Italian Cannibal Cinema- Cannibal Ferox
In the 1970s and 1980s, Italy released numerous movies dealing with cannibalism. Starting with Il paese del sesso selvaggio (aka Man from Deep River, Deep River Savages, Sacrifice!, and many others), they were initially adventure movies set in the jungle. The cannibal element was initially a minor subplot, with the later films concentrating more and more on cannibal carnage as the films also went stampeding into the horror realm. These movies would become notorious for various reasons in the years after their original releases, some getting banned in various countries and most getting cut to ribbons in many countries. Regardless of any controversial content these films may feature, they are an important part of horror and exploitation cinema. I am also a big fan of these movies in general, so I am going to discuss some (maybe all), one at a time.
First up is undoubtedly one of the most notorious, Cannibal Ferox. Released in the U.S. as Make Them Die Slowly through Aquarius Productions, this film proudly proclaimed that it had been banned in 31 countries. Whether that claim is true or not, it isn't hard to believe. The U.S. cut features a disclaimer (also included in Grindhouse Releasing's restored version of the film) at the beginning stating that it is one of the most violent films ever made and that if you are the least bit squeamish, you should just get out now.
The story is pretty simple: a graduate student from the U.S. goes down to the Amazon with her brother and a friend of theirs to get some firsthand research in support of her thesis dealing with the topic of cannibalism. The trio eventually crosses paths with two men, who are also from the U.S., and shit quickly goes badly. As it turns out, these two men, Mike Logan and his buddy Joe, are crooks and they had a bit of a misunderstanding with a local tribe while they were trying to dig up emeralds in the area. This puts a big target on all of them going forward. It certainly doesn't help that Mike keeps acting like a psycho prick on a bunch of cocaine, but that is only because he is a psycho prick on a bunch of cocaine. He is also played Giovanni Lombardo Radice (aka John Morghen and the whipping-boy of Italian horror), who is always great to watch, even in that extraordinarily pointless remake of The Omen.
Directed by Umberto Lenzi, this film, along with its partner in film notoriety, Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust, pretty much brought an end to the Italian cannibal film movement. Although there would be a few death spasms of the genre during the following several years, there would not be any film even close to being on the same level after Cannibal Holocaust and Cannibal Ferox.
The main issue most have with the majority of these movies is the real animal violence and it pretty much always comes up when discussing these films (understandably so). I may as well just deal with this topic right now. I don't like this aspect of these films. It serves no real purpose and certainly does not add any enjoyment to the films. However, this is not something unique to these films, although some people seem to think this. Unfortunately, there was a time in cinema when this kind of stuff was just rather common. Dinosaur movies would feature real lizards with various dinosaur accessories glued onto their bodies engaging in violent battles. Apocalypse Now shows the butchering of a caribou (this was an event that was reportedly going to happen regardless and was just filmed for part of the finale, rather than being staged specifically for the film, but I don't think that changes what it is). Thankfully, many things have changed over the years and now, most productions will have specific people on the set to monitor animal scenes to avoid these kinds of things, even if it does still sometimes happen to some level. Essentially, I don't enjoy or support the real animal violence in these films, but I am also not going to condemn these films specifically for something that happened in many other movies and wasn't exactly unheard of in film at the time in general.
Now that I have that topic out of the way, I can talk about the fun stuff.
Cannibal Ferox certainly delivers on the gore and violence, although it is an old movie, and as such, it has a slower pace than modern movies, with much of the violence occurring in the final third of the film. We've got a man's head chopped open, another man disemboweled, a couple of amputated wangs, and of course, a woman hanging from hooks through her boobs.
As nasty as things get, this one also does have its humorous moments. At one point, after the Americans are all captured by the tribe, the tribe members examine the various items the Americans brought with them, which leads up to a shot of one tribe member holding up an American Express card. There is also one of my personal favorite funny insults in the scenes set in New York City: shitface. While our main characters are dealing with the sun and severe lack of fun down in South America, a couple of drug dealers are searching for Mike Logan, who ripped them off before escaping to South America. For some reason, while trying to get information from one of Mike's cronies, they keep calling him shitface. Maybe that was some weird mob-style nickname that guy had, something like Sonny "Shitface" Rossi, but it does have a nice ring to it and I always find it amusing.
The music for the film is mostly reused from Umberto's previous cannibal flick, Mangiati Vivi!, with the exception of the title theme. Even though it is recycled from another movie, it is still memorable and effective. Interestingly enough, the music is more associated with Cannibal Ferox than with Mangiati Vivi!, which is likely due to the infamy Cannibal Ferox has. Regardless, the music is excellent, which is pretty much a universal element of Italian movies from this time, in my opinion.
During the '90s, the Italian cannibal films were hard to track down, at least in America. Some of them had made it to VHS during the VHS boom of the '80s, so it was possible to find Doctor Butcher M.D., Trap Them and Kill Them, or Make Them Die Slowly. Of course, this depended on whether or not a rental store near you happened to have copies of them. The '90s did see Laserdisc releases of many obscure horror films, giving them some real appreciation in the process, but few people had Laserdisc players, limiting the audience for those releases severely. Another option was the bootleg companies that were prevalent back then. You could find ads for these companies in the back of Fangoria and they would sell dupes of numerous obscure horror and exploitation movies. It is because of some of these companies that I first saw movies like Cannibal Holocaust and Cannibal Apocalypse.
