Massacre dans la vallée des dinosaures

Some of my fellow fans of Italian Horror/Exploitation cinema and the Cannibal-subgenre in particular seem to regard "Nudo e Selvaggio" aka. "Massacre in Dinosaur Valley" (1985) as a particular highlight. While Michele Massimo Trantini's film is definitely fun to watch, I am personally not too enthusiastic about it. What makes this film fun is both its incredible schlock-factor, and the fact that it combines elements from various sub-genres. While the film is obviously a Cannibal flick (and also marketed as such) it isn't anywhere near as disturbing as (nor otherwise comparable to) the genre classics by Umberto Lenzi and Ruggero Deodato. This film is more like a gory adventure/action film that includes Cannibals and even employs comedy elements.

The film actually begins like a silly 80s slapstick comedy, with goofy jokes, staged fistfights, stereotypical characters, and some female eye-candy. A bunch of drifters stranded in a Brazilian village all require a flight to a certain savage and 'forbidden' area in the Amazon jungle, the 'Dinosaur Valley' which is still inhabited by Cannibals. Needless to say that the slapstick comedy is soon over and the film turns into bloody survival exploitation. Still, the film is tame compared to almost all other Italian Cannibal flicks from the 80s.

The characters are eccentric and their actions often incredibly stupid, but the film is entertaining from start to finish (though never creepy or suspenseful let alone shocking). The highlight in the cast is obviously the ravishing Suzanne Carvalho, who plays Eva, the sexy daughter of a famous scientist. Michael Sopkiw (who might also be known to fans of Italian genre-cinema for playing the lead in Sergio Martino's "2019 - After the Fall of New York") is well-cast in the lead as a shotgun-wielding anthropologist. The rest of the characters include two luscious nude-models, a sleazy photographer and a married couple with slight marital problems - he is an insane 'Nam vet, she is an alcoholic pain in the ass who does not even stop annoying her husband and mocking his impotence once they are surrounded by hungry cannibals.

The film is fun enough to watch, but in my opinion, it is only recommendable to my fellow enthusiastic fans of Cannibal flicks and/or schlock Horror. Those who haven't seen any Cannibal films so far are well-advised to watch Ruggero Deodato's masterpiece "Cannibal Holocaust" (1980) followed either by Deodato's own "Ultimo Mondo Cannibale" ("Last Cannibal World" 1977) or Umberto Lenzi's "Il Paese Del Sesso Selvaggio" ("Deep River Savages", 1972), "Mangiati Vivi" ("Eaten Alive By The Cannibals", 1980) and "Cannibal Ferrox" (1981). When you've seen all the Deodato and Lenzi flicks, you can throw in this one, though there are still a few other Cannibal flicks that I'd probably recommend over "Dinosaur Valley". Unlike most other Cannibal flicks, this one doesn't involve any animal-killings, so some people might actually prefer it (though it probably isn't their genre in general). Overall, "Massacre in Dinosaur Valley" is highly entertaining, though nothing essential in my opinion.

Some may see the rating I've given Massacre in Dinosaur Valley and think I've lost my mind. I'm fully aware that a 5/10 may be too high. In all honesty, the movie is horrible. Tarantini has crammed the film with every exploitation element and cliché you can think of. Massacre in Dinosaur Valley lacks originality, any semblance of good acting, and anything approaching taste. Technically, the movie doesn't fair much better with some really bad looking special effects and poor editing. But if you can get past all the film's shortcomings (as I did), it's a lot of fun for fans of cheese-filled, Italian exploitation type movies. Maybe I was just in the right frame of mind, but I had a great time with it.

Actually, my biggest complaint with the film has nothing to do with the list of previously mentioned problems. My biggest gripe is the "look" of the cannibals. If you've seen Cannibal Holocaust, the Granddaddy of cannibal films, you'll understand what I mean. The cannibal tribes in Cannibal Holocaust look authentic (at least to my untrained eyes). They're dirty, unkempt, and "wild" looking. The cannibals in Massacre in Dinosaur Valley, on the other hand, look like actors. They look like they showered, shaved, and had a fresh haircut on the way to the set. In addition, the cannibal village in Cannibal Holocaust is something completely alien to our modern society. It fits the look of the cannibals. Here, the cannibal village reminded me of one of the headhunter sets from Gilligan's Island. A little more authenticity would have really helped Massacre in Dinosaur Valley.

Michele Massimo Tarantini's NUDO E SELVAGGIO aka MASSACRE IN DINOSAUR VALLEY (Italy and Brazil, 1985) belongs to the category it's so damn bad it becomes totally enjoyable for fans of low budget trash cinema. The film is written by Tarantini, too, and some sources mention that also Dardano Sacchetti (the man responsible for many Fulci scripts) worked as a writer in this film, uncredited. Still most of Sacchetti's screenplays are much better and professional than this so I think he didn't do too much for this film after all.

In DINOSAUR VALLEY, Michael Sopkiw (BLASTFIGHTER (1985), 2019 BEFORE THE FALL OF NEW YORK (1983) etc.) stars as our Indiana Jones like hero who collects dinosaur bones and sells them to those who pay him much. He travels to Brazil and is willing to search for the bones there. There he gets to know an older doctor and his daughter, who are also going to the jungle alongside a photographer, his two almost naked female models and a traumatized Vietnam veteran and his more than annoying and paranoid wife. Now that sounds a hilarious cast doesn't it? It is as wild and laughable as it sounds, so the fanatics of trash cinema will love DINOSAUR VALLEY.

