Cannibal Ferox (1981) User Reviews

The Anthropophagi does not Exist

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 10 March 2012]

In Brooklyn, in New York City, the drug dealer Mike Logan (John Morghen) steals US$ 100,000.00 from his suppliers and flees to Colombia. The police detectives seek out the touristic guide Myrna Stenn (Meg Fleming), who shared her apartment with Mike.

Meanwhile, the anthropologist Gloria Davis (Lorraine De Selle) travels on vacation to Paraguaya, in Colombia, with her brother Rudolph "Rudy" Davis (Bryan Redford) and her friend Pat Johnson (Zora Kerowa) expecting to find the town of Manioca to prove her thesis that cannibalism does not exist. However, their Jeep breaks down in a lonely road and they need to walk. They meet the Americans Mike Logan and his friend Joseph "Joe" Costolani (Walter Lloyd) that is wounded and Mike tells that the local Indians have eaten their guide Portuguese and they join the trio of friends.

Soon the promiscuous Pat stays with Mike and Joe tells the truth about Mike to Rudy and Gloria and how cruel he had been with the Indians, torturing elders, women and children. Rudy and Gloria feel that they are in danger but there is no place to hide from the young cannibals that are returning to their hamlet.

"Cannibal Ferox" is another brutal Italian film of cannibalism extremely realistic. The story is not bad and the special effects are very impressive; however, the cruelty with live animals is unbearable and does not add any value to the movie. I do not know what viewers could or expect to see in a B-movie with the title "Cannibal Ferox". I saw this film on a Brazilian DVD and the quality of the image is only reasonable. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Cannibal Ferox"

Cannibal Go Booooooooooom!

[EdIsInHell · 6/10 · 11 January 2019]

This is one of the better cannibal boom films out there. Umberto Lenzi does a great job with the directing of this movie.

Bong it up and burn it down.

All hype and no substance

[o-mavis · 4/10 · 20 June 2007]

This film is much the same as Cannibal Holocaust. If it weren't for the needless animal killing in the name of 'shock' ("Ooh look at us, we're hardcore, we've added real death to our films") these films would make their way onto my dusty classics shelf - I'm a huge fan of cannibal films and zombies. But as it stands, it's another example of shock horror clutching at the last straws of the pile in a desperate effort to make a poor film generate more hype. To sum up, a crusty gore flick with limited appeal. A fan of 70's gore should give this a try, but anyone with modern ethics and tastes should pick something a little better written for their popcorn-fest.

the poor animal just would't stop screaming, can't you hear it?

[imwithstupid89 · 3/10 · 28 August 2011]

i'm not a naive person. i realize that animals in nature are killed and sometimes slowly. i just don't understand what it had to do with the film. why did they have to have 5 minutes of an innocent animal screaming before the huge snake finally coiled tight enough to cut off it's air. i love cannibal, zombie, and monster movies. i enjoy movies of humans getting killed. you wanna know why? because i know at the end of the day they took home a paycheck no matter how small it was. they got to get up, take a shower and go home. they didn't end up in a digestive system for real for somebody's (mainly mine) entertainment. that part of the movie in no way, shape, or form had anything to do with any part of the movie. it wasn't like blondy could send the little sucker to get help or anything. i'm also just wondering if maybe one of the sickos that made this movie just didn't add in some extra audio of the little guy screaming just for his own "i killed the neighbors cat last night mom" ya yas. this might seem stupid but i'm just saying the people signed up to be killed, the little animal didn't. just some food for thought.

Ugly and terrible entry into the cannibal sub-genre

[tomgillespie2002 · 3/10 · 9 October 2011]

The film begins with the murder of a drug addict in an unknown apartment by some gangsters looking for a man named Mike Logan. As the police begin their investigation into the shooting, the action relocates to the Paraguayan jungle, where two students, Gloria (Lorraine De Selle) and Rudy (Danilo Mattei), and one tag-along Pat (Zora Kerova) are making their way into the heart of the jungle looking for native tribes who have been accused of cannibalism. Gloria is out to disprove the claims of cannibalism for her dissertation, and after they come across two mangled bodies of tribesmen, they also come across Mike Logan carrying his injured partner Joe (Walter Lucchini), who both claim to have been attacked by savage cannibals.

