downs of the Lotus Cat Food Company. When the firm is in danger of going under, the owners get the novel idea of taking their slogan "For cats who like people" literally. Soon ghouls are digging up corpses and bringing them to the Lotus factory, where they are sent down a ramp into a big cardboard box (well, it's supposed to be a meat grinder) and turned into cat food. The stuff sells like crazy, and soon the owners find themselves reaching out to a local mortician for more raw product, which he infuses with meat-flavored embalming fluid in order to further satisfy our little friends. Ah, but of course there are complications, as once the cats of this world get a taste of human flesh, they aren't going to return readily to Nine Lives or Meow Mix. Soon pets are attacking their owners to consume them.

"The Corpse Grinders" is stupid, gross and poorly-made, like a lot of Seventies budget films. Still, for fans of bad movies, it's well worth renting.