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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: March 25th, 2025.
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Sabrina Siani, Al Cliver, Lina Romay, Anouchka, Pamela Stanford
Year: 1975
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White Cannibal Queen – Movie Review:
One of the more unusual entries in the prolific Jess Franco's filmography, White Cannibal Queen (equally well known under the alternate titles of Cannibals, which is the title Blue Underground released it under on DVD in 2007, and Mondo Cannibal) is a pretty stupid film. It's not good. That's not to say it isn't entertaining, because in many ways it is quite an enjoyable trash movie, but it is poorly made, poorly acted, and the effects, costumes and make up border are completely ludicrous.
Jeremy Taylor (played by Al Cliver and his magic beard) decides to take his wife (Pamela Stanford) and daughter, Lana (Anouchka), with him on an expedition into the heart of the deep, dark jungle. When they get there, some very European looking guys in loincloths sporting neon face paint attack. The wife is murdered, the daughter is kidnapped, and Jeremy's arm gets chopped off and eaten. Taylor barely escapes with his life and, after getting some rest and relaxation in New York, he just sort of hangs out with a foxy chick named Ana (Lina Romay) for a few years. Once he's done hanging out with the foxy chick, he remembers that his daughter might still be alive and as such, he's inspired to head back into the jungle to find her.
Taylor rallies up some help courtesy of a random rich couple and heads south, and before you know it, he discovers that Lana (now played by Sabrina Siani) is not only alive and well, but she’s also become a white cannibal queen. The natives worship her as a goddess and she's no fool - she realizes she's got a good thing going here! Will she head back to the Big Apple with daddy and the foxy chick, or will she spend the rest of her days and a cannibal goddess living amongst the flora and fauna of the fierce Amazon jungle? Will Taylor and his pals make it out alive or will they wind up on the menu?
Where do you start with this one... the horrible acting? The micro-budget effects? The inane screenplay? The ridiculous looking cannibals? The way too inappropriate and out of place musical score? The choppy editing? The completely uninspired and goofy ending? Take your pick! White Cannibal Queen has all that and more. Franco's heart was obviously not in this one at all. None of his cinematic fetishes are really examined much (and this despite the presence of Lina Romay - the actress most associated with Franco in that regard) and one could probably assume he did this one for the paycheck, rather than for any legitimately artistic reason.
That said, there's so much wrong with this film in pretty much ever regard that it sort of turns itself around. As dumb as the movie is, it's also just as enjoyable. It's hard not to laugh at Al Cliver's non-acting and it's hard not to snicker under your breath at his unconvincing stump-arm. The English dubbing, none of which really matches any of the performers, makes things almost alien at times and the cannibals, all decked out in their finest hot pink and bright orange make up, aren't so much threatening as they are unintentionally hilarious as they perform dopey tribal rituals in front of bargain basement Halloween props. Take a drink every time one of the gore effects hits you in completely unnecessary slow motion and try to stay standing by the time the film ends. Franco has made some seriously good films in his career – White Cannibal Queen is not one of the, but it is a ridiculous amount of fun if you’re in the right frame of mind for it.
White Cannibal Queen – Blu-ray Review:
White Cannibal Queen debuts on region free Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome framed at 1.66.1 in an AVC encoded 1080p high-definition transfer that is newly scanned and restored in 2k original from the original 35m negative. It looks quite good, keeping in mind that a lot of the movie has always had a very soft look and that the scenes of slow-motion gut munching can sometimes show some damage. Colors look nice, skin tones are lifelike and accurate and black levels are strong. There’s good depth and detail to the image and it always looks like proper film, retaining grain and never showing any noticeable noise reduction or edge enhancement issues.
Audio chores are handled by your choice of the aforementioned ridiculous English language track or an Italian language option, both presented in 24-bit DTS-HD Mono track with optional subtitles offered up in English only for each track. Audio quality is fine. There's a tiny bit of sibilance in one or two spots but otherwise the audio is clean, clear and properly balanced with a fair bit of depth to the score and easily discernable dialogue.