Between 1977 and 1981 there was a huge boom in cannibal films. They boasted exotic locations, horrific gore, real animal killings, and the threat of the unknown in the primitive tribes. It was Ferox's director Umberto Lenzi who kick-started the sub-genre with Deep River Savages in 1972, but they only really hit their stride in 1977, when the Grindhouse theatres were at their most popular. The cannibal genre died out pretty quickly, thankfully, as they represent everything that is ugly about the horror genre, and Cannibal Ferox, possibly the second most notorious after Cannibal Holocaust, is no exception.

The gore and violence is by no means convincing, or even disturbing, but it is clear from the off that the film's sole purpose is to be more repulsive than anything else before it. Multiple cocks are hacked off (and one is eaten - yummy), a woman is lifted into the air with fish- hooks through the breasts, there is an eye-gouging, and of course, no cannibal film would be complete without a bit of the ol' brain eating. This is all well and good and what can be expected from an Italian exploitation film at the height of the nasties era, but the animal killings are simply needless.

I always found myself defending Cannibal Holocaust for the animal cruelty, as that is a genuinely good film, and the horrific animal scenes really do add to the horrible and deeply unsettling atmosphere. But after seeing Ferox, I realised there is really no excuse for it. Regardless of the film's quality, there is no place for the pointless killing of animals. Radice refused to wield the knife during the pig- killing scene, and in the DVD commentary, director Lenzi said 'Robert De Niro would have done it!', to which Radice replied 'Robert De Niro would have told you to f**k off!'

Anyway, the film really is pretty damn awful. Why the action keeps shifting back to New York is anyone's guess. Mike is a wanted drug pusher that legged it off to Paraguay in search of cocaine and a fortune in gemstones, but surely knowing this is enough? There is a rescue attempt near the end that looks like joining the two stems together, but nothing comes of it. It seems to be there only to add a few more minutes onto the running time, allowing the film to render itself a feature. As you would expect, the acting/script/story is guff, but the strange thing is the moral message it seems to be putting out. When it revealed that Mike was lying and it was in fact him that attacked the tribe (shock horror), it seems to be a 'don't judge a book by it's cover' type message. But when the tribe acts out their revenge, they revel in the torturing.

Well anyway, the real torture victim was me, who had to sit through this. There's a few more cannibal films to get through for the nasties project (maybe I'll leave them to Marc), and although I'll welcome (if that's the right word) another viewing of Cannibal Holocaust, I have to say that I would be happy not to have to sit through another cannibal film. And there's always the Mondo sub-genre I suppose!

www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

The living nightmare of every censor!

[DJ Inferno · 12 January 2002]

I love this flick, so am I perverted or even totally weird?!? None of both, because "Cannibal Ferox" is a great guilty pleasure and an excellent stare-if-you-dare-movie! It is banned in 31 countries and there are truly good reasons for that: nearly no film delivers such an immense load of explicit gore, blood and guts, castration and sadism as this one features! But even though you like to hear it or not, Lenzi´s film is pretty suspense-packed, full of dramatic and entertaining from beginning till the end! Once more the a whole zoo of animals was slaughtered and the most disgusting take is when in a nearly heart-braking scene a little tethered and despaired screaming anteater gets strangulated by a huge Anaconda! However this shot has an almost symbolic character in view of the plot... The cast includes such exploitation-greats like Robert Kerman ("Eaten Alive"), John Morghen ("Cannibal Apocalypse"), Perry Pirkanen ("Cannibal Holocaust") and in the first line the wonderful Zora Kerova ("The New York Ripper"), who makes some really bad experiences with meathooks at the unhappy end..! Faint-hearted persons will surely turn away in deeply disgust, however all those who threw their political correctness over board may surely enjoy this sick symphony of sheer cruelty!

