Wow! Such a good movie.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

I can relate literally. I grew up as a child with a grandparents who owned a corner meat market and grocery. I found this slightly amusing having been raised around a butcher/meat cutter and found moments of it to be sorta humerus in a dark sick twisted humor. You should never mess with a person who owns a meat market cause they could make you into sausage, burgers and have it their way instead of the burger king way. I would watch it again . I found it on the B-rated movies app under a private roku channel and enjoyed watching it . I have a special love for old 1970s bizarre horror and this one was right up my alley. It had all those things I like about the 70s horror movie from the cheesiness to the obscure nature of the film.

The idea behind LO STRANGOLATORE DI VIENNA ("The Mad Butcher" or "Meat is Meat") is not exactly original. Back in the 1920s, there were two versions of the story of Sweeney Todd, several sound versions since as well as the Sondheim play. Also, in more recent years, films like EATING RAOUL and THE CORPSE GRINDERS all had very similar themes of cannibalism. So, to make the film work well amidst all these similar films, it had to offer something more--a better sense of black humor or perhaps more terror. Unfortunately, this film offers none of these--it's just a bad film that missed its chance to be funny or entertaining.The film starts well. Victor Buono is being released from a mental hospital after a three year stay. However, unlike what you'd expect, he does not want to go. After you see his awful wife (an annoying harpy) and leech of a brother-in-law, you understand why. At first, things go well--Buono is happy to be back at his job as the owner of a butcher shop--but he absolutely refuses to go home to live with these creeps. At this point, I liked the film--it had a nice quirky sense of humor.Unfortunately, the film soon digressed into a mix between a sex film (with ample boobage) and a super-low budget film--as evidenced by terrible dialog and cheesy action. In fact, once the killings started, the fun stopped--and it SHOULD have reveled in a campy dark sense of humor. To make things worse, all humor or attempts at humor disappeared at the end--and the film just seemed sick, as the guy you wanted to like (the butcher) started becoming more of a sick pervert--and it's very uncomfortable laughing at a guy who is essentially a sex offender AND murderer. Killing people in funny ways can be funny to some, but rape is a sure comedy killer. It made the film seem much more exploitative and less watchable or fun.Overall, a very bad film that should have been a lot better. Even THE CORPSE GRINDERS (a very bad film) is much better than this mess. Unsavory and difficult to like...even on a kitsch level.Cliché #22 alert: This film features a fight near the end where the hero is attempting to rescue the damsel from the maniac. During the entirety of this fight, she just stands there and watches--offering no help at all! Frankly, if such a dumb cliché were true, I would say that he'd be best to just let the dumb lady die!! After all, she'd too stupid to live!!

The jolly, but deranged Otto Lehman (marvelously played to the wacko hilt by the great Victor Buono) gets released from an asylum and becomes determined to live up to his sterling reputation as the best butcher in Vienna. Otto inevitably goes crazy and murders several folks. He disposes of the bodies by grinding them up and turning them into his famously delicious sausage. Director Guido Zurli, working from a wickedly witty script by Dag Mollin and Dick Randall (Randall also co-produced the picture and pops up in a small role as a police officer), does an expert job of creating and sustaining a playfully macabre sense of often hilariously twisted pitch-black humor. Buono's sweaty, quirky and massively bulky presence elevates the film's quality a few extra notches. Brad Harris contributes a solid performance as meddlesome, sarcastic American reporter Mike Lawrence, the luscious Karin Field supplies a tasty eyeful as Otto's enticing neighbor Berta, and Franca Polesello is a snippy riot as Otto's naggy, shrewish wife Hanna. Better still, a couple of lovely ladies remove their clothes and bare their beautiful bodies. Alex Alexander's wonderfully catchy and jaunty score likewise scores a bull's eye. A real treat.

When formerly respected local butcher Otto Lehmann (Buono) is released from a mental health asylum (calmly explaining he's now cured of his ills after a good lie down), his wife's incessant nagging quickly flips his crazy switch, and he soon finds his murderous impulses escalating out of his control. Intrepid local reporter Brad Harris suspects Otto might not be as cured as his small-goods, but lucky for Otto, his knackwurst are proving to be a hit, particularly with the local constabulary.Looking at the box cover to the video version of this movie, one might be reluctant to view, for fear of the unsavoury content that might be lurking within. Having seen this movie a few times, I can say with confidence, that such a reluctance would be unwarranted. Far from being another inept slasher movie, this Italian offering is an inspired black comedy, that benefits from a deliciously maniacal performance by the inimitable slapstick villain, Victor Buono. His camp acting more than compensates for the paltry production values and often claustrophobic staging. Performances like this, underline the untimeliness of Buono's death in the early eighties.Perhaps this was the movie from which sausages attracted the rather unpleasant colloquialism of "mystery bags"? But then "meat is meat", as they say.