The Woman Eater (also known as Womaneater on its original UK release) is a low budget 1958 British horror film directed by Charles Saunders and starring George Coulouris and Vera Day.

[1][2] Produced by Guido Coen, the film recounts the story of a crazed scientist who feeds women to a flesh-eating tree in return for a serum that can bring the dead back to life.

At the Explorers' Club in London, Dr Moran tells the other members about 'a tribe in the depths of the Amazon jungle' which has 'a miracle-working JuJu that can bring the dead back to life' and that he's going on an expedition to get it.

He finds the tribe and witnesses a secret ceremony in which a young woman, entranced by beating drums, is consumed by a large carnivorous tree.

[6] For example, American film critic Bill Warren points out a sequence shot on the streets of London in which Moran goes 'on the prowl' for another woman to feed to the tree.

'The scenes were actually shot at night and seem to have been filmed from concealment with Coulouris and the young woman playing his prey [Joy Webster] moving through real crowds'.

[7] There was also an unusual setback as production was about to begin, According to British film critic John Hamilton, "the already tight budget was stretched to breaking-point by an accidental fire just before shooting started which reduced the original tree to cinders and left the prop department a matter of days to construct the unsatisfactory alternative".

[8] The Woman Eater was released in the UK in April 1958 as Womaneater on an 'unashamedly exploitative double bill with Blonde in Bondage', a Swedish crime drama from 1957.

[10] In the UK, The Woman Eater was given an X-certificate from the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC), which meant it could not be exhibited to people age 16 or younger.

BoxOffice magazine recommended to exhibitors that they target the film to 'the kiddie matinee in larger houses or the smaller neighbourhoods and drive-ins that draw a large percentage of children'.

According to him, The Hollywood Reporter called it 'a slow-paced entry that attempts ineffectually to generate more than moderate suspense', while The Motion Picture Herald referred to it as 'hardly the type of horror film that will have audiences screaming in the aisles'.

British critic Phil Hardy calls The Woman Eater 'an improbable shocker' and writes that 'the direction, acting and scripting are all questionable and totally lack the silliness required to get away with such a motif, best seen in Roger Corman's Little Shop of Horrors (1960) with its carnivorous piece of flora'.

'Though the production is definitely on the cheap, director Charles Saunders makes the most of both the English countryside (often going outside to shoot to give the picture a more expansive - and authentic - feel) and the huge old manor house that stood in for Moran's mansion', he writes.

He compliments the film's art director, Herbert Smith, for his 'bang-up basement/dungeon lab set, its medieval-style stone staircase, pillars, dank walls and iron gates contrasting nicely with the tables of shining glass beakers and medical apparatus, generating an atmosphere of ominous menace'.

Author Jessica Page Morrell describes the tree as a "phallic monster comprised of dozens of writhing snakes, and when a woman was tossed into its embrace, she would die, struggling and screaming in terror".

[23] Senn makes note of the "exploitative factor" of the movie, writing that Saunders employed "the occasional plant's-eye view shot to enhance the horror (as well as to provide an additional voyeuristic glimpse at the invariably luscious and semi-draped victim-to-be)".

[6] As Hamilton points out, though, "how the girls are actually killed or even more fundamental questions such as how an 8-foot killer tree escaped the attentions of HM Customs in the first place, are never allowed to get in the way of cheap thrills.

Beginning with the premise (it is clearly not a man-eating tree), right until the end, when Sally can't even leave the vault without the help of a man, almost everything in the film indicates if not a hatred of women, but at least a totally uncaring attitude.

[7] In The Radio Times, David McGillivray gave the film one star, and wrote, 'fans of mad scientists and killer vegetables should on no account miss this little-known Z-grade affair, a British studio's successful attempt to match similar trash that was coming out of Hollywood in the late 1950s ... Director Charles Saunders began his career with the charming wartime comedy Tawny Pipit and ended it with horror and cheap sleaze.