Prisoner of the Cannibal Gods - Will's Review

It's hard to believe that this one is older than most of the other cannibal movies on the list (I believe only Deep River Savages is older) because it seems to borrow elements from most of them; in reality it seems that the similarities are either coincidental, or the other movies each 'borrowed' their favorite parts from this one, stoping short of lifting the plot wholesale.

Either way, I could pretty much write an outline for one of these things in my sleep by now...

Up front we are told that our leading lady's husband went missing while out exploring the jungle, after failing to get help from the local authorities, she recruits someone who already knows the jungle and, with 2 of her and her husband's friends, they go of to find him.

The encounter a primitive, but friendly tribe, who are subsequently attacked by a war-like, cannibalistic tribe, who happen to be based in the area that our hero's need to search.

Along the way we see many scenes of animal cruelty and killing (both real and simulates) and plenty of stock footage of animal-on-animal violence.

Our characters are predictably captured and held, and they manage to work in a rape and a castration.

Seem familiar? Yeah, thought so.

To be fair, there are touches I haven't seen elsewhere - one thing I did like was that as the film progressed we discover that not all of outlets leading characters are necessarily what they seem to be, and some may have their own  motives for heading into the jungle.

The obligatory ritual is different here too - it involves our heroin being tied up and anointed, and then ignored while the tribe go into a sexual frenzy - a frenzy show to us in three separate acts (totally seperate, there is nothing an any of the shots to suggest that the rest of the tribe are even present, although they are supposedly all in the same cave); a couple have sex, a tribes woman (very graphically) masturbates, and a guy fucks a pig (the pig is far more interested in eating a nearby plant and seems happy to ignore the idiot pulling his tail and dry-humping him).

In the end though, we've seen it all before, and far too much of the film is spent walking around and cutting to animals killing each other; distressed monkey aside (I really did hate to see that - even though it was just nature doing what nature does*) it's mostly a very dull movie.


*UPDATE - It has been indicated that even this was staged

BODY COUNT: 11
BOOB COUNT: 4 Pairs
ANIMAL BODY COUNT: 16 - mostly real.
MOST MEMORABLE DEATH: Midget brains!

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Faces of Death - Will's Review

This is one of the most infamous titles on the DPP list, and I was shocked to learn that Lisa had never heard of it - I thought that we had all gone to school with at least one 'hard' kid who claimed to have seen it!

It made it's name (and schoolyard notoriety), by reporting to feature scene after scene of actual death - I remember seeing a copy in a video rental place where I used to rent horror movies using my fake NUS ID that said I was 3 years older than I was) and reading the box, which goes out of it's way to imply that it is utterly genuine - I was stunned; I couldn't believe this would be allowed, but I also wasn't sure I wanted to see it, and rented  "Braindead" instead (good move!).

In the intervening years, it has piqued my interest a few times; enough to have read up on it, but not enough to actually track down an uncut copy and watch the thing.


Until that is, I decided to work my way through the whole "Video Nasties" list...

Although it is unquestionably sensationalist (Look at the title for god's sake, and its hosted by a "Dr. Gross") but at times it does a bloody good impression of an earnest documentary. Indeed, split into sections (accidents, nature, suicide etc.) I could almost see BBC Three making a series out of it!

But for the fakery…

David Attenborough recently got in hot water by splicing footage of captive polarbears with footage of wild ones; so I dread to think what Ofcom would make of showing a real suicide jumper fall to their death, before cutting to a fake messy body…


In-fact, almost every close-up human death in the movie is fake, and often obviously so.
A lot of them feature impossible camera angles; during an attempted rescue of an amateur potholer, for instance, the rescuer is filmed from below as he descends to where the victims fell, as though the ‘documentary’ film-makers had asked that the rescue be put on hold, while they sent a camera man down to get a better shot, some feature multiple angels where we should be able to see the other cameras, and one scene features a middle-eastern beheading, supposedly filmed by a Canadian tourist… and features multiple angles and well-framed shots on a pro-grade camera!
Not that this is necessarily a bad thing; less on-screen real deaths can only be a good thing, but the movie kind of sets itself up to be lose/lose on this score: Real deaths, and I’d be somewhat appalled by it, fake deaths, and we feel lied to!