Extras start off with a commentary track with film historians Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth that discusses the mystery around the film and its strange birthing process and how it started off as a completely different projects than the one we see on the disc. They cover how Franco came to work on the film, who wrote the script, thoughts on and details on the cast members in the picture, who actually produced it, the use of nudity in the movie, how the movie connects to other cannibal pictures, how in many ways the movie feels like people playing dress up, the gore scenes in the film and the impressionistic way in which they're displayed, what sets this apart from the more notorious Italian cannibal films that came before it (and how the danger inherent in those movies never crosses over into this picture), why they feel that the movie was made with a sense of humor, the use of stock footage in the movie, where Franco's career was at during this period, what makes this movie as fun and entertaining as it is, what some of the crew members brought to the production and how so much of what Franco did behind the camera challenged the conventions of cinema.
Jungle Holocaust is a thirty-one-minute interview with actor Antonio Mayans that goes over why he considers his time with Franco to be the best time of his life, how much fun he had working with the director, how working with Franco required him to be in a constant state of change, memories of some of the more unusual films that they made together. As he tells some great stories from various shoots he and Franco collaborated on (including a fun story about flamingos!), he offers up stories about what Franco's directing style was like, how he got along with so many of their collaborators, chasing popular genres to exploit them quickly, some of the locations that they used, what it was like working on White Cannibal Queen, acting alongside Al Cliver and the fight scene they did in the water, how Franco would get very creative with the money that allowed him to keep making movies, shooting the film in a month on a quick production schedule and lots more. There are some great stories here, Mayans has a really good memory.
Sardonic Cannibals spends thirty-three minutes with Stephen Thrower, the author of Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema Of Jess Franco. This is yet another of Thrower's detailed examinations of Franco's work that covers the state of the man's career when it was made, who really did what behind the scenes, how the film was Franco's answer to the box office success of films like Cannibal Holocaust and others (which Franco was not a fan of), the different names that the movie is known under, the film's release history and its success on video, the film's bizarre charms and how it works as a sardonic send up of the Italian cannibal movies, how the movie compares to other jungle movies Franco made, details on the cast and crew that worked on the picture, Cliver's claims that there wasn't much of a script to work off of, some of the gaffs on display in the movie, the use of slow motion in the gore scenes, the different versions of the movie that have existed over the years and more.
In the thirty-three-minute European Cannibals we get an interview with film historian Eugenio Ercolani that discusses how Franco went against the grain with his take on the cannibal film genre, how it compares to the Italian entries, the influence of sixties mondo movies on the cannibal films, the evolution of the cannibal film trend, what different directors brought to their entries, how Deodato's entries explore the potential more than his contemporaries, the use of violence in the movies, how two actors from Italy wound up in the movie, what links White Cannibal Queen to the Italian cannibal movies and the influence that European cannibal films had on modern cinema.
Meat Market is a twenty-eight-minute interview with film historian Alessio Di Rocco where he goes over the history of the cannibal film, connections to the earlier mondo film cycle, some of the key players and directors that made the cannibal film genre as notorious as it has become, thoughts on some of the better known entries in the cycle and how Franco's film compares to them, how Franco was able to complete the film very quickly, budgetary issues that he had to deal with, the use of stock footage in White Cannibal Queen, where certain scenes from the movie were shot, the film's distribution history, how censorship factors into all of this and how Italian film distributors got around certain restrictions and more.
Finishing up the extras on the disc are the alternate English language titles for the film, menus and chapter selection options. Unfortunately, the interview with Franco and the French trailer found on the Blue Underground DVD have not been included on this Blu-ray edition, meaning the hardest of the hardcore Francophiles out there may want to hold onto that older disc.
This release comes packaged with some nice reversible cover sleeve artwork and, if purchased from the Vinegar Syndrome website, a limited-edition spot varnish slipcover designed by Suspirialand limited to 5,000 copies.
White Cannibal Queen – The Final Word:
Those expecting one of Franco's jazzy-erotic-art films may be put off by the complete lack of class or style that Cannibals exhibits as it really is a poor knockoff of better made Italian films of the same ilk. That said, there's a strange manic energy to the picture that makes it a lot of fun to watch. Is it a good movie? Not in the traditional sense, no - not at all - but it is fun and the special edition Blu-ray release from Vinegar Syndrome gives the film a very nice high-definition upgrade and a host of interesting extra features that cover the film’s history and merits.