Today, pretty much every one of the Italian cannibal movies is fairly easy to get on Blu-ray. I think some of the mythical status these movies may sometimes have is largely due to them being difficult to find for some time. I can remember reading about these movies long before getting to see any of them. Italian cannibal movies seemed, at the time, the most extreme horror films ever made. Maybe in some ways, they still are, but even if they aren't, once you get past the animal stuff most of these films contain, there is a lot of gruesome fun to be had and Cannibal Ferox is one of the key films of that time and is as good a place as any to start exploring Italian cannibal movies.
First up is undoubtedly one of the most notorious, Cannibal Ferox. Released in the U.S. as Make Them Die Slowly through Aquarius Productions, this film proudly proclaimed that it had been banned in 31 countries. Whether that claim is true or not, it isn't hard to believe. The U.S. cut features a disclaimer (also included in Grindhouse Releasing's restored version of the film) at the beginning stating that it is one of the most violent films ever made and that if you are the least bit squeamish, you should just get out now.
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| Big-box VHS release by Thriller Video |
The story is pretty simple: a graduate student from the U.S. goes down to the Amazon with her brother and a friend of theirs to get some firsthand research in support of her thesis dealing with the topic of cannibalism. The trio eventually crosses paths with two men, who are also from the U.S., and shit quickly goes badly. As it turns out, these two men, Mike Logan and his buddy Joe, are crooks and they had a bit of a misunderstanding with a local tribe while they were trying to dig up emeralds in the area. This puts a big target on all of them going forward. It certainly doesn't help that Mike keeps acting like a psycho prick on a bunch of cocaine, but that is only because he is a psycho prick on a bunch of cocaine. He is also played Giovanni Lombardo Radice (aka John Morghen and the whipping-boy of Italian horror), who is always great to watch, even in that extraordinarily pointless remake of The Omen.
Directed by Umberto Lenzi, this film, along with its partner in film notoriety, Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust, pretty much brought an end to the Italian cannibal film movement. Although there would be a few death spasms of the genre during the following several years, there would not be any film even close to being on the same level after Cannibal Holocaust and Cannibal Ferox.
The main issue most have with the majority of these movies is the real animal violence and it pretty much always comes up when discussing these films (understandably so). I may as well just deal with this topic right now. I don't like this aspect of these films. It serves no real purpose and certainly does not add any enjoyment to the films. However, this is not something unique to these films, although some people seem to think this. Unfortunately, there was a time in cinema when this kind of stuff was just rather common. Dinosaur movies would feature real lizards with various dinosaur accessories glued onto their bodies engaging in violent battles. Apocalypse Now shows the butchering of a caribou (this was an event that was reportedly going to happen regardless and was just filmed for part of the finale, rather than being staged specifically for the film, but I don't think that changes what it is). Thankfully, many things have changed over the years and now, most productions will have specific people on the set to monitor animal scenes to avoid these kinds of things, even if it does still sometimes happen to some level. Essentially, I don't enjoy or support the real animal violence in these films, but I am also not going to condemn these films specifically for something that happened in many other movies and wasn't exactly unheard of in film at the time in general.
Now that I have that topic out of the way, I can talk about the fun stuff.
 |
| Australian poster |
Cannibal Ferox certainly delivers on the gore and violence, although it is an old movie, and as such, it has a slower pace than modern movies, with much of the violence occurring in the final third of the film. We've got a man's head chopped open, another man disemboweled, a couple of amputated wangs, and of course, a woman hanging from hooks through her boobs.
 |
| T-shirt design by Rotten Cotton |
The music for the film is mostly reused from Umberto's previous cannibal flick, Mangiati Vivi!, with the exception of the title theme. Even though it is recycled from another movie, it is still memorable and effective. Interestingly enough, the music is more associated with Cannibal Ferox than with Mangiati Vivi!, which is likely due to the infamy Cannibal Ferox has. Regardless, the music is excellent, which is pretty much a universal element of Italian movies from this time, in my opinion.
 |
| German DVD release (left) and U.S. DVD by Grindhouse Releasing (right) |
During the '90s, the Italian cannibal films were hard to track down, at least in America. Some of them had made it to VHS during the VHS boom of the '80s, so it was possible to find Doctor Butcher M.D., Trap Them and Kill Them, or Make Them Die Slowly. Of course, this depended on whether or not a rental store near you happened to have copies of them. The '90s did see Laserdisc releases of many obscure horror films, giving them some real appreciation in the process, but few people had Laserdisc players, limiting the audience for those releases severely. Another option was the bootleg companies that were prevalent back then. You could find ads for these companies in the back of Fangoria and they would sell dupes of numerous obscure horror and exploitation movies. It is because of some of these companies that I first saw movies like Cannibal Holocaust and Cannibal Apocalypse.
 | |
| Laserdisc release by Grindhouse Releasing, including barf bag and 7" record |
Today, pretty much every one of the Italian cannibal movies is fairly easy to get on Blu-ray. I think some of the mythical status these movies may sometimes have is largely due to them being difficult to find for some time. I can remember reading about these movies long before getting to see any of them. Italian cannibal movies seemed, at the time, the most extreme horror films ever made. Maybe in some ways, they still are, but even if they aren't, once you get past the animal stuff most of these films contain, there is a lot of gruesome fun to be had and Cannibal Ferox is one of the key films of that time and is as good a place as any to start exploring Italian cannibal movies.
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