Italian Cannibal movies

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

Jess Franco's White Cannibal Queen:

If I could para-phrase one of the Mr. Plinkett reviews (in this case the review of the Star Trek remake) "White Cannibal Queen is one of those movies that you could put on and go out and get groceries, do your arrands, wash your car, and come back and not miss a thing."

This is a slow, slow, slow film. A lot happens but doesn't happen. The camera work is on par with Franco's usual cinematographic atrocities such as the fight scene at the end where the camera zooms in and out like a 12 year old is holding the camera. The whole thing was obviously shot in a forest, effects are laughably inept including Al Cliver's missing arm which is conveniently covered most of the time. The dubbing is far worse than any Italo exploitation or Godzilla dub would have you believe and worse yet Nick Alexander does not voice Al Cliver. How many films did Nick provide dubbing to Al anyway?

Has a certain cheesy appeal if you're wasted and have a hopeless outlook on life, and I mean that in a nice way. The bottom of the barrel of the cannibal subgenre, and there's still another Franco Cannibal flick to watch...

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

I ordered the Tales of Voodoo DVD that has Primitives http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078113/. Would've downloaded it off of Cinemageddon because the Voodoo transfer is taken from a bootleg but for some reason it's not on Cinemageddon and the only version that's on there is German only for some strange reason. So I took a chance and ordered it off Amazon for $5 with shipping.

So, so long as I'm waiting for that and Cannibal Terror I re-watched one of my eventual favorites Zombi Holocaust. First time I saw it I must have been about 13 and I really didn't like it. You have to keep in mind that I didn't really have a sense of humor or appreciation of B or so bad it's good films. I thought everything had to be serious and I really loved Fulci and Argento's films at the time and took them 100% serious. So here you have this horde of Eyetalian exploitation flicks andI just couldn't appreciate them. Over time I kept finding things to enjoy about this film and others and really grew to love them. Even though it's very manufactured, the cinematography is largely point and shoot and lacks color. But the effects, locations, and cheesiness saves it.

It's the only mad doctor/Zombie/cannibal flick around, barring any forgotten indie pictures. There's not that many mad doctor flicks out there and the only other ones I can think of are the Reanimator films and Dr. Giggles.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

There's not that many mad doctor flicks out there and the only other ones I can think of are the Reanimator films and Dr. Giggles.

There are tons, but they don't really combine the other elements the way Zombi Holocaust does.

Check out the Blood Island movies.

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

Oh yeah, I forgot about those flicks.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Technically pretty much every Frankenstein movie would count as a mad doctor film too. But the Blood Island movies at least incorporate the whole jungle thing.

Have you seen Primitives before? The Video Asia bootleg sucks but so far as I know it's the only game in town.

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

I watched a little bit of that German rip but I need some sort of English option to watch these movies. I remember I tried to watch Zuma the Snake King without subtitles years ago and I couldn't follow anything. Not that you really need to but it helps. And yeah I was going to say Frankenstein movies count but they're kinda' part of their own sub-genre like Brucesploitation movies being part of Kung Fu flicks but they're of a certain niche.

[Paul L Scholar of Sleaze Find all posts View Profile Close Paul L]

Alex, have you seen Cornel Wilde's THE NAKED PREY (1966)?

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

No, but I'm going to rectify that. I've been focusing mostly on Euro shit.

Hard to believe that we owe the entire Cannibal subgenre to A Man Called Horse which was ripped off by Umberto Lenzi in Man From Deep River and gave birth to this subgenre.

[Paul L Scholar of Sleaze Find all posts View Profile Close Paul L]

No, but I'm going to rectify that. I've been focusing mostly on Euro shit.

Hard to believe that we owe the entire Cannibal subgenre to A Man Called Horse which was ripped off by Umberto Lenzi in Man From Deep River and gave birth to this subgenre.