The REAL deal with this movie

[sangles-1 · 3/10 · 22 March 2006]

I bought this thing used at a video game store's "clearance bin". I wanted to get that guilty feeling from watching something I've been warned is too intense to watch; I wanted the shock value. I wanted to feel guilty and bad about watching a "banned film". I was very disappointed.

Cannibal Ferox does not work because it is so campy and fake. Most of the time the camera does not show you the "shocking" stabs, chops, slicing - you just see the aftermath. (They do show a breast hooking in detail). The special effects are just OK. Nothing here that tells you any of the violence is real. The "cannibals" are obviously poor people from central / south America who were dressed up as jungle savages and told to act mean. These people were obviously in on the whole picture to get a little money, or food, or both. Again...just not convincing.

However, like everyone else has said, there is some real killing of animals going on here. That is the extent of the realism. To me, that was more shocking than any gutting, chopping of scalps, or castration, and even then, the animal deaths are not that gory at all - maybe just sad.

The Biggest Shock Is That It's Good!

[Rathko · 7/10 · 29 April 2005]

There are so many versions of this movie floating around that I have absolutely no idea what was cut from the version I saw, and what wasn't. All I know is that it was the recent Grindhouse Releasing version.

I expected absolutely nothing from this movie, other than completely amateurish nonsense in the vein of an updated Hershell Gordon Lewis. I was shocked to find that Cannibal Ferox really isn't a bad movie at all. The storyline, acting and production values were as solid as you could expect from such a multi-lingual low budget exploitation flick, especially considering the amount of outdoor location shooting, and Grindhouse have done a really good job with the remastering. Lorraine De Selle is great, trying to take the whole thing seriously while Giovanni Lombardo Radice chews the scenery around her with leering, bog-eyed abandon. Zora Kerova looks like she wandered in from the set of Friday 13th Part II, all blond curls and pert tits, and suffers the consequences. The whole New York subplot stinks of running-time-filler and could be totally done away with.

The gore is minimal but effective – a blink and you'll miss it latex castration and a rather more shocking breast-on-hook impalement. The much criticized animal cruelty really isn't as bad as everyone tries to make out – usually consisting of little more than Discovery Channel style documentary footage of animals chasing and killing each other. On the few occasions in which people actively kill animals, they do so quickly and efficiently, and there's no sense that the animals are suffering, or no more than they would in the average abattoir. It's interesting that when animals are butchered for your viewing pleasure in Italian exploitation movies it's banned in a dozen countries, but when Coppola does it (far less humanely) in Apocalypse Now, it's art.

This was my first journey into the Cannibal genre, and if I can get my hands on Cannibal Holocaust, it won't be my last. Ferox is a fun, trashy, low budget, exploitation fest that is far more enjoyable than some of the big-budget mainstream dross that I've had to endure (Constantine anyone?).

My sweet Lord

[mdc515 · 1/10 · 8 July 2003]

This was, hands down, the dumbest movie I have ever seen. I can't believe I wasted my time. Unable to get "Cannibal Holocaust", which I felt I needed to see for myself, I settled for this one. What a mistake. This movie doesn't do anything. Seems like all they do is walk around for the most part, and the gore is ludicrous. Hurting and killing the animals was pathetic and did nothing for the movie except make it worse. Don't see this.

Good, cheap 80's horror.

[noahbetancourt · 7/10 · 3 November 2019]

I just finished watching this movie, and it actually wasn't bad. The acting was a little cheesy and the plot was at first corny but it eventually picked up and became what it was supposed to be, a gory hard to watch cannibal movie. I didn't enjoy or was not happy with the animal deaths, but the movie was supposed to be shocking and hard to watch, and that is definitely what those scenes were. It had very good gore effects for 1981. The brain eating, the stomach eating, the hooked girl, and the other scenes of cannibalism were gross and pretty hard to watch. I guess I'm a gorehound, but most movies never really deliver on gore in my opinion. This one did, and that was all ready enough for it to be good. I also like the idea that the cannibals are not the real bad guys, and that we are. If you are a fan of horror movies, especially low budget exploitation horror, then this movie is for you. If you have a weak stomach then do not see this. Still haven't seen cannibal holocaust or any other Italian cannibal film sadly, so I don't have anything to compare this to.