Although there are plenty of real bodies – graphic autopsy shots, piles of holocaust victims, row after row in a morgue, body parts scattered everywhere after a plane crash, drowning victims… there’s more than enough here to keep fans of rotton.com and it’s ilk happy! And it’s these scenes that have sent the body count soaring…

On the animal front, the film-makers show us what David Attenborough does not as a snake is devoured by piranhas (upsetting, I love snakes, but interesting in a national geographic way), we get the ‘highlights’ of a dog-fight, fur-seals are clubbed and skinned,  worst-case (or outdated) slaughter house footage is presented as the norm, and a cow is killed Kosher style (for my money, properly preformed Kosher butchery is worse than properly preformed Halal butchery), and there’s the Monkey Brain scene, in which a real, obviously terrified monkey is clamped into a table, and has his face smacked with foam hammers, before an obviously fake monkey head is switched in and cut open so that ‘tourists’ may eat it’s brain!

Then there’s the just plain left-field bits. If you went to school with one of the aforementioned ‘hard’ kids who claimed to have seen this, I bet they never mentioned the 3 minute lecture on the evils of littering, or the speech about how cancer is probably man-made and we all need to eat better did they? No sir! I’ll also be they neglected to mention that the final section of the film tries to sell us on the idea that ghosts are real, before implying some guff about reincarnation and ending with a montage of wildlife pictures, flowers and images of babies either!

I also got annoyed at “Dr. Gross” continually claiming to have witnessed most of these thing in person, but we never see him in the footage.

All in all and odd film, that should have board and repulsed me, bur didn’t do much of either… Cutting the animal scenes would have tightened the running time, removed the most offensive parts, and, for all it’s flaws, made this one strangely watchable.

WARNING: Usually purchasing the cut UK version of a movie is enough to excise the animal cruelty. Not so here; the UK version cuts only the dog-fight, and some of the monkey’s distress.

Body Count: 180+ (mostly lined up in morgues or open graves)

Boob Count: 6 pairs (including 2 deceased old pairs)

Animal Body Count: 50+

Most Memorable Death: Fake electric chair.

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Faces of Death - Lisa's Review

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Deep River Savages - Lisa's Review

*Spoilers*

I probably watched almost all of this movie. I tried my best, honest I did. After managing to sit through Cannibal Ferox and Cannibal Holocaust, I thought I would have no problems, but in my opinion, this movie far surpasses either of those for animal cruelty of the worst extreme.

I could sit and detail the story, as, like I said, I've probably seen most of it, but my disgust prevents me from wanting to. The basic premis is a guy who ends up in the jungle with a bunch of savages (who happen to be cannibals) as he wants to escape a murder he committed back home (which happened to be in self defence). Long story short, he eventually is accepted by the tribe and even ends up with the very beautiful (and mostly very naked) daughter of the tribes chief, she dies and he ends up staying with the tribe and becoming as barbaric as they are... doing things he initially was disgusted by.

I hated everything about this movie. The acting, the premis, the way it was acted out, the rape for titillation scenes that were littered throughout it, but none of these things came close to the absolutely disgusting scenes of animal cruelty and deaths in this movie. I'm not going to detail the deaths, but needless to say they were all real, all VERY graphic and all very long, drawn out affairs with the maximum level of suffering inflicted possible. They even introduced animals fighting each other to the death for fun..... The general feeling when watching this, apart from the obvious disgust at what you're viewing, is that the director put this together for the blood thirsty, brain-dead morons who love this kind of 'real' suffering.

I for one am not among that crowd and although I can watch 'most' things, although some may be difficult, I refused to watch another minute of this piece of trash to see another innocent animal needlessly suffer. If any readers do watch the movie, despite this warning.... I managed to reach the scene where Mariya (the wife of the star) dies. I only made it that far as I left it on in the background while I typed my review. I had decided after a nasty crocodile death that enough was enough.

I cannot think of any reason anyone would want to watch this one, so I advise against it with every pore of my being.

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Deep River Savages - Will's Review

*Spoilers*


Sigh, another Canibal Movie, another round of Animal Snuff...

It's always hard to talk about these things without sounding like a cruelty apologist; I'm not, I'm one of those people who doesn't watch 'Fear Factor' not because it grosses me out (it doesn't) but because I object to t way cockroaches are treated in the show (kill 'em because they're in your house - fine, it's a hygiene thing. Eat 'em alive for 'entertainment' - get the hell out if my sight m*therfucker!)

That said, I'm going to try and talk about this film on it's merits (such as they are) and save lambasting it's treatment of animals until the end of the review.


