Tastes just like chicken! A universal phrase when it comes to alerting someone that they are about to put something in their mouth that they normally wouldn't. Like alligator meat, snake, or an Osmond (I jest, I jest). But the biggest culinary taboo has to be cannibalism. Most, but not all, cultures consider it to be verboten, which would explain all the myths surrounding it. There is the belief that human flesh is among the tastiest and once you break the taboo of eating it, there is no turning back. This legend has been expounded on in numerous cannibal flicks, usually in a beautifully over the top, Italian-gore sort of way. One little known American movie that explores this in a more thoughtful way is Laurence Harvey's WELCOME TO ARROW BEACH.

The film opens up with Robbin (a very young Meg Foster), a hitchhiking hippie chick with extremely blue eyes and a bad case of luck. She ends up in the town of Arrow Beach courtesy of an annoying coke-head hitchhikee that gets the both of them in a wreck. Miraculously, she manages to escape unscathed, but not without being warned by the local Sheriff (the great John Ireland) about the dangers of hitchhiking and trespassing on private beaches. Robbin doesn't heed either one. After the ultra-cheesy theme music (think "Love Theme from Starsky and Hutch”), Robbin ends up on the beach and goes skinny dipping (of course), while a great close-up of a manic looking eyeball watches. In fact, the cinematography really pops out here, especially the borderline stunning shot of the beach reflected in the giant lens of the voyeur's binoculars.

Robbin's beach-side nap is soon awakened by a small, effete looking man with dark sunglasses. Turns out the friendly but odd seeming man is Jason (Laurence Harvey), owner of the private beach Robbin ends up on. He also owns, along with his sister, Grace (Joanna Pettet), the house on the property. He invites her to his house for food, where she is greeted by the highly fragile Grace, who seems unusually nervous about Jason bringing another guest to their home.

Jason ignores his sister's protests and delights in the new company, especially when it comes in the form of a pretty, young philosophy geek like Robbin. Dinner (complete with rare steak) is filmed in beautifully grotesque detail, ala LA GRANDE BOUFFE (1973) and SERIAL MOM (1994). There's also some great splicing work intertwining the dinner with footage of dead bodies. Speaking of good editing, we soon learn through some well-done flashbacks, that Jason was a veteran of the Korean War. While the hellishness of war was especially hard for him because he had to turn to cannibalism to survive, Jason has a lot more to worry about than the past.

Robbin ends up spending the night, despite Grace's weird behavior and her repeated warnings about keeping her bedroom door locked (like Jason before her, desperate times call for desperate actions and she has nowhere else to go). Grace and Jason kiss goodnight (!) and he sends her to sleep, courtesy of her sleeping pills. Everyone’s asleep but the haunted looking Jason. A loud, repetitive thud wakes Robbin up in the middle of the night and instead of getting the heck out of Dodge, she goes to investigate it. The noise leads her past Jason’s photography room and straight to a big, ominous door. As it swings open, she finds Jason crazed, covered in red light and blood, furiously hacking away at some meat. She manages to escape temporarily from him, but can she resist the urge to unearth Jason and Grace’s terrible secrets to the rest of the world?

WELCOME TO ARROW BEACH was Laurence Harvey’s last film as a director and actor. That's a real pity, since in addition to being a fine actor, he shows some real strength here as a director. Cool trivia note: his directorial debut, THE CEREMONY (1963), was a Golden Globe winner. Visually it’s really good, with some creative camera angles, good lighting (especially the discovery scene with Jason in the meat room), and nice cinematography courtesy of Gerald Perry Finnerman. There’s enough great tight close-ups to make things especially interesting and tense (a tried and true horror technique, but one I’m always a sucker for). The cast is uniformly good, with Harvey and Pettet being real standouts as the haunted and the borderline incestuous Jason and Grace. There’s even a slight physical resemblance between the two of them, making their situation all the more squicky. Meg Foster is likable as the quirky and unlucky Robbin. Plus it’s always good to see veteran actor and CEREMONY co-star John Ireland.

Like anything else, WELCOME TO ARROW BEACH is not without its flaws. The music is barely passable and would be more at home on a cheesy 70’s TV show than a horror film. The biggest flaw, however, is that the latter segment has a really unfinished feel. This could be due to the fact that by post-production, Harvey was dying from cancer. It also could be due to the various editions that have been floating around. Apparently, it has never been released on video uncut to the US and while this is the original uncut theatrical release, it’s not clear if this is the complete version either (other television versions have alternate and longer running scenes). Some of the editing seems awfully choppy in an unnatural way, especially compared to the smooth cuts and transitions that appear in other parts of the movie. This isn’t really a fault of the film itself, just the annoying combination of censorious bodies and wonky distribution.

All that said, it is great to have this underrated film available on DVD. While the wheel might not be reinvented here, it doesn’t necessarily have to be. This is a good, colorful, and subtlety nasty little film with some great actors and good scenery.