Gefangen in der Hölle des Dschungels

Michael Sopkiw plays Kevin Hall, a paleontologist who hitches a ride on a plane travelling to Dinosaur Valley, a fossil hunter's paradise deep in the cannibal-infested Amazon jungle. But when the plane crashes en route, he and the other survivors (a photographer and his model, a Vietnam veteran and his wife, and a scientist's daughter) must attempt to reach civilisation on foot, without losing too many body parts on the way.

Although the Italian cannibal craze had pretty much run its course by the mid 80s, a handful of directors tried in vain to scrape a little more meat off an already well-picked carcass, and delivered several offerings that did little to reignite interest in the genre.

Ruggero Deodato, of Cannibal Holocaust fame, directed the fairly enjoyable Cut and Run, an adventure movie with a little gut munching to spice up events, and Mario Gariazzo presented Amazonia, an unexceptional tale (actually about headhunters) that still managed to successfully capture some of that savage vibe that we cannibal fans know and love.

Michele Massimo Tarantini, meanwhile, gave us Massacre in Dinosaur Valley, a trashy (ie. it has plenty of hot nekkid women in it) B-movie style affair that totally misses the mark. With a fraction of the gore that fans have come to expect from the genre (the only memorable moment being a fun piranha attack), particularly dreadful acting, and a group of unlikeable characters you actually look forward to seeing being eaten alive, I found Tarantini's movie to be one of the weakest Italian cannibal films I have seen.

Some viewers seem to have enjoyed this one's general shoddiness, awarding it 'so-bad, it's good' status, but I don't think it manages to pull off that particular trick. In fact, part of me suspects that Massacre in Dinosaur Valley was intentionally made to be bad. Which doesn't make it good. Just bad. Which I guess, would make it a success. Except that I didn't enjoy it that much.

Ah, stuff it..... 4/10 for the quality T&A.

The copy that I borrowed from a friend is titled "Amazonas". I have been a friend of all the Italian gore films, so that is why I checked it out. It has adventure, sex, and gore. It sort of reminded me of Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals in that it goes a little farther in the sex scenes then your average adventure movie. The copy I have is the uncut unrated version. So if there is a rated R version, I can imagine it just wouldn't have the same edge that the unrated version has.

An anthropologist, Vietnam vet, his bitchy lush wife, scientist, his daughter, and two fashion models(??!?) on their way to dig up some fossils on Dinosuar island (there's no dinosaurs in the movie, don't worry, it's just a name) crash land in the midst of a jungle and must contend with various obstacles to their survival including cannibals, wild animals, and various other things. This movie is so goofily cheesy that I couldn't help but to enjoy it. Lots of gore as well as T&A (and some bush too) make this film go down so much easier. Add to that many quotable lines and you have a good bad movie.

My Grade: C+

My review was written in January 1987 after watching the film on Lightning video cassette.

"Massacre in Dinosaur Valley" is a poor Italian exploitation film, made worse by an intentionally misleading title: there are no dinosaurs or fantasy elements in this potboiler. Pic was lensed in Brazil in 1985 with "Stranded in the Valley of Dinosaurs" as its working title.

Format is in the corny vein of "Five Came Back": a bunch of folks are caught in the jungle and swamp when their light plane crashes en route to Manaos. Among the passengers are an archaeologist (Michael Sopkiw), a scientist who's killed in the crash, his pretty daughter (Susane Carvall, usually credited as Suzanne Carvalho) plus several other beauties. They're attacked by indians, fall prey to leeches and quicksand, plus the other tired gimmicks of the genre.

Sopkiw finally frees two girls from the clutches of the indians and an hour into the film finds fossilized dinosaur footprints. Just when the film might be getting interesting, the three survivors are captured by a creep using slave labor for his mining operations. The rest of the picture is devoted to the boring subplot of Sopkiw engineering another escape with Carvalho.

This sexploitationer mixes pratfall comedy, disrobing women and the usual gore carelessly.

The story of "Massacre in Dinosaur Valley" (a.k.a. "Nudo e Selvaggio") is clichéd to the very last speck of celluloid. We have the not-so-invincible hero, the tropical version of Professor Challenger and his gorgeous daughter, the neurotic 'Nam vet and, to add gratuitous T&A, a photographer and two models. They go dig dinosaur bones on a forbidden area of Amazonas, but the plane crashes (it's one of them Star Trek-like crashes), leaving 'em stranded in the heart of the jungle. On the way to get back to civilization, they stumble on hungry alligators, piranhas, quicksand and a tribe of meat-eating Indians. But the real threat is an illegal mine where the sadistic China abuses his slave laborers. Everything's derivative, but at least it's well directed and full of gore and nudity. Sharp ears will recognize the score. It's the same one composed by Andrew Barrymore for Lamberto Bava's "Blastfighter" (also starring Sopkiw, also co-written by Dardano Sacchetti, who's not credited in "Massacre").