'Deep River Savages' is not (despite how it may appear) a horror movie. In essence it is a drama with grizzly bits; it's closest cousin would probably be a POW movie.

It also isn't a cannibal movie - there is one cannibal scene in the whole film, and even that isn't committed by our 'main' tribe - who are a primitive, cruel, barbaric people, but not (as far as the film implies) cannibals.

In fact, it's closest ancestor (plot wise) is 'a man called horse'.

After we see english photographer John Bradly's girlfriend kidnapped while at a kick boxing match it Thailand (a pointless scene - he assumes she has just wondered off, and seems okay to leave it that way) we witness him stab a man to death in self defence, then flee the scene and hop on a train.

The train takes him to the destination he'd apparently been planing to go to anywhere (a guide with a motorcycle rickshaw is waiting for him) - a river cruse on the border between Thailand and Burma (where, the opening crawl tells us, many primitive tribes live).

After rickshaw guy makes him a meal of water-snake (which he enjoys, until finding out what it is, at which point he spits it out and throws what's left overboard - I don't get that - how is it worse than any other meat?)  Bradley goes off to do some underwater photography, before falling asleep on the boat.

Upon waking, he finds that he is alone; looking around, he sees his guide's body floating in the river, before promptly being captured in a large net, and dragged back to a village.

How much candy do you think they keep in these things? 

According to the opening crawl, the 'tribe' in this movie are genuine savages - I'm not buying that for a second! For one thing, some of them are the best actors in it, and for another the clothes at time (on the women anyway) seem a little too modern. I suspect the 'genuine tribe' bit was a lie to justify the animal snuff - either that or the 'extras' are genuine tribespeople, but our leads are actors.

After spending days hanging around (literally) in a net, and making flirty-eyes with the tribal 'princess', Bradley is tethered to a leash and put to work - catching turtles and helping with building work an so fourth. He also discovers that one of the old women in the tribe was kidnapped as a little girl, and actually speaks English; this is a secret at first, as she plans to help him escape, but about half way through the movie she speaks to him in his own language in the presence of the whole tribe and no one seems to care, or even notice...

Anyway, Stockholm syndrome sets in, and he starts to work willing with the tribe, eventually gaining their trust (and the anger of the tribe's which doctor) when he saves a young boy via a bamboo tracheotomy.


It's during the "enforced (but becoming willing) labour" portion of the film, that current favourite movie scene happens:

IF ONLY they had used the Wilhelm Scream, this would have been perfect!

After a series of nasty trails (they treat their inductees worse than their prisoners) he is made a full tribesmember, and therefore  gets to take part in the princess' husband selection... thing.

The princess sits blindfolded and naked, in a hut, next to a small window - the men of the village file past, and get to reach in and have a grope - with her picking her favourite groper to be her husband. Now, the first 2 guys either don't know much about women, don't want the job, or have figured they aren't gonna be picked, so the may as well have a cheeky fondle - one just goes straight for a boob, while the other does the same before progressing for a quick dip in the ladyparts! Our man Bradley though knows his stiff - he just caresses her arm, then holds her hand - Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

They marry, have sex (a lot), and she falls pregnant - and ill. she dies in childbirth and Bradly stays with the tribe anyway (going so far as to hide from a potential rescue chopper).

Apart from a couple of invasions from a neighbouring tribe, that's about it. Some of the acting is a bit shonky (but no worse than I've come to expect in these things), there are a couple of unresolved plotlines (Whatever did happen to his girlfriend who got kidnapped? did Bradley's constant, and unintentional, pissing of of the witchdoctor lead to his wife's illness?) and the dubbing is a bit odd in places, having chosen to match the lip sync, rather than a suitable English-language pacing, but all in all, it's not a bad movie...

...but for the animal stuff.

This has hands down the most (and the worst) animal cruelty of any of the films we have seen so far, in-fact, Lisa watched this before I did, and tried to warn me off of it! and there is NO WAY I can recommend this film in it's uncut form. even the BBFC passed version has less than 4 mins of cuts, so I can only imagine that they've only got rid of the worst of it! (I won't be watching again to find out). I am slightly confused as to how a film that remains cut to this day got dropped from the DPP list?!?

