Mundo caníbal, mundo salvaje

A four-headed team clumsily ends up stuck in a jungle. Pretty soon, two of them die (rather clumsy again) while savage aborigines are chasing the other two males. The duo depletes one last time when one of them disappears during a wild-river flow …does it have to be said…clumsy! The supposedly last cannibal tribe on earth imprisons the one man left, named Robert. They don't start cooking him just yet, but fool around with him a little, first. He escapes and takes a local girl with him, who serves the role of beautiful hostage. However, the journey through the undiscovered jungle is hard, long and full of surprises.

Ruggero Deodato's general rehearsal before unleashing the notorious `Cannibal Holocaust' upon the world is an explicit horror film, but not as shocking or repulsive as its successor. This film merely serves as an old-fashioned adventure-movie, there were Cannibal Holocaust is a severely shocking ethical portrait. If you ignore all the illogicalness of this film, you'll have yourself a good time. That's a fact. It's a rough and straight-to-the-point horror production with more than enough footage to keep you entertained…although a lot depends on your definition of entertainment, of course. Italian horror standards stand throughout the whole film: gore, sleaze and cruelty! Since so many things are happening during the first 20 minutes of `Jungle Holocaust', the film tends to get tedious after a while…or so you would think! Surprisingly enough, there still are more than enough adrenalin-filled sequences that keep you alert and – and this really is positive in my book – Deodato gives an excellent portrayal of how someone is unintentionally driven into complete madness and a total loss of realism. Jungle Holocaust contains quite a lot of animal cruelty, which can be regarded as offensive by Italian horror-haters. The crocodile-dissection easily equals the vicious tortoise slaughtering in `Cannibal Holocaust'. The cannibals themselves are some of the wickedest I ever saw and they seem to follow some bizarre rituals, too. They show an unusual interest for male nudity and they don't seem to worry too much about controversial handlings such as murdering an infant (pretty disturbing sequence that was). They do bring forward beautiful women, as Me Me Lai is the sexiest native girl I ever saw. Jungle Holocaust is essential viewing for Italian horror/sleaze fans. Not as memorable as `Holocaust' or `Ferox'…but certainly worth your time.

A plane full of annoying oil hunters crash their plane deep in a jungle and almost immediately the non-Caucasian members of the expedition are caught and devoured by a band of revolting cannibal natives, leaving the smart, sensible survivalist Ralph stranded with the weenie, whiny, panicky dolt Robert, who gets them completely lost within minutes. They manage to construct a remarkably sturdy raft that is almost instantly crashed into some rocks. The duo is separated and Robert eats some mushrooms that make him vomit, and then he is captured by the always-naked, mostly male cannibal tribe. They tie him up, rip off his clothes, and tug at his genitals. There is more male frontal nudity in this than at a pool party at James Whale's house.

There is, of course, one beautiful female native with no body hair and breast implants who falls for Robert- although not until after he ties her up, leads her around on a leash like a dog, and beats the snot out of her. This is a pretty detestable movie.

The print I watched was called "Last Cannibal World" and it seemed to have all the good bits (the gore and sex, that is) cut out. The tons of cruelty-to-animals (not as much fun as cruelty-to-humans) and the offensive male-female relationship result in a non-extraordinary cannibal movie devoid of any likability. I was never bored, though, and there are lots of scenes of that pathetic blockhead Robert getting humiliated. He's peed on, gets rotten vegetables thrown on him, and it tied up and swung around on a rope because they think he's a bird. And, according to some text at the beginning of the flick, it's all true!

(1977) Cannibal/ Ultimo mondo cannibale DUBBED SPAGHETTI HORROR

Only saw this dubbed, re-edited, 88 minute VHS copy and re-titled to be called "Cannibal" instead of "Jungle Holocaust", which I assume this version only centers mostly on the characters than other gruesome scenes the cannibals practice, since I've read about scenes I don't remember seeing such as a slaughter of a crocodile etc... Anyways, the movie has no story but states the situation and is supposedly based on fact focusing on four people who somehow accidentally crash land onto an open grass field, only to discover that's it's inhabited by man eating cannibals with their attempt to escape. Although, I read they're supposed to be more graphic scenes than the copy I saw, I still thought the gruesome scenes still looked realistic, unbeknownst that the director who directed this version by the name of Reggero Deodati was the same guy who directed the infamous and controversial "Cannibal Holocaust".

