Terreur cannibale

Well, that was... uhm, different. I've been putting off buying this one for far too long. I knew it was only a matter of time, besides, I've seen all the others. As revoltingly interesting as the others are, I had to know what the black sheep of the Cannibal sub-genre was really like, and if its bad reputation was nothing more than a bad reputation.

This Spanish-French obscurity has the reputation as a cheap knock-off just because the gore, the cannibals, as well as the entire vibe of the movie is completely different, not to mention no real jungle to speak of, but mainly because of the obvious lack of an Italian director.

Alright, well, that about sums it up. Cannibal Terror is a cheap knock-off of an already "misunderstood" sub-genre, but that doesn't mean this movie deserves to be hated. Besides having a swell score, and unintentionally humorous dialog, there's a little girl who's voice is dubbed by an adult, which always goes over well in low-budget European horror.

Let the unfitingly inspirational music begin. Some quaint Euro-scenery. Now, as the story goes, a trio of inept kidnappers who steals the little girl of a rich couple and figure that a fake French Jungle with crickets dubbed in the background would be a suitable place to hide out, besides, the local cannibals are fake, yes they do eat human flesh, but it's also very, very fake-looking, so, it's all good.

The original plan for collecting a ransom is derailed when one of the kidnappers decides to rape the wife of the guy lending out his place for a hideout. New plan, rapist gets tied to a tree near fake-cannibal country by angry husband while the other 2 run off into the jungle and suffer perhaps an even worse fate.

Ouch!! This film constantly screams "Not Italian" at the top of its lungs, which is the only thing drowning out the fake crickets. If Italian Cannibal icons such as Cannibal Holocaust and Cannibal Ferox is what you're used to then Cannibal Terror will seem like a Cannibal movie from another dimension, or perhaps a sick joke posing as something it clearly is not... Or is it?

There are subtle qualities in this one that I prefer over "the real ones", although, they are few and far between, but I think the biggest problem most fans of the genre would have is the gore quality, I've just never seen gore like that before, but wow, it sure was a hell of a lot, regardless of what that stuff actually was.

The Cannibals, who I swear I heard one of the characters refer to as Indians are plain and simple, the worst cannibals ever. Some of them are clearly white, some of them have sideburns, but in their defense, they seem a bit more level-headed and fair than their authentic counterparts.

When watching Cannibal Terror, don't compare it to the others, compare it to something overrated from Jess Franco and you won't go wrong. Awkward dubbing, pointless one-liners, unintentional humor, an obvious euro-vibe and ineptness from all directions is what you should expect. because it's exactly what you're getting. Don't hate Cannibal Terror, it tried. 7/10

Before watching "Terreur Cannibale" (aka. "Cannibal Terror") I was expecting to see a film of the kind that is so awful that it is actually kind of funny. Awful it is indeed, but in a manner that is nothing but... awful! I am a huge fan of the gruesome Italian Cannibal flicks that were made around the time (most memorably Ruggero Deodato's disturbing masterpiece "Cannibal Holocaust"). Director Alain Deruelle apparently wanted to cash in on this popular wave of gruesome movies about Cannibals, that were mostly ingeniously set in the Amazon Jungle. "Cannibal Terror" is also set in the jungle. A jungle that is very obviously situated in France, that is, however. I will not even try to explain the absolutely ridiculous and moronic story, the performances are among the worst I have ever seen. In the first half of the movie, Deruelle seemingly wanted to enhance the atmosphere by having crickets chirp for about ten minutes. The scenes change, but the chirping of the crickets keep monotonously drowning out all other sounds (such as the dialogue), which is even more annoying than it sounds.The 'Cannibals' in the film are entirely white guys in savage costumes, some of them sport beards, others are bald and have beer-bellies. Apart from being the whitest savages ever seen on film, they are also astonishingly well-behaved, as they never seem to leave their territory, and their hunger for human flesh apparently concerns bad people only. The score wouldn't be that bad, but it nearly always seems terribly out of place. Also, the gore-sequences are quite well-made and nauseating for a film with such a low budget. Nevertheless, it is beyond me why this film landed on Britain's infamous Video Nasty list, as nobody could possibly see anything but ridiculousness in this sorry attempt of a film. The moderately disgusting gore cannot save this. The only reason to watch "Cannibal Terror" is the wish to look at absolute awfulness. AVOID!