Although I feel that animal cruelty in the name of entertainment should be banned outright, I still think the "Likely to deprave and Corrupt" line is bullshit! If you don't already think that Crocodile snuff is a good idea, there is nothing here to convince you, if you do already think that Crocodile snuff is a good idea, you are ALREADY corrupt (and actually seeing it might convince you otherwise anyway).

The atrocities in full after the usual Boob / Body / Critter / Memorable Death bit, for people who want to read that, but not the cruelty bits.

Body Count: 11
Animal Body Count: 11 (sadly, 10 of them real and on-screen)
Boob Count: 9 pairs (approx - a lot of the tribeswomen looked very smiler to each other)
Most Memorable (non-animal) Death: Comedy mask-drop (of death)


Animal cruelty list:
A boar is killed (off screen) this may or may not have been done humanly. We later see it's meat.
2 Fish are caught in a net and one is speared (probably shouldn't count these if you eat fish - I do)
A turtle is thrown (non fatal)
A cock-fight is staged (outcome unseen)
A Mongoose (on a leash) is made to fight a Cobra, to the death (the cobra's). - very prolonged and distressing.
A River snake is cut up for dinner (Probably not overly cruel - would have died instantly)
A Monkey is clamped into a table, and the top of it's head removed.
A Snake is cut in half as part of a fertility ritual (due to the way it is cut this is much crueller than the river snake)
A goat has it's throat slit.
A crocodile has it's throat cut, and is the slit up it's belly while squirming. It is obvious that the first cut takes out the windpipe (the blood bubbles) so it MAY have died quickly - the squirming being involuntary twitching.

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Cannibal Holocaust - Lisa's Review

This is one I wanted to get over with as soon as possible after the contents of Cannibal Ferox and the knowledge that this contained similar scenes. In fact, I found this movie much more disturbing, disgusting and really wanted to switch it off after half an hour. The fact I wouldn’t have completed the challenge stopped me, coupled with the fact it would be kind of wet to switch off a movie because I found it hard to watch when I’m watching a list of all the banned movies. What’s to be expected really…

There is a warning as the movie starts about the graphic nature of its scenes and the fact we can only be glad this sort of thing is no longer tolerated… how true.

This movie, like Cannibal Ferox is set in the Amazon rainforest among the indigenous tribes people and centers on the concept of cannibalism, although that is the least disturbing part of the movie. We cut between New York

and the amazon as a search party are sent out led by Harold Monroe, an anthropologist sent to find out what happened to a documentary crew who went to film the tribes people but have been missing for 2 months.

Like Ferox there is unforgivable animal cruelty and 7 actual real animal slaughters. I was just absolutely disgusted and for only the 2^nd time since I started watching movies from this list, I agreed with the banning of this movie.

It should never have seen the light of day and the fact there is a market for people who enjoy this kind of thing is staggering.

After 1 animal slaughter and a disgusting sexual torture and death scene for a woman who had apparently been unfaithful carried out by her husband, we see the second group gaining the trust of the tribes people by saving them from a rival tribe.

They witness some horrible atrocities, tortures of women in the tribe and rapes.

Eventually they come across the video footage of the lost documentary crew and start to discover what happened to them. This is where our story switches from our second recovery team to our original documentary crew. At the start of the footage that is found, there looks to be real documentary footage of executions and horrible shootings. I’m not sure where its from but it definitely didn’t look like movie footage to me. Apparently the director staged some of the scenes for effect.

I’m starting to get more and more peeved at this film the further we go into it.

We then move on to the group starting their trek through the jungle and another downright graphically disgusting and nasty death of a turtle. I thought I coped quite well with Ferox but it had absolutely nothing on this. Ok so I’m angry now. The makers of this documentary just seem set on shock and disgust at any costs. The turtle is killed for food as they have been trekking for 6 days, so they dissect and eat it. As they move further on, one of the group is bitten by a snake and has to have his leg amputated by way of a large machete. Well deserved I say!

It doesn’t save him and he dies anyway… well at least he experienced some of what the turtle did before he was dispatched!

After getting out of water just in time for a crocodile and anaconda not to catch them (damn) they come across some tribes people killing monkeys (for real) in the most grotesque of ways (I’m sickened) . They shoot one (native) in the leg to slow him down so they can follow him to the village. Once they reach the village, they shoot a little pig (yup for real)…. I actually want to get my hands on the makers of this and carry out some torture of my own!!! They round the tribes people into a hut and proceed to set it alight to stage a scene for the documentary.

