Gefangen in der Hölle des Dschungels

Some of my fellow fans of Italian Horror/Exploitation cinema and the Cannibal-subgenre in particular seem to regard "Nudo e Selvaggio" aka. "Massacre in Dinosaur Valley" (1985) as a particular highlight. While Michele Massimo Trantini's film is definitely fun to watch, I am personally not too enthusiastic about it. What makes this film fun is both its incredible schlock-factor, and the fact that it combines elements from various sub-genres. While the film is obviously a Cannibal flick (and also marketed as such) it isn't anywhere near as disturbing as (nor otherwise comparable to) the genre classics by Umberto Lenzi and Ruggero Deodato. This film is more like a gory adventure/action film that includes Cannibals and even employs comedy elements.

The film actually begins like a silly 80s slapstick comedy, with goofy jokes, staged fistfights, stereotypical characters, and some female eye-candy. A bunch of drifters stranded in a Brazilian village all require a flight to a certain savage and 'forbidden' area in the Amazon jungle, the 'Dinosaur Valley' which is still inhabited by Cannibals. Needless to say that the slapstick comedy is soon over and the film turns into bloody survival exploitation. Still, the film is tame compared to almost all other Italian Cannibal flicks from the 80s.

The characters are eccentric and their actions often incredibly stupid, but the film is entertaining from start to finish (though never creepy or suspenseful let alone shocking). The highlight in the cast is obviously the ravishing Suzanne Carvalho, who plays Eva, the sexy daughter of a famous scientist. Michael Sopkiw (who might also be known to fans of Italian genre-cinema for playing the lead in Sergio Martino's "2019 - After the Fall of New York") is well-cast in the lead as a shotgun-wielding anthropologist. The rest of the characters include two luscious nude-models, a sleazy photographer and a married couple with slight marital problems - he is an insane 'Nam vet, she is an alcoholic pain in the ass who does not even stop annoying her husband and mocking his impotence once they are surrounded by hungry cannibals.

The film is fun enough to watch, but in my opinion, it is only recommendable to my fellow enthusiastic fans of Cannibal flicks and/or schlock Horror. Those who haven't seen any Cannibal films so far are well-advised to watch Ruggero Deodato's masterpiece "Cannibal Holocaust" (1980) followed either by Deodato's own "Ultimo Mondo Cannibale" ("Last Cannibal World" 1977) or Umberto Lenzi's "Il Paese Del Sesso Selvaggio" ("Deep River Savages", 1972), "Mangiati Vivi" ("Eaten Alive By The Cannibals", 1980) and "Cannibal Ferrox" (1981). When you've seen all the Deodato and Lenzi flicks, you can throw in this one, though there are still a few other Cannibal flicks that I'd probably recommend over "Dinosaur Valley". Unlike most other Cannibal flicks, this one doesn't involve any animal-killings, so some people might actually prefer it (though it probably isn't their genre in general). Overall, "Massacre in Dinosaur Valley" is highly entertaining, though nothing essential in my opinion.

There isn't much to be said for "Dinosaur Valley" (aka "Cannibal Ferox 2") with the exception of some lovely young ladies who spend a good deal of the film naked and on the run. A plane carrying some truly oddball passengers, including the film's fossil-hunting hero Kevin and several scantily clad models, crashes in the Brazilian jungle. For those who survive, it is a fight to get back to civilization, through pirhanas, jungle animals, flesh-eating pigs, cannibals and a slaver who is running an illegal mining operation. The film is wildly overacted and the dialogue atrocious, but the location photography is noteworthy and the ladies are the kind all heterosexual men dream of. The film verges on camp, so you might as well laugh along with it. The gore quotient is so-so, the few special effects pathetic.

Michele Massimo Tarantini's NUDO E SELVAGGIO aka MASSACRE IN DINOSAUR VALLEY (Italy and Brazil, 1985) belongs to the category it's so damn bad it becomes totally enjoyable for fans of low budget trash cinema. The film is written by Tarantini, too, and some sources mention that also Dardano Sacchetti (the man responsible for many Fulci scripts) worked as a writer in this film, uncredited. Still most of Sacchetti's screenplays are much better and professional than this so I think he didn't do too much for this film after all.

