In 1980, Umberto Lenzi watched Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust and screamed "Hey! I'm the guy who kills animals for entertainment!" Then he made this pile of crap, the second most offensive Italian cannibal film. Second because the plot, compared to the more plausible Cannibal Holocaust, is completely brain-damaged.
Like 99% of Italian film made between 1980-1982, this film starts off in New York, where a junky is looking his pusher Mike. The junky goes to the apartment where Mike was last living, only to find himself looking down the barrel of a gun held by a very angry Mafioso. Turns out Mike has nicked $100,000 and high-tailed it out of town. One dead junky later, cops Robert Kerman and Venantino Venantini are on the case, but between you and me they are just there to pad out all the cannibal action elsewhere.
In the Amazon somewhere, student Lorraine De Salle has set out for the rainforest to, get this, prove that cannibalism doesn't exist. She thinks it was a myth conjured up by the Spanish conquistadores to justify pillaging the land, but how she proves it doesn't exist by going to a specific part of the Amazon is beyond me (as well as cannibalism that has happened in wars and the fact that cannibalism is localised to South America- I'm overthinking this!). Lorraine takes along her brother Rudy and the horny Mary (Zora Kerova), so we've a nice buffet lined up for the cannibals already.
Once in the jungle, this lot get their jeep stuck in mud and head off into the unknown, experiencing the horror of a tribesman eating live grubs and finding two mutilated bodies. Suddenly, a white guy appears, holding a wounded, other white guy. The non-wounded one is Mike (Giovanni Radice) and he swears that the local tribe have eaten their guide and are after them. Mike also like sniffing a lot of coke and seems a bit hyper, which, to be fair, makes these new folks suspicious. Except for Zora Kerova who happily takes coke and jumps in bed with Mike.
If a tribe of cannibals were after you, would you go back to their village? That's what this lot do, as it turns out Mike was the aggressor and killed his own guide by poking his eye out with a knife, then cutting his tummy banana off with a knife. The warriors of the tribe are out elsewhere, but what do you think they are going to do to this lot when they come back?
The 'action' as it were is cut by scenes of Kerman and Venatini searching for Mike in New York, which doesn't really serve the plot at all to be honest. Just like Cannibal Holocaust, the white cast are slowly tortured and murdered, with Zora being hung up by her breasts with steel hooks, and Mike losing his penis, arm, and then brain to the cannibals. Lorraine escapes, goes back to New York, and gets her degree by declaring that cannibalism doesn't exist. After watching that I feel like cannibals have chopped the top of my head off and eaten my brains too.
The thing is, you could forgive this nonsense if it wasn't for the killing of animals for the sake of it. It's a hard world we live in - at least a million chickens died just to feed Fernando Sancho alone. Slaughterhouse run all day to feed us Big Macs. I know the tribes in these films eat what they kill, but I want to see that as much as I want to see someone fire a steel bolt through the head of a cow that I'll be eating in the Dalmarnock branch of McDonalds. It's not fun or entertaining. I'm not Bear Grylls - I don't knock one out to the lizard I've just bitten the head off.
Luckily, all these directors soon seemed to realise that these films weren't a great idea and went on to better things - the Mad Max rip-offs, more horror films, Conan rip-offs.
Like 99% of Italian film made between 1980-1982, this film starts off in New York, where a junky is looking his pusher Mike. The junky goes to the apartment where Mike was last living, only to find himself looking down the barrel of a gun held by a very angry Mafioso. Turns out Mike has nicked $100,000 and high-tailed it out of town. One dead junky later, cops Robert Kerman and Venantino Venantini are on the case, but between you and me they are just there to pad out all the cannibal action elsewhere.
In the Amazon somewhere, student Lorraine De Salle has set out for the rainforest to, get this, prove that cannibalism doesn't exist. She thinks it was a myth conjured up by the Spanish conquistadores to justify pillaging the land, but how she proves it doesn't exist by going to a specific part of the Amazon is beyond me (as well as cannibalism that has happened in wars and the fact that cannibalism is localised to South America- I'm overthinking this!). Lorraine takes along her brother Rudy and the horny Mary (Zora Kerova), so we've a nice buffet lined up for the cannibals already.
Once in the jungle, this lot get their jeep stuck in mud and head off into the unknown, experiencing the horror of a tribesman eating live grubs and finding two mutilated bodies. Suddenly, a white guy appears, holding a wounded, other white guy. The non-wounded one is Mike (Giovanni Radice) and he swears that the local tribe have eaten their guide and are after them. Mike also like sniffing a lot of coke and seems a bit hyper, which, to be fair, makes these new folks suspicious. Except for Zora Kerova who happily takes coke and jumps in bed with Mike.
If a tribe of cannibals were after you, would you go back to their village? That's what this lot do, as it turns out Mike was the aggressor and killed his own guide by poking his eye out with a knife, then cutting his tummy banana off with a knife. The warriors of the tribe are out elsewhere, but what do you think they are going to do to this lot when they come back?
The 'action' as it were is cut by scenes of Kerman and Venatini searching for Mike in New York, which doesn't really serve the plot at all to be honest. Just like Cannibal Holocaust, the white cast are slowly tortured and murdered, with Zora being hung up by her breasts with steel hooks, and Mike losing his penis, arm, and then brain to the cannibals. Lorraine escapes, goes back to New York, and gets her degree by declaring that cannibalism doesn't exist. After watching that I feel like cannibals have chopped the top of my head off and eaten my brains too.
The thing is, you could forgive this nonsense if it wasn't for the killing of animals for the sake of it. It's a hard world we live in - at least a million chickens died just to feed Fernando Sancho alone. Slaughterhouse run all day to feed us Big Macs. I know the tribes in these films eat what they kill, but I want to see that as much as I want to see someone fire a steel bolt through the head of a cow that I'll be eating in the Dalmarnock branch of McDonalds. It's not fun or entertaining. I'm not Bear Grylls - I don't knock one out to the lizard I've just bitten the head off.
Luckily, all these directors soon seemed to realise that these films weren't a great idea and went on to better things - the Mad Max rip-offs, more horror films, Conan rip-offs.