Papaya - Die Liebesgöttin der Kannibalen

If you're looking for gore in this film, you'll probably be disappointed. Apart from two brief moments of cannibalism and the slaughtering of two dead pigs, there is nothing else worth mentioning. I believe that this time D'Amato's heart was more in the erotic aspect. And he either got lucky or he got smart with the casting here, because it is spot-on: the actress who plays Papaya has a face that looks a little like Pam Grier's and a body to die for (and some men do!), and the blonde female lead is even more gorgeous, and a fairly capable actress as well. The true climax of the film is a 3-minute lesbian scene between them that is very well-done - one for the anthology books, as these things go. To sum up, as a horror film this gets a ** but as an erotic film it gets a ***.

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.

Joe D'Amato seems to be Italy's answer to Jess Franco. As most of you no doubt know, this means he made a ridiculous number of exploitation films and pornos. Like Franco too, his output usually has the feeling of a man with a little bit of talent making a film with great speed and little concern for the end result. In fairness, Franco did at the very least direct some interesting and stylish erotic horror films but in the case of D'Amato it's simply trash all the way.

Love Goddess of the Cannibals is a sexploitation movie in the guise of a cannibal flick. Presumably it was retitled to this moniker to cash in on the brief cannibal craze in Italian cinema circa 1978-81. I say that it must've been repositioned to exploit this craze after the event because the movie has extremely little flesh-eating action. Come to think of it, I'm not even sure if there was any at all. What it does have though is lots and lots of sex and nudity. There are several endless soft-core fumbles that are surprisingly dull, all things considered. The best part in the film I thought was the native ceremony where some naked people get down and dance to some hilariously inappropriate 70's Euro funk. Sadly, there aren't too any other highlights for anyone who is not a D'Amato disciple. The pacing is pretty terrible and not a whole lot really seems to happen although the Caribbean location is admittedly quite diverting and does give the film a certain exotic flavour. It stars Maurice Poli of Rabid Dogs fame. It's a bit of an artistic fall for Maurice working under the great Mario Bava, only to then be prancing around with his John Thomas flapping about in a Joe D'Amato flick four years later.

It must be said that, alongside Jess Franco, Joe D'Amato is one of the undisputed kings of exploitation. His films such as Anthropophagous, Beyond the Darkness, Images in a Convent, Caligula: The Untold Story and his sleaze-filled Black Emanuelle sagas are bona fide classicks of the "genre". Papaya: Love Goddess of the Cannibals is one of his lesser known titles which has now been made available fully uncensored for the first time on DVD by the fine folks at Severin Films.

Maurice Poli (Rabid Dogs, Five Dolls for an August Moon) is part of a team of Geologists who, for reasons unexplained, are installing a nuclear reactor on a remote Caribbean island paradise. Before long Maurice unexpectedly bumps into his old reporter friend Sirpa Lane (La Bete) who just happens to be vacationing on the island. (Cue plenty of softcore sex as the old chums get reacquainted). When the couple picks up a hitchhiking native named Papaya, she tells them of an ancient annual ritual happening nearby and they decide to go along and check it out… and end up getting much more than they bargained for.

Papaya opens with probably one of the best scenes in the film; island sexpot Papaya seduces a bearded Geologist in his hut by rubbing fruit on his body then castrates him with her teeth. This is the first of two scenes of cannibalism in the film. The rest of it is pretty much held together with an abundance of sex set against a picturesque tropical backdrop and a vague plot which involves the natives protesting against having a nuclear reactor built on their island by having Papaya seduce and kill all the Geologists involved.

The title of the film is very misleading and the name on the actual print is Caribbean Papaya which makes much more sense because as mentioned above there are only two very brief scenes of cannibalism, the aforementioned one and another which is during the cannibal ritual and involves the eating of a sacrificial victims heart and some dead pigs being graphically gutted.

One thing there is no lack of though is sex & nudity - Nordic sleaze princess Sirpa Lane gets her kit off plenty and so does Melissa Chimenti who plays local temptress Papaya and looks a little like transvestite actor/tress Ajita Wilson which can be either a good or bad thing I guess depending on your orientation. The sex can sometimes be pretty graphic for softcore and there's plenty of variety from interracial couplings to threesomes and even a full-blown "cannibal" orgy underscored with some irresistibly funky disco beats.

Ultimately I cant say this is a must-have D'Amato film; it's basically a mediocre softcore fare with some vague cannibalism themes thrown in for added shock value. For Sirpa Lane fan-boys and/or D'Amato completists only.

I saw this for the first time recently after reading a review of BA_Harrison in which he praised the end twist which kinda made me see this one otherwise i aint no fan of such movies. Honestly, apart from the good boobs, the only saving grace is the twist. This movie doesnt even come close to the cannibal genre. Its very misleading. On a Caribbean island, a nuclear power plant is to be erected against the will of the natives. The natives use a tropical beauty in seducing n killing off the engineers of the project. A journalist gets involved into the act of murder, cannibalism (minor castration), drugs, rituals n sex after meeting an engineer.