During the end credits of Eli Roths The Green Inferno (coming to theaters Summer 2047), a montage of clips from the Italian cannibal movies that inspired it plays, followed by a near complete list of the subgenre. Not only does this nod become a solid homework assignment for those bemused by Roths attempt at tribute, but also acts as a reminder that the filmmaker could never make a true slice of exploitation in 2013. The Italian cannibal films of the 1970s and 80s were possibly the cruelest, most relentlessly bleak pieces of cinema ever made. Rarely were they entertaining, acting more as filmic endurance tests rather than scary diversions. In short, these movies were hardcore.
Thats also why some love these harsh dives into serious degradation and violence. They play to the cinephile thats looking to test their limits. Theyre not easily offended and can live with viewing something that isnt entirely (or at all) ethically sound. Evaluating the boundaries of good taste is a not pastime for everyone, but those who indulge in the disagreeable usually find themselves talking about this subsection of movies quite often. For the Italians literally killed animals and simulated our basest human impulses, just to push viewers buttons. While theres certainly a vague political element to the some of the cannibal pictures warnings against the evils of white imperialism politics arent exactly the best excuse for decapitating a live monkey on screen.
Moral qualms aside, the Italian cannibal boom of the 70s and 80s produced some of the aesthetically richest and weirdest works in horror history. Owing a huge debt to the world-traversing output of Jacopetti & Prosperi (Mondo Cane, Farewell Uncle Tom), the stories often followed a crew of white journalists or academics (or both) as they depart New York City for the lush, green savagery of the Amazon. While there, they witness strange sexual rituals and are eventually kidnapped, mutilated and consumed, usually after acting like giant, amoral dickheads. There was a formula to these films that wasnt too unlike a slasher films the carnivorous savages enacting punishment for sinful transgressions. But where stalk and slash pictures often become amusing thrill rides, the cannibal movies merely rub your face in absolute filth.
Since we may not be seeing Roths film anytime soon, it felt appropriate to provide a primer for the horror genres infamous niche interest. These eight movies act as a great guide for whether or not eating flesh is for you. Turn back; all humanity is lost past this point.
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Jacob Knight is an Austin, Texas based film writer who moonlights as a clerk at Vulcan Video, one of the last great independent video stores in the US. You can find find him on Twitter @JacobQKnight.
We’re Going To Eat You image from RandyByers.net
Cannibal List
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Cannibal List #1
Il paese del sesso selvaggio (a/k/a The Man From Deep River) [1972] (d. Umberto Lenzi, w. Francesco Barilli)
The one that started it all – though there’d be a lag between this picture and the actual “cannibal boom” that hit Italian cinemas, beginning in 1977 with Last Cannibal World. Umberto Lenzi’s film is a narrative imitation of the Mondo films that rose to prominence following the success of Mondo Cane (which was not only nominated for the Palm d’Or at Cannes, but also an Academy Award). Inspired by the story of A Man Called Horse, Deep River allows the audience to become captured and initiated into a lost tribe, all while gawking at their ritualistic, primitive way of life. Upon release in America (under the sensationalistic moniker Sacrifice!), the movie became a huge hit in 42nd Street fleabag theaters. Nowhere near as smutty as what the genre would later morph into, Man From Deep River would nevertheless kick off the genre’s trend of landing on the infamous “Video Nasty” list in the UK. In America, Lenzi’s movie merely received an R-rating.
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Cannibal List #2
Emanuelle E Gli Ultimi Cannibali (a/k/a Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals) [1977] (d. Joe D’Amato, w. Aristide Massaccesi & Romano Scandariato)
Much how Jess Franco’s foray in the Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS series (Ilsa: the Wicked Warden) plays like the Spanish soft-core maestro’s Shock Corridor, Joe D’Amato’s Emmanuelle and the Last Cannibals isn’t a traditional entry into its series. Instead of creating a straight piece of titillation (as D’Amato was prone to do), the filmmaker instead mixes light erotica with hardcore horror. Disembowelment, rape and castration all make an appearance, as D’Amato primes himself for later pervy endeavors, Porno Holocaust and Erotic Nights of the Living Dead. In her ninth appearance as the titular amorous vixen, Laura Gemser is completely game for the depravity at hand, submitting and subjecting herself to every cruel scenario. This is degenerate sexploitation to the core, made by a master of the art.
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Cannibal List #3
La montagna del dio cannibal (a/k/a Mountain of the Cannibal God) [1978] (d. Sergio Martino, w. Cesare Frugoni & Sergio Martino)
Sergio Martino is one of the unsung masters of Italian cinema. Where Argento specialized in surrealist flair and Fulci’s best carried a trashy, otherworldly air, Martino’s style was forcefully blunt, but nonetheless wholly effective. He contributed key entries to both gialli (The Next Victim, Torso) and poliziotteschi (The Violent Professionals), so it only makes sense that his cannibal movie ranks amongst the very best. Featuring Stacy Keach (who was no stranger to Italian cinema – see: Street People) and former Bond Girl Ursula Andress (Dr. No), Mountain of the Cannibal God instantly feels like a cut above the rest of its sleazy kin. But Martino knew each subgenre he dabbled in, and would attack his work with a “give the audience what they want” mentality of a ringmaster from Hell. Not only is there gratuitous graphic violence and animal cruelty, the Extended Cut features a graphic castration in full, bestiality, rape, and a tribal girl privately masturbating. Martino was great at his job because he didn’t fear obscenity, and Mountain of the Cannibal God has plenty of it. Don’t let the familiar faces fool you; this is one nasty, unpleasant picture.