The worst of Cannibals

[cmmescalona · 3/10 · 27 August 2006]

This may be one of the very worst films on Cannibals ever done. Lenzi repeats himself with almost the same settings as in his other movie, titled "Eaten Alive" in English. I have the fortune of having all the uncut versions of all these "weird" films. Anyway, this one is the one that gets the "worst" vote for all of the cannibal films.

As somebody else stated before, here we go tho the SAME places as the others films, with the SAME shots and, worst of all, NO real plot... even when the idea is supposed to have a plot. Cannibal Holocaust may be the ONLY cannibal movie ever. The rest are just stupid nonsense! Just a pity they spent such a lot of money making these films.

Fun cannibal film with some nice gore effects.

[HorrorFan265 · 10/10 · 8 September 2018]

I recently watched cannibal ferox and I actually liked it. Its fun and has great music and gore effects good characters. The only problem i would have is that the animal deaths where real and sorta disturbing. Nonetheless its still worth a watch.

A guilty surprise for depressing moments.

[emm · 7/10 · 27 October 1998]

Umberto Lenzi should be regarded as king of Italian trash cinema. Many of his horror and crime movies are quite fun aplenty, and CANNIBAL FEROX stands out as an instant classic of graphic proportions. Scenes of cannibalism and human torture are depressingly offending to those with weak cardiovascular systems, but as a guilty impression, the photography in them is amazingly fantastic! The story involving a college girl on a suddenly turned dangerous trip assignment to the Amazonian world is the film's main idea. What we have here is a guilty pleasure: a movie being so upsetting to gulp into our throats, but marks a special triumph in alternative moviemaking. You may have heard of the mass controversy of CANNIBAL FEROX that led to its banning in 31 worldwide nations, so if you want to suffer from heart failure, do so now before the feds decide to kill one of the finest works of classic cinematic crap into oblivion, only to establish a New World Order, by god!

craptastic

[hobbitaur · 1/10 · 11 January 2006]

This movie was unbelievably bad... It's gory but the violence is just too much to the point where it looks extremely fake and predictable. Since Everything is shown to you there is nothing left to the imagination. And the plot... what plot? There really isn't any! The pacing is unbelievably slow (despite the random acts of violence) and the screenplay must have been written by a deranged 12 year old kid who kills kittens for fun. So this movie was banned in 31 countries? I could see why... not because of the gore (boring and trite) but because it was a terrible movie. It should have been BANNED from existence. Avoid this one like the plague. 1 out of 10

"Then...THEN THEY ATE HIS GENITALS!!!"

[massiveapple · 13 February 2004]

Still one of the funniest movies of all time, assuming you're not shocked by cheap gore. Never mind the "20 scenes of extreme brutality" mentioned in the introductory "warning" (ROLL UP! ROLL UP!), there are at least 30 scenes of extreme hilarity....

If you're looking for a good cannibal flick, "Cannibal Holocaust" is the one - still pretty dumb, but good. "Ferox", on the other hand, is the one to choose if you want a good bad-taste laugh. There are way too many hilarious moments to list, but I love the central premise that Lorraine de Selle is going into the jungle to prove that cannibalism DOESN'T exist, and NEVER HAS. Right - I just walked home from the pub and didn't get into a fight, that proves that no one has ever got in a fight on the way home from the pub. And no one who's seen this film will ever forget John "Giovanni Radice" Morghen's acting as he wails the immortal line, "then...THEN THEY ATE HIS GENITALS!!!"

The commentary track on the DVD is fantastic - Lenzi is a hilariously arrogant idiot, while Morghen's camp, bitchy comments had me in hysterics.