In DINOSAUR VALLEY, Michael Sopkiw (BLASTFIGHTER (1985), 2019 BEFORE THE FALL OF NEW YORK (1983) etc.) stars as our Indiana Jones like hero who collects dinosaur bones and sells them to those who pay him much. He travels to Brazil and is willing to search for the bones there. There he gets to know an older doctor and his daughter, who are also going to the jungle alongside a photographer, his two almost naked female models and a traumatized Vietnam veteran and his more than annoying and paranoid wife. Now that sounds a hilarious cast doesn't it? It is as wild and laughable as it sounds, so the fanatics of trash cinema will love DINOSAUR VALLEY.

After their plane crashes (unbelievably funny scene by he way!), the fun and the so called plot begins. The most interesting thing in the cast is easily Suzane Carvalho who belongs to the most memorable beauties I've seen in any of these exploitation films of the 70's and 80's. She plays the part of the doctor's daughter, and her beauty steels the whole show. Her eyes are like chocolate balls waiting to be eaten. There are some other beauties in films of this kind like Uschi Glass (Umberto Lenzi's SEVEN BLOOD STAINED ORCHIDS, 1971)), Glory Annen (Norman J. Warren's PREY, 1978) and Olivia Hussey (Brian Trenchard-Smith's outrageous BLOOD CAMP THATCHER aka TURKEY SHOOT, 1981) but Suzane in DINOSAUR VALLEY is easily the most beautiful angel of all.

Sopkiw is as bad as can be expected and that goes to the acting in general in this film, too. The acting is so bad at times that one might wonder if they did it in purpose because it seems unlikely that somebody really "acted" that bad while trying to act good and believably. That of course adds to the enjoyment this junk gives and DINOSAUR VALLEY is easily to these jungle adventures (CUT AND RUN (1985), THE CATHERINE MILES STORY (1986), TREASURE OF THE AMAZON (1985) etc.) the same as Ivan Katansky's ridiculous Italian sleaze fest BEAST IN HEAT (1977) is for nazi exploitation and WIP films. All those who've seen BEAST really know what I'm talking about.

DINOSAUR has plenty of gratuitous sex, nudity and gore which can also be expected from these films. The sex and nudity-o-meter is very high and there are some shots of naked females that go farther than I expected so the makers noticeably wanted to "deliver the goods" big time with this film. The same thing is with the gore as there are the usual scenes of blood letting and people being killed in gory manner as the dangers of the jungle like piranhas and leeches attack the unhappy travellers as well as the hungry cannibals who happen to live there, too. Also, they soon find out that the jungle is terrorized by some sleazy slave ring led by a fat and horny dirtbag whose fate in a film like this isn't too hard to guess.

Pretty much all the characters in the film are more or less disgusting and evil and there are some unbelievably sleazy scenes like the relationship between the war veteran and his wife as well as the laughably lusty men who, trapped in the jungle surrounded by different dangers, don't seem to be able to keep their eyes off the almost naked females and thus giving the camera man an excuse to give couple of close ups! Can it be even more exploitative and over-the-top sleazy than this?!

The settings in the Brazil jungles are very nice and beautiful as can be expected and that is perhaps the only positive and noteworthy cinematic achievement that can be found in this film. The water and trees are shot very lively and peacefully and it creates a nice atmosphere, and the overall beauty of nature is pretty stunning, and even the loathsome characters and goings-on cannot disturb that. The music score (the synthesizer one) is also worth mentioning and it is very simple but effective in the tradition of Carpenter's HALLOWEEN score.

After all, DINOSAUR VALLEY is almost perfect exploitation trash romp but the viewer really has to "understand" and love the genre in order to come to this conclusion. If you try to show this film to anyone with "normal taste" for cinema, you are guaranteed to be recommended to visit a mental hospital to get some help, because these films are so far away from what is considered as acceptable or correct in mainstream (and "normal") cinema. I give DINOSAUR VALLEY 6/10 as a fan of this cheesy genre.

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.