Filmed, reportedly over the course of a few days, in 1974 but not released until 1977, The Meatcleaver Massacre is known for two things.

First off, it’s known for opening and ending with on-screen narration for Christopher Lee.  The distinguished-looking Lee begins the film sitting in what appears to be his own personal office.  He talks to us about the history of the supernatural and the paranormal and he suggests that the story that we’re about to see, may very well change someone like me from being a skeptic into a believer.

Secondly, Meat Cleaver Massacre is known for being one of the last films to be directed by the infamous Edward D. Wood, Jr.  Now, it should be understood that Wood didn’t have anything to do with writing or producing the film.  And when filming started, the director was a guy named Ken Burns who I assume is not the famed documentarian.  Unfortunately, Burns was judged not to be up to the role of directing and he was fired.  Edward D. Wood, Jr., who by this point was living in alcoholic squalor in Los Angeles and making his money through writing pornographic books, was brought in as his replacement.  When the film was released, the director was credited as being “Evan Lee.”  It wasn’t until 2022 that the film’s cinematographer (who was not paid for his work on the film) posted on Facebook that Ed Wood was the director.  The cinematographer’s claim was backed up by the film’s editor.

Now, my immediate reaction to learning this was to think: “Oh my God, Ed Wood directed Christopher Lee!”

Well, sorry …. no.  All the evidence points to Wood directing Meat Cleaver Massacre.  It’s an Ed Wood film, even if it doesn’t feature Wood’s trademark obsession with angora.  But the two scenes with Christopher Lee were apparently filmed for a different project, one that was abandoned.  In 1977, the distributors of Meatcleaver Massacre purchased the footage of Christopher Lee and inserted it into their film, which was promptly sold as a Christopher Lee film.  But the truth of the matter is that Lee’s footage was obviously meant for a far “classier” film than Meatcleaver Massacre and, judging from how dismissive Lee tended to be of the work that he did strictly for the money, it’s totally possible that he didn’t even know that he had become the star of Meatcleaver Massacre.  

As for Ed Wood, he died a year after this film was released.  At the time of his death, he had been evicted from his apartment and his landlord apparently threw away all of his scripts and movie memorabilia.  Sorry, everyone.  The first half of Ed Wood’s life story may be popular and funny but it definitely did not lead to a happy ending.

But what about Meat Cleaver Massacre, you may be asking.  Well …. actually, it’s not terrible.  It’s definitely a low-budget affair and none of the actors are particularly impressive but there are a few scenes that work when taken on their own terms.

James Habif stars as Professor Cantrell, who is first seen teaching a class on how to summon an Irish demon and then returning home to his family.  Unfortunately, that night, one of this students, Mason (Larry Justin), orders his gang to break into Cantrell’s house.  Mason says that he just wants to play a prank on the professor but instead, he and his idiot friends murder Cantrell’s family and leave Cantrell in a paralyzed state.  That said, Cantrell may be paralyzed but he can still summon the demon Morak to hunt down and kill all of Mason’s friends, one-by-one.  The deaths are grisly, with Mason’s home invasion bringing to mind the crimes of the Manson’s family and the demon’s acts of vengeance ranging from a disembowelment in the desert to an accident in a garage to an exploding movie projector.

As with most of Ed Wood’s film, the pacing is a bit off and the film is edited in such a way that it’s sometimes difficult to keep track of how much time has passed between scenes.  The acting isn’t great, though it’s really not any worse than the acting you would expect to find in a low-budget 70s horror film.  The scene in which one of Mason’s gang meets his fate in the desert is actually rather well-done and intentionally surreal.  To be honest, there’s not much about the film that would make you think it was an Ed Wood production.  As I said before, there’s no references to angora.  There’s no Kelton the Cop.  Criswell doesn’t make an appearance.  By most accounts, Ed spent the final decade of his life broke and doing whatever he had to do to scrounge up enough cash to pay his rent and keep drinking.  Doing whatever he had to do included directing films like Meatcleaver Massacre.  I wonder how many other films were secretly directed with Ed Wood?

Anyway, if you’re a Christopher Lee or Ed Wood completist, Meatcleaver Massacre is currently available on Tubi.