But don't believe this nonsense about how "Ferox" is "sickening" for showing a snake crushing something to death, or South American tribes killing a turtle. Have you never watched a documentary about snakes on the BBC or the Discovery Channel? Guess what - they show them crushing things too! And if you don't believe that nature documentary crews actually feed "innocent" animals to predators just to get good footage, you're very naive. As for the turtle -- these tribal guys live IN THE JUNGLE, ok? "But you don't have to show them actually cutting the head off a live turtle!" Well first of all, the fact that it's a "live" turtle is neither here nor there - if it was a dead one, it would still have been killed, duh. And secondly, what? We can eat our turtle soup, but we don't want to watch it being made? Grow up.

Make Them Die Slowly......From Boredom

[dajohns8 · 1/10 · 19 March 2005]

After reading multiple reviews of this film I was really interested in checking it out. I consider myself a horror buff and enjoy seeing all types of horror films including those that are not necessarily the upper echelon of film making. Well this film may have been the worst I have ever wasted time watching. Banned in 31 countries! Why? The plot was terrible, the violence was sheepish at best, and the dialogue was enough to make me consider breaking the DVD over my knee. If you are interested in a cheesy horror flick try Killer Klowns From Outer Space, at least that film is worth a good laugh. Cannibal Ferox, two big thumbs down. If you must see it, rent it. That way you only throw away a couple of dollars.

Bear Grylls - the movie

[Bezenby · 4/10 · 3 March 2019]

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.

Lenzi Holocaust

[videodrome1234 · 5/10 · 30 May 2014]

Cannibal films were all the rage in the 70s and 80s. This was mainly in Italy and due to Deodato, who directed the acclaimed Cannibal Holocaust, and the first real cannibal film Jungle Holocaust, that was just a test run before the big show. Cannibal Holocaust's success was due to the films unbelievable brutality and the awesome marketing. The hand-held camera, the research crew and the "accidentally found" film wasn't invented by the Blair Witch Project but by Cannibal Holocaust and Ruggero Deaodato. Of course the Italian copies made after the classic are nowhere near the same quality and are lacking in the whole production that surrounded it. One type of copy just kept the cannibals and became an adventure movie, the other type just built on the brutality, the second is the case with Cannibal Ferox. The producers didn't leave anything to chance so they hired someone who was at home in every genre Umberto Lenzi. Lenzi pounded out two films just to be sure on was Cannibal Ferox. It is one of the best copies of Cannibal Holocaust. Lenzi does his job perfectly, 'cause what is the point of a film like this? That is brutal and faced paced and this film is those things. After Holocaust this film has the most brutal visuals, but that's just one of the important parts of the film. Apart from that the director gives us a great atmosphere too. Helping it along is the professional cinematography and the awesome music that was also used in Eaten Alive. The actors can't be criticized either they are Italian stars, they were just as good at playing Americans as the actors in Cannibal Holocaust. We can just come right out and say the script is garbage, but with these types of films it would be a miracle if they weren't that. Unfortunately it follows in Holocausts footsteps by killing animals for real and that's reprehensible. It is interesting that just like all the rest of the great Italian productions it has a bunch of names. In Australia it was Woman from Deep River based on a previous Lenzi film and Make Them Die Slowly in the States and the tagline wasn't even about this film. In conclusion I'll just say if you liked Cannibal Holocaust I Ferox is a must see. If you didn't then run far far away. It's only really problem is that after Holocaust its basically just a copy, but it had potential to be more but Lenzi was satisfied with just making a good clone. 6/10 https://www.youtube.com/user/silverscreenreviews1

Yummy

[Tweetienator · 7/10 · 31 January 2019]

I don't know what kind of movie people expect (I'm just wondering, after reading some reviews here) - if you watch an Italian movie from the 70s and early 80s in which cannibals (or zombies) play an important part, you should know, that

a) the production/budget is a rather small one b) the acting is no Oscar material (but the naked boobs) and c) you get a lot of trash including sometimes really bad effects.

If you like (Italian) horror with some gore and lots of trashy stuff, you may enjoy Cannibal ferox. I liked it in my younger years, and still rewatch some of those "classics" from time to time.