After their plane crashes (unbelievably funny scene by he way!), the fun and the so called plot begins. The most interesting thing in the cast is easily Suzane Carvalho who belongs to the most memorable beauties I've seen in any of these exploitation films of the 70's and 80's. She plays the part of the doctor's daughter, and her beauty steels the whole show. Her eyes are like chocolate balls waiting to be eaten. There are some other beauties in films of this kind like Uschi Glass (Umberto Lenzi's SEVEN BLOOD STAINED ORCHIDS, 1971)), Glory Annen (Norman J. Warren's PREY, 1978) and Olivia Hussey (Brian Trenchard-Smith's outrageous BLOOD CAMP THATCHER aka TURKEY SHOOT, 1981) but Suzane in DINOSAUR VALLEY is easily the most beautiful angel of all.

Sopkiw is as bad as can be expected and that goes to the acting in general in this film, too. The acting is so bad at times that one might wonder if they did it in purpose because it seems unlikely that somebody really "acted" that bad while trying to act good and believably. That of course adds to the enjoyment this junk gives and DINOSAUR VALLEY is easily to these jungle adventures (CUT AND RUN (1985), THE CATHERINE MILES STORY (1986), TREASURE OF THE AMAZON (1985) etc.) the same as Ivan Katansky's ridiculous Italian sleaze fest BEAST IN HEAT (1977) is for nazi exploitation and WIP films. All those who've seen BEAST really know what I'm talking about.

DINOSAUR has plenty of gratuitous sex, nudity and gore which can also be expected from these films. The sex and nudity-o-meter is very high and there are some shots of naked females that go farther than I expected so the makers noticeably wanted to "deliver the goods" big time with this film. The same thing is with the gore as there are the usual scenes of blood letting and people being killed in gory manner as the dangers of the jungle like piranhas and leeches attack the unhappy travellers as well as the hungry cannibals who happen to live there, too. Also, they soon find out that the jungle is terrorized by some sleazy slave ring led by a fat and horny dirtbag whose fate in a film like this isn't too hard to guess.

Pretty much all the characters in the film are more or less disgusting and evil and there are some unbelievably sleazy scenes like the relationship between the war veteran and his wife as well as the laughably lusty men who, trapped in the jungle surrounded by different dangers, don't seem to be able to keep their eyes off the almost naked females and thus giving the camera man an excuse to give couple of close ups! Can it be even more exploitative and over-the-top sleazy than this?!

The settings in the Brazil jungles are very nice and beautiful as can be expected and that is perhaps the only positive and noteworthy cinematic achievement that can be found in this film. The water and trees are shot very lively and peacefully and it creates a nice atmosphere, and the overall beauty of nature is pretty stunning, and even the loathsome characters and goings-on cannot disturb that. The music score (the synthesizer one) is also worth mentioning and it is very simple but effective in the tradition of Carpenter's HALLOWEEN score.

After all, DINOSAUR VALLEY is almost perfect exploitation trash romp but the viewer really has to "understand" and love the genre in order to come to this conclusion. If you try to show this film to anyone with "normal taste" for cinema, you are guaranteed to be recommended to visit a mental hospital to get some help, because these films are so far away from what is considered as acceptable or correct in mainstream (and "normal") cinema. I give DINOSAUR VALLEY 6/10 as a fan of this cheesy genre.

The story of "Massacre in Dinosaur Valley" (a.k.a. "Nudo e Selvaggio") is clichéd to the very last speck of celluloid. We have the not-so-invincible hero, the tropical version of Professor Challenger and his gorgeous daughter, the neurotic 'Nam vet and, to add gratuitous T&A, a photographer and two models. They go dig dinosaur bones on a forbidden area of Amazonas, but the plane crashes (it's one of them Star Trek-like crashes), leaving 'em stranded in the heart of the jungle. On the way to get back to civilization, they stumble on hungry alligators, piranhas, quicksand and a tribe of meat-eating Indians. But the real threat is an illegal mine where the sadistic China abuses his slave laborers. Everything's derivative, but at least it's well directed and full of gore and nudity. Sharp ears will recognize the score. It's the same one composed by Andrew Barrymore for Lamberto Bava's "Blastfighter" (also starring Sopkiw, also co-written by Dardano Sacchetti, who's not credited in "Massacre").

Michael Sopkiw plays Kevin Hall, a paleontologist who hitches a ride on a plane travelling to Dinosaur Valley, a fossil hunter's paradise deep in the cannibal-infested Amazon jungle. But when the plane crashes en route, he and the other survivors (a photographer and his model, a Vietnam veteran and his wife, and a scientist's daughter) must attempt to reach civilisation on foot, without losing too many body parts on the way.

Although the Italian cannibal craze had pretty much run its course by the mid 80s, a handful of directors tried in vain to scrape a little more meat off an already well-picked carcass, and delivered several offerings that did little to reignite interest in the genre.

Ruggero Deodato, of Cannibal Holocaust fame, directed the fairly enjoyable Cut and Run, an adventure movie with a little gut munching to spice up events, and Mario Gariazzo presented Amazonia, an unexceptional tale (actually about headhunters) that still managed to successfully capture some of that savage vibe that we cannibal fans know and love.

Michele Massimo Tarantini, meanwhile, gave us Massacre in Dinosaur Valley, a trashy (ie. it has plenty of hot nekkid women in it) B-movie style affair that totally misses the mark. With a fraction of the gore that fans have come to expect from the genre (the only memorable moment being a fun piranha attack), particularly dreadful acting, and a group of unlikeable characters you actually look forward to seeing being eaten alive, I found Tarantini's movie to be one of the weakest Italian cannibal films I have seen.

Some viewers seem to have enjoyed this one's general shoddiness, awarding it 'so-bad, it's good' status, but I don't think it manages to pull off that particular trick. In fact, part of me suspects that Massacre in Dinosaur Valley was intentionally made to be bad. Which doesn't make it good. Just bad. Which I guess, would make it a success. Except that I didn't enjoy it that much.

Ah, stuff it..... 4/10 for the quality T&A.