Eat and Run (1986): When an Alien Came to New York to Eat Italians
There are movie premises that need twenty minutes of explanation.
Then there’s Eat and Run.
A 400-pound alien comes to New York City and starts eating Italians.
That's it.
That's the movie.
And if that sentence doesn't immediately make you want to investigate this forgotten piece of 1980s cinema, I'm not sure we're going to be friends.
The 1980s Were a Magical Time for Bad Ideas
One of my favorite things about digging through old movies is finding something that could only have been made during a very specific moment in Hollywood.
Eat and Run belongs to 1986—or 1987, depending on how we're counting.
The movie is generally identified as a 1986 production, while its U.S. theatrical release came in February 1987. Either way, it arrived during an incredible stretch for strange genre filmmaking.
Think about what was floating around theaters and video stores during this period:
Critters.
Chopping Mall.
Night of the Creeps.
TerrorVision.
Maximum Overdrive.
From Beyond.
Little Shop of Horrors.
Movie producers apparently heard insane pitches and responded:
And that's basically the perfect environment for Eat and Run.
Meet Murray: Intergalactic Food Critic
Our alien is Murray.
Murray is roughly 400 pounds, humanoid and apparently traveled an extraordinary distance across space only to discover his favorite delicacy:
Not pizza.
Not spaghetti.
Not lasagna.
And Murray doesn't merely develop a general appetite for humanity. The joke is specifically that he's eating Italians around Little Italy.
This means Detective Mickey McSorely has to investigate a series of disappearances while attempting to convince everyone that, yes, there really is a gigantic alien wandering around New York eating people.
Nobody seems particularly concerned about this.
That's where the movie becomes less horror and more absurdist comedy wearing the trench coat of an old detective story.
Wait...That's Ron Silver?
Here's another wonderfully strange element.
Detective Mickey McSorely is played by Ron Silver.
Silver would become much better known for serious dramatic performances, with credits including Blue Steel, Reversal of Fortune and eventually The West Wing.
But here he is investigating a 400-pound extraterrestrial with a taste for Italians.
That's the kind of casting choice I appreciate.
Play the insanity straight.
The movie even leans into a deliberately old-fashioned detective atmosphere, with Mickey narrating his investigation aloud like he wandered in from a 1940s crime picture and somehow ended up chasing an alien cannibal.
Murray Has a Horror Pedigree
Murray is played by Pat Ryan, credited here as R. L. Ryan.
Cult-horror fans might recognize him from another beautifully disgusting piece of 1980s cinema.
Ryan played Frank Schnizer in that 1987 cult favorite, giving him one hell of a résumé during this period.
Within roughly a year you've got Eat and Run and Street Trash.
That's a respectable amount of cinematic filth for one actor.
An Alien Eats People...and Gets Bail
This might be my favorite part of the entire movie.
Murray gets caught.
There is a court case.
And the alien wins.
He gets released and is basically allowed to continue rampaging while out on bail.
Meanwhile, Mickey eventually gets charged with manslaughter after shooting Murray.
Think about that.
The alien is eating people.
The detective shoots the alien who is eating people.
And somehow the detective ends up in trouble.
This movie may secretly be the greatest satire of the American legal system ever produced.
I'm kidding.
Probably.
And Then There's the Judge
The movie also finds time for romance.
Because obviously the alien-eating-Italians story needed a romantic subplot.
Mickey dates a judge.
Then the judge dates Murray.
And then things become significantly more complicated.
It's one of those plot developments where attempting to explain it makes the movie sound like you're lying.
That's the real charm of discovering something like Eat and Run.
Every ten minutes you get another sentence you never expected to say.
“The alien got bail.”
“The judge is dating the alien.”
“The detective got charged with manslaughter.”
“The alien only eats Italians.”
Sure.
Why not?
The Movie's Advertising Was In on the Joke
Nobody involved appears to have been under the illusion that they were making 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The trailer reportedly sold the movie with the tagline:
“The comedy you can sink your teeth into.”
It also claims Murray traveled 10,000 light-years from home.
Imagine surviving interstellar travel across 10,000 light-years only to arrive on Earth and immediately become obsessed with Little Italy.
There's also a gag involving Luciano Pavarotti, because once you've established that your alien eats Italians, apparently the writers' room starts asking:
Who's the most famous Italian guy we can possibly reference?
The film even features Malachi Throne as an opera announcer, giving this nonsense a connection to classic genre television including Star Trek and Batman.
And there's an actor credited simply as:
Honestly, in this movie, Mime might be the most reasonable character name.
So...Is Eat and Run Actually Worth Watching?
Here's the problem.
A movie about a giant alien eating Italians sounds considerably crazier than Eat and Run actually becomes.
Most of the kills happen off-screen.
Despite the premise and some sexual comedy, the whole thing feels surprisingly tame.
And eventually the absurd premise starts doing more work than the movie itself.
My official Binge-Watchers ruling:
BINGE LATER.
I didn't even make it through the entire final act.
But I'm still recommending that serious cult-movie people experience this thing at least once.
Because sometimes we're not watching an old movie because it's secretly a masterpiece.
We're watching because somebody once convinced other human beings to finance a movie about a 400-pound extraterrestrial who travels across the universe to eat Italians.
Want More Weird Movies?
That's what we do around here.
On Binge-Watchers Podcast with Johnny Spoiler, we're digging through forgotten horror movies, cult classics, streaming oddities, questionable sequels and the movies somebody probably should've stopped from being made.
And if you're hunting for something to watch tonight, we're also digging through Prime Video so you don't have to gamble twenty bucks on something terrible.
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Then listen to our full Eat and Run episode for Johnny Spoiler's breakdown of the movie, the strangest scenes, trivia, Home Video Headlines and this week's Staff Pick.