All in all I dare to say that many of them have still more soul than most of those American horror remakes (and prequels, sequels etc.) that we get mostly served in our modern generic days, not to mention, that all those movies from the 70s and 80s were pioneers regarding gore.

perhaps they died a bit _too_ slowly

[dogcow · 1/10 · 25 September 1999]

This movie is slow, mollases slow, old man at the ATM slow, line at disneyworld slow....just about everything in this movie is either boring or shlocky. This includes the script (shlocky) and the gore (boring) and even the "real" animal deaths (both boring and shlocky) most of which is either very fake looking or lame stock footage. According to the introduction the director was Umberto Lenzi...I use the term director loosley because i cant possibly imagine anyone could have actually directed this garbage and considered it good. Everyone in the movie was either underacting or overacting (john morghan managed to do both) and it was chocked full of useless scenes and subplots that seemed to serve no purpose than to take up time. Any atmosphere the movie built up during the jungle scenes was killed when it would cut to new york. Theres another thing, why the heck did they need so many establishing shots when they switched locations to new york, the movie only took place there or in the jungle, the viewer obviously knows which is which! The only decent thing in the movie was the score during the jungle scenes, something i thought was much more appropriate for the subject matter than the over dramatic love ballad in cannibal holocaust. Also the death and torture of Morghan provided a decent bit of irony but it was overshadowed by the cheesiness of the rest of the film.

Overall this movie bites and should be avoided at all costs... but you'll probably go see it anyways.

Entertaining Italian Trash cinema

[MADMANMARZ · 7/10 · 9 January 2000]

I love films like Make Them Die Slowly (Cannibal Ferox) The euro-trash cinema of the 80's was the BEST!!! Similar themes are seen in Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust. The white man tortures primative natives and they seek revenge by torture and cannibalism. This was a popular title in the 80's and lives up to it's reputation of being "Banned in 31 countries"!! The highlights are the hooks in Breasts, the castration and the machete head slicing! It is not the most violent film ever but it works well and surpasses any current film in shock value. Lenzi is not such a bad film maker. Lenzi started Cannibal films with his 1972 film, "Man From Deep River". "City Of The Walking Dead" is great Lenzi film as well.

What is wrong with people?

[Bukronik · 1/10 · 20 December 2012]

There is only one reason why this movie is God awful bad. It's not the acting, the plot, or anything you would expect. It the fact that no movie, ever, EVER MADE, needs to have real animals tortured and killed on camera.

People on here are ridiculous, suggesting this movie is great. What is so great about a defenseless animal being tied to a post and watching it try to get away from a massive snake, that proceeds to very slowly strangle the life out of it, all the while it is screaming with a high-pitched voice at the top of its lungs? It is disturbing and sick.

I am not a panzy when it comes to horror and violence but watching animals brutally killed is disgusting and anyone on here that says this movie is good is mentally ill. Just like Cannibal Halocaust this movie had no right being made. I hope there is a Hell and the director burns in it.

One of my all-time favourite films is no picnic for those easilyupset

[Casey-52 · 9/10 · 15 August 2000]

CANNIBAL FEROX is one of those "forbidden gems", one of the short list of films that only those with strong stomachs and undying dedication to horror films can endure. Also on that list are films like CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, MEN BEHIND THE SUN, SALO: 120 DAYS OF SODOM, and a handful of others that are not for the weak of heart or those easily offended. I have finally seen FEROX and have only good things to say about it.

The plot is rather simple: a drug dealer and his co-hort torture and kill some natives in the Amazon jungle and escape, but after encountering a college group, they are captured and brutalized for the cruelties they have caused. All of the four main actors are excellent (Giovanni Lombardo Radice/John Morghen, Lorraine de Selle, Danilo Mattei, Zora Kerova) and I plan to seek out all of their films. I seriously enjoyed the acting, which may come as a surprise to those who watch this film for yucks. I never once laughed during this film, I took it totally seriously and the film actually works this way. I can't stress how unbearable some of the scenes in this film are. There are several instances of real animal killings (a turtle, an alligator, a pig, and almost a mongoose), castration, decapitation, mutilation, humiliation, a piranha attack, and poison darts. All of the scenes in the jungle are expertly filmed and create an otherworldy environment that puts us, the viewers, through hell and back. By the end of the film, we have experienced everything that the protagonists have and have come out alive, as well. I think that that, as well as viewing the film itself, gives a sense of triumph as an end result.

