Sultry Melissa Bacelar delicately sucks her bloody fingertips, lips dripping coagulated red, spread out on blood spattered sheets, dressed in lingerie...  holy crap I just bust a nut!  One of the best combos in low budget horror today, director James Tucker and writer Joshua Nelson, have teamed up again to present Eat Your Heart Out - a Martin-esque zombie hooker chick flick with bite! 

A zombie hooker chick flick?  How could that be, and what does that mean?  It means that Eat Your Heart Out is as much for the gore hungry guys as it is the relationship drama loving ladies.  I tested it.  I watched this film with a girl wrapped tight in Drew Barrymore and Will Smith films , who's idea of watching a low budget zombie hooker flick brought winces and sighs.  By 3/4 of the way through, she's asking me questions about their relationship, "Do you think she'll eat him too?"  She was hooked.  After watching hookers, more pairs of breasts than I could count, gore, people having their lips and skin chewed off, and a zombie lesbian blood squirting sexfest - she was still watching.  She wanted to know how the relationship turned out.  This is solely to the credit of the most underrated horror screenplay writer in the business, Joshua Nelson. 

As in Aunt Rose (review), where Nelson takes a house invasion and crazy old aunt and twists them into a unique and well written horror surprise, he takes your now evolved zombie and the relationship flick and turns it into an urban, modern day Martin for the ladies.  At the same time, a guy not wanting to sit through a love story can easily indulge in mass T&A, sex, and extensive cannibalistic devourings along the way that NO fan of the undead will turn away from unsatisfied.

It is the story of a lonely man named Jeffrey who lives alone in a big beautiful house left to him through his dead mother's will.  He is DEPRESSED.  Upon waking, the first thing he can think of is wishing for one thing - one thing worth living for.  He is not very social, so he tends to call the hooker service now and again.  Being his only female company, he attempts to connect emotionally to each new woman to no avail.  His days grow more numb by the sundown, his sister is worried about him, and nothing better is on the horizon.  To feel this pain, we are brought down and immersed in his daily duldrums, which can feel slow and uninspiring at points.  But Jeffreys an OK guy so we hang in there with him, and are very often drawn back to an upright sitting position because there is LOTS of nudity and this is good.

Meanwhile, Pandora walks the streets.  She is lost amongst the crowd, another anonymous prostitute roaming the night.  Only Pandora is different, as we learn in the first few minutes of the film in an opening sequence doused in James Tucker's New York City atmosphere, a screaming victim bitten full of chewy holes, and a jarring soundtrack driven by Beyond the Shattered Mirror.  Thems some serious hickeys.  Its bloody, its sexy, it rocks - its one of the best beginnings Ive ever seen, and I watch it about once a day to date.

Hooker after hooker, month after month, Jeffrey is meeting nothing but bimbos or uninterested ladies.  Then one day, Pandora walks through his door.  Upon having sex, both of them are stunned.  Theres magic.  Shes never met such a sensitive man - someone who holds her that way.  He has never been so blown away by beauty and sexuality in his life.  They have dinner and begin to date - Pandora grows to love him, and does not eat him like the others.  In time, Jeffrey cant help but ask her to be his wife, and she asks to meet later that evening before she gives an answer.  Its time for her to share the secret she's been keeping.

Without giving away the plot blow by blow, Jeffrey and Pandora become tight, and there's an everlasting sense of danger as you wonder, "Is she going to eat him like she ate the rest of those guys?"  All the while this goes on, a stalker played by Joshua Nelson, hunts for the murderous hooker that disembowled his brother.  Seeking revenge, this stalker offs several people as he gathers information, and gets closer to Pandora and retribution.  Its a great balance of horror, the undead, being in love, vengeance - enjoyable on several fronts to a wide variety of horror fans.

Final analysis:  If you appreciated the extreme violence and storyline of Aunt Rose, throw a zombie hooker in there youll know what to expect from Eat Your Heart Out and not be left unfed.  Director James Tucker has put together another twisted, horrific slice of New York City that puts new meaning into practicing "safe sex" - so carry condoms and a mouthpiece for now on, just to be, well... safe.  The soundtrack has an industrial/metal edge and is dark and brooding elsewhere.  The gore is flesh-stretchy and bloody.  The sex is sexy, and the love story a solid and interesting backbone.  The "evolved zombie" keeps getting parts, and these films I have scoffed at in the past, being very Romero fond.  But I have changed my opinions of this after Last Rites of the Dead (review) and Eat Your Heart Out - both coincidentally starring writer Joshua Nelson - so its safe to look to his name when seeking a quality film plotting said undead.  It reminded me of Martin, and appealed to me on the same facets.  Now and in the future, when youre looking for urban, New York City horror - seek out James Tucker and Joshua Nelson.  Bloody good horror, embedded to the hilt, everytime.

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