Cannibal Ferox (1983)

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

OK, forget any story line, philosophical agenda, moral messages, and all the other pretentious malarkey that 'justifies' Torture Porn ! Just accept this as another bloody (literally !) amusing Torture Porn film with plenty of dismemberment of private parts and scooping out of 'edible' brains ! Oh, and don't believe any 'animal torture' stories surrounding this film ; unless you're a fascist vegetarian hippie dork you don't have any reason to be offended !Rather amusing and ironic music score too ; the extreme contrast between cannibal barbarianism and funky 70s music !I'll give it a 10/10 for it's simplicity, mindless gore, and thus blatant humour !

(Credit to IMDb) Three friends out to disprove cannibalism meet two men on the run who tortured and enslaved a cannibal tribe to find emeralds, and now the tribe is out for revenge.What an utter disgrace this movie is. As a guy who hated Cannibal Holocaust, I'm not sure why I decided to revisit this cheap knockoff. Lenzi clearly made this to cash in on the Cannibal Holocaust controversy. This was around the time where there were movies about cannibalism. Not only is the film grainy, but painfully dull. When you aren't busy being bored half to death, Lenzi tries to repulse you by killing real animals. This movie is a gorefest, but it is NOT enjoyable. Lenzi's blatant in your face direction during the animal killings angered me beyond belief. There are extreme close-ups that made me wince and look away. How could a man be so cruel? It tries so hard to be offensive that it becomes incorrigible. For those that wonder, there is a lot more. Innards are eaten, birds are eaten, a penis is eaten and castrated, etc. I wasn't able to enjoy it. The dubbing is predictably atrocious and the dialog is inane. The performances are nothing noteworthy. Lombardo's intense performance is probably the only solid thing in this movie. He's a bit TOO intense actually. Ostensibly, he clashed with Lenzi on set. Can't say as I blame him. Lenzi is a jackass. Most of the characters were unlikable. Anything else positive to say? The cinematography was decent.You may need a shower after this movie. There is nothing redeeming about this movie! Not a damn thing. All it did was P**** me off and nearly put me to sleep when it wasn't busy being offensive. I love horror movies that cross the line. This movie goes beyond that line and accomplishes nothing, IMO. I'm sure some sick puppies will enjoy this sort of thing. All the more power to you!DUD

This was banned in various countries, but if anyone expects a particularly shocking film as a result they'll be disappointed. These 70's/80's cannibal films have lost much of their power to shock, with much stronger modern films like Saw and Hostel far exceeding them in terms of gore and sheer nastiness. That said its a fairly good film for its type, there are a couple of mildly revolting cannibalism scenes and its well filmed, with a good 70's music score. The two lead actresses are very attractive, though one meets a very gory end. One scene that is truly horrible is where a small tethered animal is killed by a huge anaconda, this was filmed for real, some viewers might almost be reduced to tears by this scene as the animal screams in terror as the huge snake crushes it. Its far worse than any of the animal scenes in Cannibal Holocaust, in which all the killed animals die very quickly - this animal suffered great fear and distress before it died (cut from some versions). On the whole its got the feel of a Tarzan film, with added gore, much more of a conventional jungle action film than Cannibal Holocaust.

Despite it's notoriety, I was so surprised that CANNIBAL FEROX was so positively dull. The film concerns a student of anthropology, Gloria(Lorraine De Selle) her research assistant brother, Rudy(Danilo Mattei)and gal pal(..with loose morals)travel to the Amazon to prove that cannibalism doesn't exist. They encounter a vile, violent coke-addict diamond hunter, Mike Logan(Giovanni Lombardo Radice) and his poisoned friend, Joe(Walter Lucchini) soon discovering that they had attacked primitives in a nearby village, setting off horrifying circumstances.The premise is indeed a yawner as is Lenzi's unbearable pace as he relies heavily on the killing of animals(..villagers feasting on turtle and gator;a tiger eating a monkey;an anaconda smothering/squeezing the life out of a rat in it's massive tail as the poor creatures cries out for help)and the Americans wondering/contemplating how they would be able to get out of their present situation intact. There's a lot of conversation, but the dialogue is painful to listen to. The approach is straight-forward yet stretches the action beyond what needs to be, letting the viewer sit impatiently on an alternate plot regarding a detective seeking out the whereabouts of Mike due to his involvement with drug dealers, including his girlfriend who may know where he is. I think the film could've trimmed the New York City scenes practically altogether, but alternating between the jungles of Amazon and the "civilization" of a big city does provide an interesting sub-text, but the heavy-handed message of who is actually the savage is rather loud and pretentious. Anyway, Gloria and Rudy are a sympathetic pair, but their decision to descend into the depths of a jungle without a guide is sheer lunacy. And, Pat(Zora Kerova), the wild friend who accompanies them, makes a really bizarre decision to mess around with Mike, an obvious cretin from the get go. MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY differs from CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST(..for which it's often compared)in that, this time, you have people who aren't to blame for what happens to the villagers, yet in associating with scum like Mike, place themselves in great jeopardy.I will say that the film delivers in the grisly violence. A top of a victim's skull is chopped off, his brains eaten..the same victim's pecker is hacked off and his testicles eaten! A female victim is hung by hooks through her breasts as she slowly dies. One is hiding from the villagers, during an escape attempt, in a watery hole containing piranha which gnaw at his knee wound. A poor villager is bound as his eyeball is plucked out. A victim dies from a blood disease, he's disemboweled, his innards removed and eaten. A villager is shown eating slithery bugs. A villager is helping Gloria to escape and pays a great price when he sets off a spear trap that stabs him in the chest. Plenty of ultra-violence with Lenzi attempting to dethrone Deodato in sadistic grue. Radice is gleefully obscene and viciously ruthless in his treatment of the villagers which provides the viewer a chance to cheer for his execution. Radice's Mike Logan is a selfish sadist, coked up beyond the normal limits, and actually coerces Pat into leaving her friends without any supplies, to die. I'm pretty sure Lenzi directed this as a message movie, but that got lost within the blood-letting and unnecessary sub-plot involving the police's search for Mike.