Aristide Massaccesi, primarily known by the pseudonym, Joe D'Amato, didn't just slog through the foul waters of horror and exploitation, but also delved into pornography, both of the softcore and hardcore varieties. It is only fitting then, that this was his approach to the cannibal film boom that was happening in the late '70s.
 |
| Blu-ray edition with slip-case from Severin |
Emanuelle e gli ultimi cannibali (1977), aka
Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals and
Trap Them and Kill Them, mixes up the jungle adventure featuring cannibals with the softcore porn elements of an independent woman reporter named Emanuelle, played by Laura Gemser, who played Emanuelle in a number of films, starting with
Black Emanuelle (1976), who does whatever she needs to do to get her story, all the while taking the time to have sex with anybody and everybody she feels inclined to do so with. While she is undercover in a mental hospital, she encounters a young woman who is violent towards nurses and other staff at the hospital. After learning the woman had been involved with a cannibal tribe, her newspaper finances a trip to investigate this tribe of the "last cannibals" in the world. She recruits Professor Lester, the curator of a museum, to assist her. They, of course, have a nice go in the sack before heading out. Lester is played by Gabrielle Tinti, Gemser's real-life husband, who appeared in numerous movies with her, including the aforementioned
Black Emanuelle. Also featured in the film is Donald O'Brien, who would also appear in
Zombi holocaust, aka
Doctor Butcher, MD.
 |
| VHS copy of Black Emanuelle, Laura Gemser's 1st Emanuelle film |
Naturally, what ensues involves people getting killed in horrible ways and turned into snacks. However, with the focus in this film being placed on sex just as much as it is on the violence, this ends up being a bit more of a pleasant ride to a certain extent than your typical Italian cannibal film. Unless you get bored to tears with seeing main actress Laura Gemser naked for 60% of her screen-time, that is. Another side effect of this erotic focus is the lack of the real animal violence that is ubiquitous in these films. There are a couple of quick shots that are questionable, but that is really it.
One of my favorite elements of
Emanuelle e gli ultimi cannibali is the music by Nico Fidenco. It is a score that definitely dates the movie, but for me, this is not a bad thing at all. Fidenco would later reuse the main theme in
Zombi holocaust. A soundtrack CD of the two films' scores together was released some years ago, which is definitely worth picking up, if you can find it.
 |
| Soundtrack CD of Zombi holocaust and Emanuelle e gli ultimi cannibali |
There is also some humor at play in this one. The main scene that comes to mind is when Emanuelle and one of her traveling companions are bathing near a waterfall and a chimpanzee shows up then starts messing with their belongings, such as trying on sunglasses and lighting up a cigarette.
Being a D'Amato film, the budget for this one is pretty low. I don't think the man ever had a reasonable budget in his entire career, unlike many other Italian directors who typically had low, albeit not as low, budgets, but that is life in cinema for you. As a result of the low budget, the film does have some short-comings that some of its contemporaries might not have had. To me, however, none of these short-comings is detrimental to the film and, if nothing else, add to the film's charm.
 |
| DVD edition from Shriek Show |
Really, what we have here, is a film that heavily evokes the time in which it was created and takes you on a rather enjoyable ride. It may not work for as many people as some of its contemporaries do, but if you enjoy Italian cannibal flicks and Italian horror in general, give this one a go.
 |
| T-shirt design from Severin to coincide with the release of the Blu-ray edition |
Comments
Post a Comment