O Último Mundo dos Canibais

(aka: JUNGLE HOLOCAUST)

Unlike Deodato's later atrocity CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, I can at least stomach this one since only one crocodile is killed and skinned by the natives, and then they eat it afterwards. This is something they've been doing for thousands of years, so who are we (as so-called 'civilized' human beings) to say they can't?

Shot in Malaysia and the Philippines, this one is about an airplane (carrying Massimo Fosci and Ivan Rassimov) that lands in a survey camp in order to follow up on their research, firsthand. The plane is damaged on landing and the camp is found deserted. Of course, it doesn't take rocket science to figure out what happened to them.

As Fosci and Rassimov trek into the jungle, they get separated from the plane and then Rassimov disappears down some rapids, leaving Foschi alone to get captured by the natives. They take him to an underground cavern and rip his clothes of, and then start probing his genitals with a stick. Then they tie him onto a rope and haul him up to the ceiling. Native girl, Me Me Lai gets to watch all this and is fascinated by Foschi. It's love at first sight.

Next, we see a native guy tied up and his arm is cut in order to let the ants eat it all the way to the bone. Cool shot. Then the native boys urinate on Foschi on a ledge high up above his enclosure. He get's all wet. Ha! They keep him there because they are going to use him as bait for the crocodiles, so he escapes and forcibly takes Me Me Lai with him. Along the way, he rapes her in the elephant grass, but it looks more consensual than a rape.

He hooks up with Rassimov who has survived the rapids and they trek back to the plane. Rassimov is badly hurt while My My Lai get's captured by the cannibals and is eaten alive in some scenes that later appeared in Umberto Lenzi's EATEN ALIVE (1980).

In a memorable scene, Foschi cuts open the native guy he has killed and starts to eat his innards, just to let the other cannibals watching know he means business. Himself and Rassimov make it to the plane although Rassimov dies while the plane takes off.

The Shriek DVD includes revealing interviews with Foschi, Rassimov and Deodato, plus film posters and trailers. Rassimov comments that it was far easier to work for Deodato than it was for Lenzi while Foschi and Deodato both say that it was the producers who inserted the 'crocodile getting killed' scene and not Deodato. I think that's a load of bullsh#t, myself and I don't believe one word of it.

Still, it get's a 6 out of 10 for holding my interest and for not being as sh*tty as CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST.

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

Jungle Holocaust opens with some beautiful shots of a small aircraft flying over a seemingly endless jungle. The four people on the plane are going to the middle of said jungle to check up on a mining crew one of them sent out there. When they get there the camp is of course empty, and all that they find of the inhabitants is a heavily decomposed head. They end up having to stay the night in the plane because the pilot, understandably, will not fly over the jungle in the dark. At this point their situation goes from bad to worse as they have to deal with getting separated, a tribe of natives who just happen to be cannibals, being lost, and being far out of their element.

The movie centers around Robert Harper (Mossimo Foschi) and his ordeals with the cannibals and the jungle in his struggle to get home. The character development is a highlight as the events take their toll on Robert's psyche. He becomes more savage, animal like, and at times it seems, insane. Actor Mossimo Foschi does a very good job portraying all of this, by the way. Actress Me Me Lai is never clothed, a plus in my book, and performs well, though her obviously fake breasts do detract from the believability as she is supposed to be playing a native.

There isn't much gore but some of what there is can get a bit strong. Some will find a scene with a crocodile particularly hard to watch.

Overall Jungle Holocaust is one of the best of the Italian Cannibal genre and is oddly uplifting for this kind of film. Highly recommended.

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.

Jungle Holocaust is a great cannibal film. But not only is it a cannibal film, it is also a jungle adventure, one mans story of survival. This is Ruggero Deodato's first cannibal film, therefore paving the way for the classic Cannibal Holocaust. Like CH, this film is also shunned by many for it's real animal killing and it's realistic human killings. But, it is not only the gore that make this a good film. It also has great direction and stunning visuals in the jungle, plus a good score and pretty good acting. It is a very realistic movie, filmed on location with real natives. Don't get me wrong, the gore is great, too, so if your looking for a movie with realistic gore, i highly recommend this, along with Deodato's next film, Cannibal Holocaust. Check it out if you like Italian cannibal films or if your a Deodato fan. Not for the squeamish. I give it a 8/10.