Papaya: Love Goddess of the Cannibals (1978)

ridiculous rating

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Talking to a family friend about UK DVD company Shameless,he mentioned to me a title from the company that he has been after for a good while.Searching round on Ebay UK,I was pleased to find a seller selling it at a very cheap price,which led to me getting ready to meet the Love Goddess.The plot:Learning that old friend Vincent is working on the construction of a nuclear reactor in the Caribbean,journalist Sara decides to pay him a visit.Meeting up for the first time in ages,Vincent tells Sara that despite some "issues" with the residents,that most of them are happy with the building of a nuclear reactor on their island.Getting hot under the collar for each other,Vincent and Sara head back to Vincent's apartment for a night of passion.Arriving at the apartment,Sara discovers to her horror how much the locals hate the work that Vincent is doing,thanks to a half-eaten dead body being left on his doorstep.View on the film:Before I get to the title,I have to mention that Shameless has given the movie a great presentation,with Shameless offering the Italian & English dubs,along with a clear picture that captures the Caribbean sun.Filmed on location,director Joe D'Amato takes advantage of the unique location with wide,hand-held tracking shots,which gaze at every dusty street corner of the city.Jumping on the Cannibal craze,D'Amato takes a surprisingly limited interest in the subject,with the sole dead body and the dissecting of pigs appearing like a desperate effort to loosely connect to the genre. Whilst he is not instead in flesh being eaten,D'Amato shows a clear welcomed interest in the exposure of flesh of both the men and the women,with D'Amato using super slo-mo to focus on the most lustful features of his cast.Eating the film up with a bonkers twist ending,the screenplay by Roberto Gandus & Renzo Maietto give the movie a light, breezy mood,with the warm location being matched by the flirting from Sara and Vincent.Bringing the sun out,the very sexy Sirpa Lane (who sadly died of AIDS at 47) gives a sweet,relaxed performance as Sara,who soon meets the cannibal love goddess.

So, how does pube fest Pappaya, Love Goddess of the Cannibals square up to Joe D'Amato's other pube fest, Emmanuale and the Last Cannibals then? Well, there's not much gut munching in this one, but plenty of carpet munching! I'm sorry. It's hard not to be crude after watching stuff like this. It's just that there's not much to Pappaya, Love Gouda and Cannibus at all except for people writhing about on top of each other. The story as it goes is that Sarah is a photographer on some Caribbean island who hooks up with Vincent, a guy who's there to build a nuclear reactor. For some reason the natives don't think this is a good idea and have put Pappaya on the case to sort things out.Now, Pappaya endears herself to the audience by seducing a guy in hut, rubbing papaya fruit on his tummy banana, then chomping his knob off before having two guys set the hut on fire. This crispy corpse now ends up in Vincent's pad (just before he was going to get it on with Sarah), and before you know it, Pappaya turns up and starts working her charms on the two white folk.They all end up at some ceremony where Dakkar (of the much better Zombie Flesh Eaters, Zombie Holocaust, and Ator: The Fighting Eagle) orders them to drink some freaky juice and then we see two dead pigs being gutted. Thanks for that Joe. At least they were dead to begin with.If you think the plot was slow to begin with, prepare yourself for the last half of the film which becomes an interminable barrage of sleaze (more writhing, jelly water mangoes, Vincent's sixty-five year old balls) where nothing happens at all. And then you get a kind of 'twist' ending.It's not a bad film per se (this is the guy who made Endgame and Anthropophagus Beast after all), but it's deadly slow and there's not much going on. I bet Sirpa Lane didn't even take any underwear when she went on location.

A group of geologists plan on putting a nuclear reactor on a tropical island in an area that a primitive cannibal tribe resides on. Female tribe leader Papaya (flawlessly embodied by the buxom and delectable Melissa Chimenti) decides to fight back by seducing and then killing the geologists.Director Joe D'Amato offers a flavorsome evocation of the lush Caribbean setting, does a sturdy job of crafting a sweltering hothouse erotic atmosphere (a wild disco cannibal orgy set piece rates as the definite deliriously heady highlight), and, naturally, delivers oodles of tasty female nudity and sizzling soft-core sex along with a satisfying smattering of splatter. Climenti brings a seriously smoldering sensuous presence to her part. Fetching blonde Sirpa Lane likewise really heats up the screen as pesky reporter Sara. D'Amato's bright cinematography provides an attractive sunny look. Stelvio Cipriani's funky pulsating score hits the get-down groovy spot. D'Amato fans should get a kicky out of this enjoyable sleazefest.

Papaya: Love Goddess of the Cannibals (1978) ** (out of 4)Director D'Amato takes his sleaze to the Caribbean for the first time but this in turn would lead to a long line of films shot there including the infamous Porno Holocaust and Erotic Nights of the Living Dead. Unlike those two films this one here remains softcore throughout but, as with many of the director's films, the subject matter bounces all around. A reporter and a nuclear power scientist are on the island having some fun when they meet the strange but beautiful Papaya (Melissa Chimenti). What the two don't know is that Papaya might be a voodoo goddess ready to use her sexuality to have things do her own way and lets just say she doesn't want any nuclear power plant on her island. Whether or not you're going to like a film like this solely depends on what you feel about the genre at hand. D'Amato not only mixes the voodoo and horror genres with the sex and nudity but he also throws in some action, drama and even a silly ritual dance. Those expecting to see a cannibal film are going to be disappointed because that title was pretty much thrown on with the exception of one guy who takes a bite out of a human heart. The only other way this is connected to other cannibal movies is the fact that many animals here are slaughtered on camera. Two dead pigs are gutted and a chicken dies during a cockfight so animals lovers might want to stay away. As is also usual, the director throws in all sorts of sex and nudity but none of it is overly erotic and after a while it gets rather tiresome. The director also lets scenes roll on and on for way too long and this includes one where our couple is walking around with nothing happening for at least ten minutes. With that said, the women are attractive here and the story is mildly entertaining if you know what to expect. The opening sex scene/murder is ultra violent with a big splash of gore so these reasons might make people want to see the movie.