Some aspects of the film have caused it to enjoy a favorable critical reputation over the years. Sherman directs the film with a documentarian's sense of detachment, for example, panning slowly across the cannibal's "larder" filled with human cadavers in various stages of decay; the effect is gory but lacking in the sensationalism common to most low-budget horror productions. The portrayal of Detective Calhoun by the late Donald Pleasance has also been praised for the actor's making a three-dimensional character out of a stereotype, and actor Hugh Armstrong gives the revolting figure of the cannibal some Frankenstein-like pathos.
There was no legitimate home video release of the film in the United States until September 2003, when it was released on DVD.