Nice people then…

They just continue to disrespect them by pissing in their streams, killing and wasting animals they use for food, filming in a nonchalant manner an old womans last moments when she has slunk off to die, which is something the tribes people do. I found the next scene confusing. The tribes women string up a young pregnant woman, remove her unborn baby and bury it in the mud. The documentary team say they have to eliminate weakness from their tribe? Not getting this at all.

They then proceed to bash the womans head in with rocks.

We keep cutting back to New York where a member of the second rescue team has obviously made it back with the footage and the TV execs are viewing it and want to air it. He keeps trying to persuade them not to such is the graphic nature of what is on the reels.

Undeterred they want to go ahead.

Back to the amazon and our documentary makers capture a very young tribes girl and they all proceed to rape her one at a time. The woman in the group - Faye doesn’t seem keen on wat they are doing, but doesn’t seem to do an awful lot to stop it apart from whine and whinge. Her main problem seems to be when her boyfriend joins in. Their friend and camera man hold her down while her boyfriend ‘has his turn’. All the while the tribes people are in hiding watching whats going on. Again disgusted and one of those scenes which went on longer than it needed to and seemed to be played for male titillation rather than the vile act it is. They impale her on a wooden pole (thankfully not shown) and the camera man has to remind his friend to take the smile off his face and look disgusted at what natives are capable of, as they’re getting the blame in the footage. A powerful message here of what man in general is capable of I think.

Just goes to show, we’re all the same when supposed civility is stripped away. How they did the pole effect here deserves some credit as it was remarkably realistic.

We’re approaching the end… I’m breathing a sigh of relief. One of the team – Jack is hit by a spear and they decide to shoot him to see what the natives do. What would we do with friends like this?? What follows is probably the best and most realistic make-up work and effects Ive ever seen. I can see why it was thought to be a snuff movie as the barbaric disecting of the body by brutal force and the way the carcass behaved looked unbelievably realistic. The severed head looked real and the organs were obviously real animal organs. Very realistic, very well done and very disturbing.

Next Faye, the lady in our group is captured and is brutally raped (which again goes on for far too long. She is finally beaten and beheaded. All the while her ‘friend’ is filming all of this. He meets a nasty end as well though as the camera drops to reveal him lying on the ground covered in blood getting the same bludgeoning as Faye just got. Come-uppance? I think so…

So the TV execs have seen all the footage, they finally agree it isn’t for public consumption and ask for it all the be burnt.

The final question posed is.. I wonder who the real cannibal is?

My thoughts? Well I think I made it pretty clear what I thought about most of this movie. I hated it. Would never watch it again. Thought it contained unnecessary suffering, the animal bits were unforgivable and the rape scenes were played too much for titillation, one of my pet peeves. It seemed to do anything to shock rather than concentrate on producing a good movie. Whats a shame is that the effects and gore were fantastic and probably the best I've seen. They rival anything out there today, but for sitting through the rest of it… simply not worth it. Best avoided unless you’re sick in the head.

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Cannibal Ferox - Lisa's Review

This movie is also titled 'Make them die slowly' which is a bit disturbing in itself. Its one Darren urged me not to watch as certain images would stay with me. considered it, but I like to at least 'try' to watch everything. If its too much, then the stop button is there to be pushed.

The movie starts with a young man who has just been released from a detox hospital after 5 weeks. He is looking for ‘Mike’… unfortunately so are a couple of unsavoury characters Mike has swindled out of £100,000 (we later find out they are from the Brooklyn mob). They fear this young man will tip Mike off that they are looking for him, so they dispense with him by way of a bullet through the chest. The police arrive and state everything which is obvious before we cut to 2 young women (Gloria & Pat)and a young cad – Rudi about to travel to……. to explore the concept of Cannibalism which has been reported as having occurred in this particular place - Patagwaya.

Gloria does not believe cannibalism exists,so she is setting out to prove incidents of cannibalism reported in a magazine have never happened. If she manages this, she’ll have an excellent dissertation for her degree. I have to ask what blonde Pat the obvious eye candy of the movie is doing travelling here with her fear of basically every living creature you can mention… but then again, perhaps I have answered my own question there.