And this is the result of when you decide to make a cannibal movie in your own backyard. But I am getting ahead of myself here...

Of course I was not familiar with the 1980 French cannibal movie "Terreur Cannibale" (aka "Cannibal Terror") prior to stumbling upon it by random chance here in 2024. And given the fact that it is a horror movie, more specifically a cannibal movie, that I hadn't already seen, of course I opted to give the movie a chance. However, I wasn't exactly harboring the biggest of expectations to the movie, given its age and premise.

I will say that the movie definitely starts out all chipper and cheerful, with that wonderful music, and thus setting what I assume is a false sense of calm, security and complacency within the viewers. But knowing that it is a cannibal-themed movie, of course we know that things are about to change at some point.

The storyline in the movie, as concocted by writers Jesús Franco, Julio Pérez Tabernero and H. L. Rostaine, fell short of entertaining me. It was not a particularly entertaining storyline, and the character gallery was flat and one-dimensional. Truth be told, I didn't care one bit about the characters, and the mediocre acting performances didn't exactly help to cement the characters as memorable.

Needless to say that I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie. And while that is usually something I do enjoy when I watch a movie, I just didn't enjoy it in "Terreur Cannibale" as the performances were amateurish, wooden, rigid and devoid of emotion and commitment.

Sure, there were some gory scenes in the movie, but it was hardly sufficient to make up for the rest of movie, which was a terrible disappointment. But visually, then you're not in for anything grand here, should you opt to sit down and watch this movie. And as for the tribal native cannibals, well they didn't even look to be natives, they felt like random extras the film crew had hired off of the street, as they were a ragged band of mixed races, and the white guy with the muttonchops was the icing of the cake, as it was as far from being a jungle native as you could get.

Of course, the cannibal movies of the 1970s and 1980s weren't exactly cinematic masterpieces, but "Terreur Cannibale" was definitely in the lower end of the scale.

I would not recommend that you should waste 93 minutes of your life on watching this movie. Some of us did, so you don't have you; you're quite welcome.

My rating of directors Alain Deruelle, Olivier Mathot and Julio Pérez Tabernero's 1980 movie "Terreur Cannibale" lands on a generous two out of ten stars.

For years, Cannibal Terror was believed by many to be the work of horror/sleaze director Jess Franco, a reasonable assumption since the film bears what seem to be most of the prolific Spaniard's hallmarks, most notably a dreadful script, unconvincing locales, inept direction, terrible acting, and endless meandering shots of nothing much in particular (and I guess, for some, it was also hard to believe that there might be another person out there who could make films quite as bad as Franco).

The real culprit, however, was French director Alain Deruelle, who proves that he can be just as inept as Jess when it comes to delivering jungle horror.

Deruelle's dreadful film follows a trio bumbling kidnappers-two men and one woman-who escape across the border (to where, I have no idea!) with their hostage, the young daughter of a rich businessman. Arriving at a safe house that borders 'cannibal country', the threesome are able to relax for a while, until one of the gang, Mario, decides to rape the wife of their host (after spying on her having a wash in a giant wooden bucket). This kick starts a chain of events that results in the criminals and their hostage being pursued by bloodthirsty natives, with the father of the little girl in hot pursuit.

Taking a leaf out of Franco's Big Book of Cannibal Movie-Making, Deruelle opts to set his adventure in what appears to be a large botanical garden, hires himself some of the least convincing cannibals ever to grace an exploitation film (some have sideburns, many have coiffured hair, a few have beer-bellies, nearly all of them are Caucasion, but none of them look like savages), and throws in some cheapo blood and guts (using what looks like pig carcasses to stand in for human remains) in order to satisfy the gore-hounds.

The result is a mind-numbingly dull piece of Euro-sleaze that now shares top spot with Mondo Cannibale on my Crap Cannibal Movie list.

I generally like movies that depict anything that is "non mainstream". And I even don't mind gross movies if they are done well.

But this movie is a huge disappointment - no real story, no building up any character or situation, extremely bad acting (a school play does far better), the shots were pathetic, the gross scenes were not necessary (nor were they shocking).

The close up in scenes is really bad, i think i even spotted a 'cannibal' with long stylish locks! Looks like the directors/producers paid no attention to the movie at all !

With this movie, I've decided to stop watching any more "cannibal" genre movie!