Mondo cannibale

A 2003 sequel/prequel/remake/ripoff of Cannibal Holocaust? Directed by Bruno Mattei?? OK, sure, why the hell not? It's not like it was shot on video, right? ...*sigh*... Alright, let me start over.

Cannibal Holocaust: The Beginning. Mattei's remake of the undisputed King of the ever traumatizing, Italian Cannibal sub-genre. Now, when first hearing about it, and possibly even sitting through it, one word that may or may not come to mind is pathetic, or possibly desperate, maybe even typical. The truth is, this day in time, with big-budget super-hero/Fantasy movies ruling the world, and most Exploitation sub-genres being dead and buried, we should consider ourselves lucky to have access to authentic, modern-day, Italian Cannibal Gore, and yes, I realize that Vincent Dawn made it, and I'm fine with it.

A nearly Identical story. Sadistic film crew, in the "Amazon", looking for proof of a primitive tribe of cannibals for shock TV, to further their careers. Everyone's desire to keep on shooting, no matter how banged up they get, is exaggerated to humorous levels, and this version is every bit as brutal and unflinching as the original, or at least close enough.

Unfortunately, the whole shot -on-video thing is pretty much, the only difference. nothing too original or thought-provoking, just the same old impalings, rapings (real) animal killings, Cannibal's burning, "let's get the hell out of here" and, I wonder who the real cannibals are. You know the drill by now.

One has to wonder how bad, financially (or mentally) things were for Mattei, for him to pull something like this, (once again) this day in time, but I'm glad he did. It's like Herschell Lewis's Blood Feast 2, from a few years ago, it just gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling of nostalgia for a long-forgotten era, and for that alone, this piece of garbage is A-OK in my book. Not quite on par with Mattei's earlier work, like my favorite, Hell Of The Living Dead, and not quite as real as the ones from the golden era (minus Cannibal Terror), but a rare treat, no matter how you look at it. Bruno Mattei is dead now, which probably means that this was it. So, don't be too hard on it, in fact, try to enjoy it, try to overlook the many, many flaws, and accept it for what it is, the last of the Italian Cannibal Gore epics. 6/10

I don't know what Bruno Mattei got for Christmas in 2002, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if I found out that he received a bumper collection of jungle movie screenplays, and if he did receive that then he certainly put it to good use in 2003 as he filmed two jungle rip-off movies back to back! His other 2003 film 'Land of Death' was a shameful splicing together of cannibals and every key scene from John McTiernan's masterpiece 'Predator', while this film, which is known in some circles as 'Cannibal Holocaust: The Beginning' is a direct rip-off of Ruggero Deodato's masterpiece 'Cannibal Holocaust'. It's been a while since I saw Cannibal Holocaust so I can't say whether or not this is a frame for frame remake...but I can remember enough to say that this film is pretty similar! This film focuses on Grace Forsyte; a reporter for a TV channel that wants to make money by showing human suffering, which apparently is popular after the coverage of the Iraq war. So they set off into the jungle to film some real life cannibals.

This film was shot back to back with Land of the Dead, and that's not hard to believe; as while the films don't feature the same plots, they are very similar in content and feature most of the same cast members. Given Mattei's track record, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that some of the exact same footage has made it into both films. I would definitely say that this one is the better film; it seems to have more focus and the blatant ripping off isn't quite so cheeky as to rip out scenes in their entirety a la the pig scene from Land of Death (...and Predator). Naturally, most people going into this film will want some gore; and Mattei does deliver on that front. There's a fair amount of cannibalism and surprisingly it actually doesn't look too bad, which is to the film's credit. Mondo Cannibale is also fairly well made and the cinematography isn't too bad either. If you've seen Cannibal Holocaust, you will surely know exactly where the film is going and there are no surprises there either. It could be said that the film is a commentary on society; but it could also be said that it's a direct rip-off of a film that is commentary on society, and the latter is more true.

Bruno Mattei died just four years after the release of this film, but that didn't stop him making no less than nine films in-between. I haven't been able to find much info on the films he made after this one; but I'm hoping he delved into that book of jungle screenplays and at least made a cannibalised (and featuring cannibals) version of some classics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai and Apocalypse Now….

A "modern" remake of Cannibal Holocaust on a $5 budget. This is one of Bruno's more watchable features. Sure, its awful. Its cheap and sleazy and poorly dubbed. But I will be honest: this is a better Cannibal film than the disappointing big budgeted Hollywood shot Green Inferno. This is even more watchable than Make Them Die Slowly. Its pure garbage but it delivers on the gore. Bruno has many unwatchable pieces of celluloid trash but this one is up there w his very best. If you want something "good" in the traditional sense... steer clear. If you want good old shoe-string-gory-cheap-ass-trash then this is as good as it gets as far as a jungle cannibal gut-muncher goes. Its laughable as far as production values go but the gore is plentiful and you WILL be entertained!

Mondo Cannibal (2004)

1/2 (out of 4)

A once famous reporter (Helena Wagner) finds herself fired from her show because of sinking ratings so she decides to hire former hotshot host (Claudio Morales) to go into the Amazon with her to search for cannibals. The plan is to send the footage back to the studio as they shoot and when it becomes a hit and ratings go up, they decide to add more blood and guts.

MONDO CANNIBAL was one of two cannibal films that director Bruno Mattei made during this comeback before his death in 2007. This film has been released under countless titles including CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST 2 but it's certainly not a sequel. If you're familiar with Mattei then you know there really wasn't an original bone in his body because he often just ripped off other movies scene for scene or in some cases he just takes actual footage from other movies and tries to pass it off as his own. This here is pretty much a remake of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST but it's certainly one of the worst the genre has ever seen.

This here was an ultra low-budget movie but that doesn't excuse how awful it actually is. Even at just 95-minutes the film seems to last longer than ROOTS because there's just so much dead weight. The story itself is quite stupid and whatever political message Mattei tries to get across is just pointless. The biggest problem is that the film is dead boring from the opening credits until the very end. I'm really not sure what Mattei was going for but to say this film is completely worthless couldn't be too harsh. The acting is pretty poor, although it's hard to tell too much about it considering how awful the dubbing is. Even worse are some mistakes by the filmmakers including a title card early on that's meant to say "months" but instead says "mouths."

The only thing that keeps MONDO CANNIBAL from getting a BOMB rating is the fact that it's quite gory and features practical effects and not CGI. I will applaud Mattei for adding this but it's too bad he didn't live long enough to do a commentary or give an interview about the film. I'd love to know what he was thinking while making this thing and even after all the controversy from those Italian cannibal pictures that feature real animal

I found the DVD at a flea market, i immediately bought it after i saw that it was a film from Bruno Mattei (well, he used the pseudonym Vincent Dawn, but i noticed that). Homewhever, i knew that this was going to be a movie in the same vein as Cannibal Holocaust.....but i didn't expected that it was going to be some kind of remake, even some of the dialogs where the same as Cannibal Holocaust ("The only thing that can scare me ? the marriage !" or something like that). Shot on digital, probably the worst digital that i saw, it looks like a Mexican soap opera. The plot is "slightly" different from Cannibal Holocaust (for some reasons it reminds me of "Cut and Run" also): Grace Forsyte lost some of her audience for her TV show, for get some audience back, she hires the war reporter Bob Manson. The Crew goes to the amazon in search of the cannibals, many situations will resemble Cannibal Holocaust, but unlike Cannibal Holocaust, there is no "real" animal cruelty. At least there are gore scenes and nudity for make this movie watchable (in my taste).