They travel to their destination on a boat where they are given a Mongoose to 'protect' them from snakes as it has a lesser spirit and the snake will go for it rather than them... sadly we get to see this in all too much detail in the movie as a fucking massive Anaconda very slowly and painfully kills the animal. I pressed the Fwd button here as I felt way too much emphasis was placed on the suffering of the animal and its face. It wasn't required and didn't add to the story in any way at all. I thought this was footage taken from a documentary but reading Wills review, it looks like it wasn't and the Mongoose was tethered. Not impressed!!!!

After this, 2 new characters appear limping through the bushes - Mike Logan and Joe. Mike seems to be a bit of a tit who ‘doesn’t drink’ but has Cocaine around his neck that he likes to snort. He offers it around like sweeties and Pat has a taste. They tell tales of the cannibals they are running from and their 2 friends who have met a grisly end. One of them was tied to a stake and had his genitals cut off and eaten…. Wonder why that wasn’t in the movie?

Invariably Pat and Mike get it together, setting us up for some nudity late

In the morning, Gloria seems to have disappeared. We are ‘treated’ to another clip of a Leopard catching and eating a cute little monkey. His is the very reason I can’t watch nature documentaries (just in case). Pathetic I know as its life, but I just hate to see anything like this.

So far I’m finding this movie hard going…. Why these scenes are included when they have nothing to do with the story, I have no idea... Well I do, but its disappointing that there is a market for this kind of thing.

Next they come across a group of natives painted up in some sort of white paint. There are 2 horribly mutilated bodies, one of which is tied to a stake, so I assumed this was the unfortunate friends of Mike and Joe. The make-up here is very good and it does make you wrinkle your nose in disgust. Gloria is in a cage with a pig / hog which Mike kills to rescue her, he seems to enjoy it a little too much and tortures it.

Thankfully this is not shown… I’m a good one to be watching horrors when I can’t take animal cruelty, even implied or is this death real as well? I dread to think?

Joe has a fainting episode and they take him into a hut as he’s unwell. Mike agrees to stay with them (oh joy!) and insists on referring to them all as twats. He enjoys getting to know and share his drugs with Pat. After sharing some Cocaine and touching talk about back home in New York, they see 2 natives playing with a turtle.

They think it will be fun to scare them… unfortunately things get carried away when one shouts for help and he ends up shooting and killing a young girl.

Cue Rudi to the rescue when he hears the shot, him and Mike have a bit of a tussle but are interrupted by Gloria telling them Joe has taken a turn for the worse. Mike, the font of all knowledge suspects blood poisoning. Joe is now delirious. In a rare moment of clarity he tells them that Mike has been lying to them. He tells them about how they came across and befriended a young native they refer to as ‘Portugese’ as he knows a few words of the language, they get him to guide them to a river to pan for emeralds. He shows them 3 Emeralds he has as proof that there were there to be had. They fully intend to do him and his native friend over and steal whatever they have. They kidnap Portugese and his buddy and torture them.. which included tying him to a stake and cutting his genitals off… Hmmm, so not cannibals and their friend after all.

There is also a rather crap eyeball gouging scene.

Unfortunatey here there is also a scene of the natives cutting the legs off the live turtle leaving bleeding squirming stumps… not nice and again real.

The human stuff in here is fine to deal with, but I’m not enjoying the animal stuff AT ALL.

Mike & Pat leave and take all the equipment, maps, camera and money with them abandoning a dying Joe along with all round good eggs Rudi & Gloria.

We head back to New York next and a tour guide (Greta) showing some tourists around. She is approached by a Lieutentant Rizo and brought in for questioning. It turns out she is living with our bad boy Mike Logan. She met him in a bar and has taken him in as a lodger (lover?). Turns out this is the Mike that everyone was looking for at the start of the movie. Greta claims she has been away for 5 weeks so hasn’t seen him, but they put a tail on her round the clock anyway.

So now we know who Mike is (I’m sure the more astute of you will have tied these together already – I hadn’t), we go back out to Rudi and Gloria. Joe has just died so they agree to follow the river upstream to get out. As they exit their hut, they are greeted with a rotten papaya which apparently denotes a curse on them. After they’ve left the hut (but are still able to see whats going on), the natives go in and carry Joe out. They stick a rather thick stick into his abdomen and pull him apart and his innards out. They then proceed to eat his organs. Rather gross and obviously real animal organs used here so excellent effect again. Our next scene shows Rudi and Gloria running screaming from the scene. You don’t say!!! Unfortunately they are surrounded and captured by the natives. Guess who has also been captured!! Our man Mike and Pat. He is tied to a stake as the rest are held captive in cages and his genitals are hacked off and eaten in front of him… hehehehehe, can’t say I didn’t find that satisfying. Meanwhile Pat is screaming her ass off from inside her cage due to the trauma of a leech on her wrist.

