Mondo cannibale

Leave it to Bruno Mattei to hit the cannibal subgenre 20 years after its highpoint. This entry, filmed as CANNIBAL WORLD, shows that he still has that special touch to make xerox cinema as this is almost a scene by scene remake of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. Reporter Grace Forsyte heads into the Amazon jungle with Bob Manson and their crew to capture images of cannibalism for the TVN Network. Naturally, the civilized people end up being the savages as they burn down a village and kill natives to stage entertaining television. Intercut with the jungle adventures are the arguments of two TV execs, one who loves the ratings bonanza footage and the other who loathes it. In case you forgot the point, the dissenting executive turns directly to the camera and asks, "I wonder who the real cannibals are." Bruno hits all of the CH main points from the "stop smirking" bit to the rape scene. Unfortunately, he also felt it necessary to include a real animal killing as well. Also on the downside, the characters are never consistent in their views. One minute Bob is chastising Grace for being exploitive and the next he is going hog wild in the staging of a burning village. The same thing happens with Grace. Ah, whatever. The movie is gory and has nudity. Plus, Mattei shows he still has a knack for making the funniest dubbed dialogue. Filmed on location in the Phillipines.

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).

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!

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

Receiving news of the channel's viewership struggles, a team is sent into the jungle to investigate rumors of a cannibal tribe living in the area but as their quest for sensationalized footage leads them into ever more barbaric acts of savagery and cruelty against the natives they soon strike back against the group.

As far as jungle cannibal exploitation genre efforts go, this is a below-average if still watchable entry. For those simply looking for an exercise in the normal routines found in the genre, the film serves this aspect up quite well. The near-constant scenes of the groups' jungle exploits requiring them to run into cannibals devouring a fallen tribe member, barbaric practices including the carving of a fetus from a still-living victim, and various other dismemberments on display. While also featuring the expected animal cruelty which is still shocking but thankfully nowhere near as revolting or graphic as anything that's ever been shown in the genre previously before turning into the expected revolt and butchery by the locals, giving the film a lot to like by diving into genre conventions wholeheartedly. As well, the film also manages to offer up a decidedly intriguing if somewhat underwhelming social commentary on the nature of the media perpetuating the exposure and demand for graphic images. That the group is out in the jungle unrestrained and able to engage in raping, torturing, and outright barbaric acts against the cannibal tribe simply for the sake of ratings propels the film forward with a rather intriguing concept. Since the network executives are shown arguing constantly about whether it's worth keeping them out there preparing the rest of the show knowing full-well what they're doing and only one seems to be appalled at what's going on since the new-age media policies go against their traditional values. This doesn't go as far as what it could've been in terms of pointed critique but the inclusion is enough here, which is all enough to give this one a few decent moments here. That said, there's not much else to be had with this one. The fact that, even if all the action included here is expected in the genre, that none of it is carried off with any semblance of passion or creativity keeps the scenes feeling like lifeless, bland retreads of the same material we've seen in dozens of other entries. Hardly any of this comes off with the intended impact of gross-out scenes of barbaric butchery and sadistic exploitation towards the locals all being recycled verbatim with the scenes being plagiarized completely. With the recycled camera angles, scene setups, and eventual outcomes coming straight from the other films in the genre in roughly the same exact order as well, furthering the idea of this one being a straight rip-off quite easily. The other issue to be had here, which runs pretty plainly throughout the film, is the general cheap look and atmosphere present. The fact that the entire film looks like it was shot on a digital camcorder doesn't help matters, taking a flat, soulless approach to the material here. Appearing with a stylized, soap-opera tone to the proceedings, especially with the interactions presented throughout here as well, the whole film comes off with a camp, cheesy quality that can be really off-putting. As well, the confrontations with the cannibals that delve into hand-to-hand combat look patently fake and choreographed while the graphic gore and bloodshed have the stereotypical bright-red fakeness common for the genre which is what all hold the film down.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Violence, Full Nudity, Extreme Graphic Language, Rape, and violence-against-animals.