Definitely catch up with THE NAKED PREY, Alex. I'd argue that A MAN CALLED HORSE owes as much to THE NAKED PREY as JUNGLE HOLOCAUST and MAN FROM DEEP RIVER owe to A MAN CALLED HORSE. Pretty much all the themes, barring cannibalism, of the 1970s and 1980s Italian cannibal movies are present in THE NAKED PREY: wanton animal violence used as a metaphor for human savagery, the hunting of a human prey paralleled with the hunting of animals, battles as much with nature as with a 'primitive' culture, a Robert Ardrey-esque focus on the 'territorial imperative' and a Darwinian struggle for survival, the revelation that 'civilised' society is as brutal as the 'primitive' culture of the indigenous peoples. It's good stuff, from a truly maverick filmmaker.

[Robin Bougie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Robin Bougie]

Alex, have you seen Cornel Wilde's THE NAKED PREY (1966)?

I never have, but I loved that they went to see it in the most reason season of MAD MEN!

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

Amazonia The Catherine Miles Story (AKA White Slave AKA Cannibal Holocaust 2): The 2nd jungle adventure/cannibal flick to come out in some territories as a CH sequel. At least in the 80's before Bruno Mattei's shitfests came out in the 2000's. This one was worse than I remember it. It has reasonably high production values and some good gore but the big problem is that nothing happens for roughly an hour. There's a fairly obvious twist at the end that finally wakes you up with some gore and something actually happening. For the most part it's like a female version of Lenzi's Man from Deep River only this time the girl is roughly sixteen and the parents are massacred by a cannibal tribe and she's adopted by them. Not very much different from the Lenzi work and it even works in a love story.

Problem is -as noted- nothing happens. See it if you have to see every film in the genre.

After this I'm going to check out The Naked Prey and either Man From Deep River or the film that inspired it and unintentionally inspired a genre A Man Called Horse.

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

The Naked Prey: Just a really, really well done take on The Most Dangerous Game. Very simple story. Guy gets kidnapped by pissed off tribe, tribe hunts him down. That's it. And it absolutely works to the films advantage. You can tell that the Italians definitely watched this film, especially Deodato and Gianfranco Clerici.

9/10 put it up there with Predator as far as unofficial takes on The Most Dangerous Game. Even the end credits are similar to Predator. Though, when the boy enters the picture it does slow down a little to much and you're waiting for it to pick back up.

I'm going to have to modify the list on the first page to reflect non-Italian pictures.

[Barry M Super Fiend Find all posts View Profile Close Barry M]

Toronto's getting a CANNIBAL FEROX 35mm screening Monday July 30th at 6pm.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/ti...012/2330014332

Eli Roth introduces it, probably with discussion after if it's like previous TIFF things.

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

It's been close to a month and I've yet to get my copy of Primitives so yeah...


Massacre in Dinosaur Valley: I remember growing up and reading any and every review site that had reviews for Italo genre films. Not having a lot of cash growing up they helped me try to find just the right titles to pick up through friends. I also read synopsis on these films on sites like Blackest Heart Media. I still enjoy browsing some ancient site and reading the blurbs in this age of torrents. I bring this up because Massacre in Dinosaur Valley is one of those titles that was constantly trashed. Almost every review I read was synonymous in bashing this film. Focusing on the fact that there's no dinosaurs and dismissing everything else about it sans nudity.

Flash forward to many years later and on a whim I pick up the Shriek Show DVD and I'm left wondering something... Did these reviewers even watch this film? Because this is a fun as fuck jungle adventure cannibal flick. Michale Sopkiw channels Bruce Campbell and this is probably his best film of the four he worked on in Italy (also benefits that he dubs his own voice this time) the nudity is rampant and exploitative and really nice in fact. It's no gorefest but there's more than enough to satisfy and the film just has this very palpable sleazy comic book tone and it absolutely works.

Highly recommended.

[Apronikoff Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Apronikoff]

you've sold me Alex -- just ordered the DVD.