We cut back to New York again (why do we keep doing this?) and the 2 heavies from the start of the movie have caught up with Greta and are trying to find out where the elusive Mike is. She gets beaten about a bit before the police show up and they clear off. She tells them where he is (why she didn’t earlier, who knows). The action heads back to Mike having his wounds cauterised and everyone heading upstream in canoes with the white-painted natives. Gloris tells how she dropped her necklace, credit card and sunglasses hoping someone will find them and come to their rescue. Someone does… the locals who are left behind. On getting out of the boat Rudi manages to make a break for it with a little crap distraction from Gloria, several locals with very large spears give chaseunfortunately he cuts his leg in the undergrowth and choses a piranha infested lake as a hiding pace. His screams alert everyone to his presence and as he screams for help, it arrives in the form of a poisonous dart to the chest. Bye Bye Rudolph.

In the new location the girls and Mike have been taken to, Mike is lowered into a pit and the 2 girls are encased in a mud hut. Gloria come to the conclusion, they are responsible for the cannibalism, not the natives. Their violence towards them is the reason they have turned to cannibalism. A organ (I think it’s a heart) is lowered into the hut for them to eat. Obviously they decline and instead start to sing??? An attempt to bring some humanity to the proceedings I think. The camera pans around the various unmoved faces of the tribe.

The police meanwhile are catching up with Mike completely oblivious as to what they will find. They find out he passed through Bogata so they are on his trail in a plane with Great in tow… why they need her who knows?

We are treated to another horrid animal death of a baby crocodile being slit throat to tail next. They certainly like the animal killings in this movie. Someone Mike has managed to escape and thwarts the attempts of a sympathetic native trying to free the girls with a rope. He cuts the rope and leaves his friends in the hut while he makes his escape, killing anyone who gets in his way. We now want to see the bastard eaten alive!!! As he hacks his way through undergrowth, the plane passes overhead and he yells to be saved, but it doesn’t see him. His yelling however alerts the natives to his presence and he is soon surrounded as the plane flies overhead again and again looking for him. He is laid down on a fallen tree and his hand chopped off quite realistically as well I thought.

We’re back at camp again and Mike is tethered again. Gloria is slapped but left clothed and tied by the arms to a frame, for some reason Pat is stripped to the waist and has very large hooks put through her breasts and is strung up. The plane continues to fly around overhead and this time they see something and land nearby. The first thing they see is an abandoned car. Some natives who just happen to be around give him Mikes engraved watch, which Greta says she gave to him. When enquiring as to what happened, they are told all the white folks have been eaten by crocodiles when their canoe overturned. Meanwhile Pat dies, assumably from blood loss and what follows is one of the best deaths I think I’ve ever seen and well deserved. Mike is laid on his knees and a table with a hole just big enough for the top of his head is put on top of him. His head is then quickly sliced off somewhat like cutting the top off a boiled egg and they eat his brains – lovely! A native decides under darkness to release Gloria, but as he helps her escape, a bamboo spiked trap is triggered and impales him in numerous places, leaving Gloria in the jungle alone. A boat with some poachers passes by and hears her screaming so they stop to investigate.

They see her naked, covered in mud and with sores all over her face crawling on the ground.

They obviously rescue her as the next scene is 3 months later back in New York at The University where she is being awarded a doctors degree in anthropology. She has written a book called ‘Cannibalism – End of a myth’. So she has obviously decided not to go into any detail about anything that happened as she blames the western world for everything that went on.

Her friends are regarded as killed when their canoe capsized and they were eaten by crocs.

So the movie ends…. As much as I found the animal bits in this movie too much for me personally and I was unable to watch most of them in any detail – nor did I want to, the movie itself was very good. Suspenseful, well acted, good make-up, grotesque story and even more terrifying – believable. I would thoroughly recommend this to any fans of proper horror who genuinely want to be disturbed.

This is the first movie where I understand placement on the infamous list, as the animal scenes are very shocking and the head ‘capping’ was probably very ground breaking when this movie was made.

Although you can tell this is an older movie from the quality of the camera used, the makeup certainly doesn’t let it down.

A genuinely disturbing horror with a good story and satisfying ending.

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