JUNGLE HOLOCAUST is a brutal, no-holds-barred early entry in the bizarre cannibal subgenre of the seventies and early eighties. It's shocking, violent, immoral, sleazy and exploitive. In other words, it delivers.

I can't defend this movie from an ethical standpoint. Even the observation that the live animal slaughter (which is fairly minimal here) is committed by people who apparently were members of a real tribe of primitives, as part of their daily routine doesn't change the fact that it was shot for purely sensational purposes. But it is undeniably intense, suspenseful and creepy.

A plane lands in the Amazon wilds while searching for a couple of lost explorers. The people in the plane wander off a little too far and become separated. The movie then follows one of them, who is captured by a tribe of cannibals and kept prisoner for months. He finally manages to escape and kidnaps a young, beautiful female member of the tribe to use as a guide.

The movie has a gritty realism to it that makes it play almost like a documentary. It captures the gradual transformation of the character from a "civilized" man to a grunting "savage" extremely well, although a scene in which he wins over his female companion by raping her is a little over-the-top, to say the least.

The midsection of the movie is almost entirely devoid of dialog, so the atrocious dubbing is confined mostly to the first and last sequences. Overall, it's a very well-made and unsettling thriller, although it would have been far more suspenseful had there not been a disclaimer at the beginning saying the main character survived to tell his story.

I saw this one again after not seeing it for 6-7 years and I must say it`s still my number one outdoors\jungle movie. It plays out like a mix of Indiana Jones type adveture, the intrapment of "deliverance", the real violence of "Faces of death 1-4" and the make-up effects of Lucio Fulci`s films.

ITALY AND REALITY The Italians are experts in making movies without rules. I mean in Hollywood for instance thy obey different rules because they are afraid movies will not sell, or they need an R- rating. All this ruins the art in movies. If you are setting out like Deodato is in this movie to make a movie about cannibals, you need scenes of people getting eaten or killed in different ways, and of course an explenation to why. This movie contains both.

ANIMAL CRUELTY I did not enjoy the animal cruelty, but who did. Ruggero Deodato disliked these parts too. They were filmed after the movie was made by the producer and a little crew. They threw small animals like bats on to python`s and filmed the fight and then finished it of by placing terrible sound effect`s over the "action" to give it an even stranger feel.

EMOTIONAL Apart from the animal crulety though, I love the film. It is very well made. The film manages to be cruel and savage in scenes and then suddenly go over to scenes that almost made me cry. It packs lot`s of emotion and depth. And as mentioned before, is very bold in portraying the violence as harsh as in real-life. Im talking about the special-effects not the animal cruelty off course.

TRUE EVENTS The movie is based upon true event`s and this notion really add to the terror and emotional termoil I felt watching it again after so many years. I have had it on video uncut for several years, and finally I found it on DVD from Shreak-show uncut with interviews and trailers.

WHO IS IT FOR? Well it is definitly not for anyone. I see from reviews on IMDB that many people watch this movie and want it to be a Hollywood-movie or something. Almost all the complaints by critics and users are about silly things we are used to from Hollywood. This is a low-budget movie shot in the jungle of Malaysia in harsch conditions. This is what made it authentic. Some people have seen so many fake-to-reality Hollywood-films they would not know reality if it bit their behinds. I am not a fan of cannibal-movies made in Hollywood, as they tend not to be about cannibal\native-life and more about the characters who are mostly american and pretty dull. So then. If you are a big Hollywood fan and don`t like realistic and real violence right up in your face don`t see it. But if you are bored\annoyed about Hollywood always showing you some kind of romantic escapade instead of telling the story(titanic-syndrome)and can stumack the violence -see it.

Score: 10 out of 10