Now the one problem with the film: the NYC scenes. Filmed on location in New York City, the scenes are wonderfully nostalgiac and are scored by an irresistible disco score, but the acting is horrible (except perhaps porn star Richard Kerman/R. Bolla), the dubbing bad, and it just breaks the main storyline too much. It tells the story of why Mike Logan and Joe (the drug dealers) escaped to the Amazon. But does it really matter? Joe explains it during his story, so why shoot 20 minutes of new footage with a totally different cast? Director Umberto Lenzi does a wonderful job with the jungle footage, some of his best work, and had also done cop thrillers. I guess he couldn't resist showing off his ability to shoot action scenes. These NYC scenes are well shot and campy like most Italian cop thrillers, but should have been in a different film. Here, they just distract from the jungle action and almost ruin what could have been a classic film. Instead, this film is for the most part ridiculed and called a rip-off of the stronger CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST.

The music by Budy-Maglione is superb and is available on CD through some on-line mail order video companies. It's so good I listen to it every day. The NYC disco theme is marvelous, but my favorite is still the morbid symphonic choir piece that accompanies the horrific scenes in the jungle. It is both beautifully composed and effectively filled with dread. I would list some stand-out scenes, but why ruin a good thing? Go into CANNIBAL FEROX by knowing as little about it as possible, including the now famous murder sequences, and prepare to be shocked beyond belief. Grindhouse Releasing has released the definitive version, so seek that out for cool extras, including commentaries by John Morghen and Umberto Lenzi and three trailers!

Decent cannibal flick with loads of gore.

[BA_Harrison · 7/10 · 21 June 2006]

Umberto Lenzi's second stab at cannibal horror (after Eaten Alive) is a gleefully violent grab bag of gory delights. Penis whacking, hand chopping, head lopping, gut munching, breast piercing, eye gouging, brain slurping: its all there, along with some unnecessary animal cruelty for good measure.

A New York student travels to the Amazon with her brother and a blonde nympho, hoping to prove that cannibalism is nothing but a myth created as an excuse to wipe out indigenous tribes. On their way to a remote village, their jeep becomes stuck in mud, so they travel on foot. Their bad luck continues when they run into two men, Mike and Joe (also from the Big Apple), who claim to have been attacked by cannibals, but in reality have been doing a little torturing and killing of their own; after failing to find emeralds in the river, they have taken out their frustration on the helpless locals in the nearby village (the younger, stronger members are away fishing)! When the rest of the tribe return, they take revenge, capturing and killing the helpless Americans in gruesome and inventive ways.

The brilliantly gory jungle scenes are interspersed with less interesting New York based moments, featuring the attempts of both the police and some gangsters to find Mike and his pal, who have absconded with a fortune in mob money. These scenes are extremely dull, and could easily have been excised, allowing more time for cannibal chow-downs.

Cannibal Ferox is a must see for fans of the genre, but casual viewers should take heed—this wasn't banned in 31 countries for nothing!

"Oh God, please let her die soon. Oh, let her die soon. And let me die soon too, please."

[Bored_Dragon · 5/10 · 4 March 2019]

A group of anthropologists travels to the jungles of Colombia to study the tribe believed to be cannibalistic. The tribe is enslaved by drug dealers and, when the enslaved natives freed themselves and started revenge, anthropologists find themselves in a crossfire. The film shows explicit violence, torture and killing, it is not for those with a weak stomach, and it was banned in over thirty countries. It's disgusting in every way and its artistic value is equal to zero, and yet something made me see it through and prevented me from burying it with the rating.

5/10

Pre-credits disclaimer: The following feature is one of the most violent films ever made. There are at least two dozen scenes of barbaric torture and sadistic cruelty graphically shown. If the presentation of disgusting and repulsive subject matter upsets you, please do not view this film.