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| Siren Visual Entertainment (Australia). All Regions, PAL. 1.78:1 (16:9 enhanced). English 2.0. 89 minutes |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
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| Credits |
Director: Umberto
Lenzi
Starring: Giovanni Lombardo
Radice, Lorraine De Selle, Danilo Mattei, Zora
Kerova, Walter Lucchini, Meg Fleming, Robert Kerman,
'El Indio' Rincon
Screenplay: Umberto
Lenz
Country: Italy
AKA: Women from Deep
River; Make them Die Slowly |
While part of the Italian film industry in
the late 70's was intent on emulating George Romero's
success another major portion of participants
were biting into a different subgeneric chunk:
the cannibal film. Carrying on a fascination with
indigenous peoples that has existed since the
dawn of cinema by this time work was also required
for the burgeoning world of make-up special effect
artists. Filming on the streets of New York or
some South American backwater could also enable
drug use to complete the Holy trinity of sex and
violence and of course increase the customer cache.
A prologue with a funky soundtrack has a guy
dropping in on his dealer only to be confronted
by two thugs also looking for, "Mike". Unfortunately
for our wannabe drug purchaser they're severely
pissed that Mike's ripped them off and want to
hit someone. Laying into the 'innocent', they
repeatedly call him "shitface", before shooting
him. The cops arrive and decide to track Mike
by searching for his girlfriend. Cut to a jungle
setting and a trio, Rudy, his sister Gloria and
female friend Pat drive around in a jeep before
meeting with two police reps in order to find
their way to the village of Manjoca. The blonde
gal, Pat, picks up one of the cops in order to
get gain shower access back at his place and disappears
for the night. A radio news story about cannibalism
prompts Gloria, the leader of the little group,
to proclaim that cannibalism doesn't exist which
is her academic thesis. Cannibal Ferox is a myth
she says. On a boat a guy hurriedly eats a giant
blue butterfly in order to avoid bad luck (?!).
Our team are given a small bandicoot type creature
in order to divert snakes away from them at their
camp. Journeying deeper into the jungle they blow
the engine of the jeep before coming across a
native eating oversize live bugs. A dozen natives
appear behind them. An Anaconda crushes their
decoy as they sleep. They then come across two
dead natives caught in a spike ball trap. Pat
cracks up and has to be slapped back into sensibility.
Two white guys appear. One is hurt and one is
Mike who immediately endears himself to Pat by
doing coke. They've been attacked by cannibals.
They'd come to the jungle in search of a coke
supply but were diverted up river by the lure
of emeralds. Mike talks of a Portugese guy who
had helped them but ended up being strung up by
the natives and supplying them with his genitals
for dinner. Mike and the blonde get it on. A leopard
kills a monkey. Rudy and the other guys wander
off and come across a native village where they
discover a rotting corpse tied to a pole. The
sister falls in a trap with a wild piglet in it.
Mike leaps in and kills it. When she questions
Mike's actions he responds with the immortal line,
"What, you get off on ecology do you twat?' The
indios begin to hang around them but keep their
distance. A snake and iguana fight. Mike and Pat
get naked. Mike forces Pat to make it with a native
girl. Her male partner complains. Mike shoots
the female and the male runs off. A bunch of Indios
kill a live giant turtle. Mike's damaged partner
Joe begins to hallucinate about piranhas. Rudy
and Gloria begin to seriously regret the whole
trip. In a moment of lucidity Joe tells the truth
about how they ended up where they are. Mike goes
on a coke fuelled rampage. He removes the body
parts of a native and after moaning all night
eventually dies. Mike and the blonde leave with
all the supplies. The Indios are enraged. Back
in New York Mike's gal, or rather landlady, is
shown leading a tourist group through Chinatown.
In the jungle Indio males who have been absent
turn up and gut Joe. They capture and cage everyone
by the river except for Mike who is strung up
and has his dick docked and eaten on the spot.
Mike's gal is bashed by thugs and found by cops.
Meanwhile in the jungle Mike has his debilitating
wound cauterized and everybody is loaded onto
boats. Rudy runs off only to fall in the water
and be eaten by piranhas. The rest are placed
in mud chambers. The sister revises her thesis
to state that violence breeds violence and that
man is the problem. The girls are dropped guts
on a hook for food but don't in case it's Rudy
and decide to sing a song instead. The natives
gut and eat a live baby croc. Mike escapes only
to have his hand chopped off. Pat gets strung
up on hooks by her breasts. A plane flies over
that leads to the rescue of the survivors but
not before Mike has the top of his skull removed
and his brains eaten raw. Months later back in
New York a still traumatized Gloria recieves her
doctorate. |
| Video |
| Apparently using the bottom of a Coke bottle for
a lens this film actually looks better as a tenth
genration dub. Seriously, this disc does make the
barely adequate cinematography entirely viewable. |
| Audio |
| Budy Maglione's score is frequently too groovy
for Cannibal Ferox and the sound
effects just aren't juicy enough however you will
want to sing along to the girls rendition of Red
River Valley if you can hold back the laughter. |
| Extra Features |
| None. |
| The Verdict |
Although some of the above might sound harrowing Cannibal Ferox is cheesy A-grade
exploitation all the way. Simply relentless from
dumbass dialogue to far from special effects, Cannibal
Ferox is only likely to offend animal lovers
turned off by the slaughter of fauna. Otherwise
this is an ideal six-pack film that comes on like
a Roger Corman movie on crack that actually delivers.
Rarely does such an annoying screen character, Giovanni
(a.k.a John Morghen) Radice's Mike receive the comeuppance
he deserves. Where else besides another cannibal
flick are you going to see all the extras chew the
scenery and most of the main cast? Actually, besides
Radice the acting is so poor here that Robert Kerman
from Debbie Does Dallas stands
out as a New York detective. All round shabby Cannibal
Ferox is still a major badfilm recommendation
and absolutely required viewing.
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