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Cannibal List #4
Cannibal Holocaust [1980] (d. Ruggero Deodato, w. Gianfranco Clerici)
When a film reaches “notorious” status, it’s rarely earned. Often times, an infamous movie’s reputation is like the cinephile equivalent of the childhood “telephone game”, the legend becoming conflated with each teller of the tale. Yet there’s no hyperbole needed for Cannibal Holocaust, a motion picture so grimy that Ruggero Deodato (who had already directed a cannibal entry with 1977’s Jungle Holocaust) was arrested and forced to defend himself against accusations of having made a snuff porno. The dehumanization, torture and ultimate consumption of its truly awful white protagonists is only the tip of this nasty piece of work’s cruelty iceberg. The animal torture (including a seemingly endless evisceration of a giant turtle) is gut wrenching. However, the grim seriousness is undercut but a truly soaring Riz Ortolani score, showcasing a theme so beautiful it could double as a wedding march. This tonal dissonance works to unsettle the viewer from frame one, never letting them achieve any semblance of comfort. It’s hard to imagine what it must’ve been like to experience this found footage first (whose half-narrative/half-vérité style is strangely not ripped off more often), as Deodato created a picture as formally inventive as it is emotionally scarring. This is one of the great horror movies of all time.
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Cannibal List #5
Zombi Holocaust (a/k/a Dr. Butcher M.D. [Medical Deviate]) [1980] (d. Marino Girolami, w. Fabrizio De Anelis & Romano Scandariato)
It’s debatable whether or not Zombi Holocaust qualifies as a straight “cannibal movie.” Producer Fabrizio De Angelis was essentially trying to cash in on the success of Zombi 2, as well as Emmanuelle and the Last Cannibals, simultaneously cementing the business practices of his country’s most notorious schlockmeisters. Instead of coming up with a new Amazonian hell for audiences to experience, he simply replicated the plot of Lucio Fulci’s Romero rip and inverted it. In place of the ghouls consuming human flesh, it’s the still living and breathing savages who kill and eat those they capture. The plotting is standard – following a troupe (that features both a doctor and a journalist) as they seek out yet another “lost” tribe (who, in this case, play second fiddle to mad scientist Dr. Obrero and his undead army). If you’ve delved this far into the cannibal genre, you know pretty much what to expect in terms of aesthetics and plot. Zombi Holocaust doesn’t necessarily bring anything particularly “new” to the flesh-covered table, but director Marino Girolami keeps the familiar feeling brisk and bleak. Best of all is the American title given to Girolami’s picture upon being re-edited for US release: Dr. Butcher M.D. (Medical Deviate). Now that’s a surefire way to get butts into seats for what is ultimately more of the same.
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Cannibal List #6
Diyu wu Men (a/k/a We’re Going to Eat You) [1980] (d. Tsui Hark, w. Roy Szeto & Tsui Hark)
Wait a minute! This movie was made in Hong Kong! Technically a cheat, We’re Going to Eat You still seems most at home on this list, as legendary UT wuxia huckster Tsui Hark was essentially riffing on the subgenre which sprang from Mondo cinema’s loins. Jam-packed with goofy humor (that’s right, a movie called We’re Going to Eat You is actually a comedy), horrific gore, flesh eating savages, sword fights, and more camera zooms than you can shake a spear at, Hark updates the ruddy look of the genre for a crowd who wanted a few karate chops to go with their exploitive horror. Gone completely is the oppressive, grotesque tone that permeates all of the movies that inspired the Hong Kong filmmaker, as Hark doesn’t seem particularly interested in making a horror film at all. Instead, he’s playfully poking fun at the Italians. It’s a solid case of exploitation exploiting itself, resulting in the most flat out entertaining “cannibal film” on this list.
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Cannibal List #7
Mondo Canibale (a/k/a White Cannibal Queen) [1980] (d. & w. Jesus Franco)
Chances are, if there was a genre of (s)exploitation in the 1970s and 80s, Jesus Franco either riffed on it , or dove in outright. Mondo Canibale is one of two cannibal movies Franco made (the other being the superior Man Hunter) – a movie so bad Franco himself labeled it the worst of the genre, unable to understand why anyone would watch it. Starring seventeen-year-old Sabrina Siani (who, according to Franco, possessed only one good feature – a "delectable derrière"), it showcases all the hallmarks of a Franco joint: bad acting, terrible framing, silly gore. It’s fast, cheap, gross and offers no redeeming value, filmic or otherwise. But if you’re going to explore a niche subgenre, you might as well seek out the worst, just to see how the best stand in comparison. Funnily enough, Alain Deruelle’s 1981 film, Cannibal Terror, actually borrows a significant amount of footage from Franco’s garbage pile, yet somehow turns out to be a more enjoyable experience. This is the lowest of the low, yet you have to spend some time in the gutter if you’re going to appreciate the gold.
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Cannibal List #8
Cannibal Ferox (a/k/a Make Them Die Slowly) [1981] (d. & w. Umberto Lenzi)
Second only to its Holocaust cousin, Umberto Lenzi’s return to the subgenre he started is brutal and relentless, carrying a sense that the director wanted to one up what he had already done. Lenzi certainly succeeds, as Ferox was banned for years in the UK. It wouldn’t be until November 2000 that the censors finally approved the movie, and even then they cut it by six minutes. These trims included the excision of many cannibalism scenes, a man's eye being gouged, the climactic castration, scalping and dismemberment, and an iconic bit of insanity where a woman is hung via iron hooks through her breasts. Cannibal Holocaust is still undoubtedly the best of the bunch, but Lenzi’s uncompromising, borderline sociopathic tendencies make Ferox the meanest. This is exploitation cinema that does not give two shits about your feelings. In fact, the picture seemingly wants to make you feel bad for ever having thought watching was a good idea in the first place.
