Cannibal Ferox.

Cannibal Ferox title

AKA: Make Them Die Slowly, Let Them Die Slowly, Woman from Deep River, Die Rache den Kannibalen, Cannibal Feroz.

Tag Line : Banned in 31 Countries.

Cannibal Ferox A singularly repulsive entry into the horror genre is the best way to describe this sick, vile, twisted piece of crap by the notorious Italian director Umberto Lenzi. That is if you are viewing the UNCUT version from Europe or the US. If however, you are watching the heavily censored UK version then a stupid, exceptionally cheesy, low-budgeted piece of crap would be a more fitting description.

Anyway, the story centre's around 3 New York University students, Gloria (Lorraine Deselle), her friend Patricia (Zora Kerowa), and Brother Rudy (Bryan Redford), who go into the Columbian jungle to disprove the theory that cannibalism is still practised by tribal people. Not a good idea, as the movies title suggests.

Things start to go a bit awry when they cross paths with a couple of small time drug dealers, Mike (John Morghen) and his colleague Joe, who coincidentally are also from New York (and what's the likelihood of that happening then?), that claim to be on the run from the very natives they're looking for.

It turns out the two have severely upset the locals after torturing a tribesman to death, believing their to be a stash of emeralds in their village. When the natives finally catch up with them, they decide not to split any hairs as to which ones were responsible, and instead begin splitting various parts of the groups bodies. Much to the dismay of Mike, who learns the hard way it's not advisable to spit in the chief's face whilst he's brandishing a machete in front of your nether regions.

Whilst the gore is perhaps no worse than any mainstream horror film, where the film becomes quite vile are the scenes of genuine animal slaughter and mutilation, which are shown throughout in graphic close-up. Which ranges from a crocodile and turtle being gutted, to a muskrat being fed to an anaconda in one particularly vile scene (even Fangoria magazine hated it).

Cannibal Ferox has been hailed as the most violent film ever made, and you'll get no argument from me there. Whilst the cheesy UK edit of the film is a different case and is rather watch able, the uncut print is nothing more than downright nasty and I would defy anybody to sit through it without puking!!!!!

Overall marks :	4/10 for the edited UK version (cheesily cheerful!).
	1/10 for the uncut version (gross out city!).

Other Information.

Director Umberto Lenzi appears to be the man responsible for starting all these sicko cannibal movies with his earlier "Deep River Savages" ( A.K.A. Man from Deep River ) which also featured animal slayings, although he was totally upstaged, and out grossed, by fellow Italian filmmaker Ruggero Deodato with the movie "Cannibal Holocaust".
This films true cheapness and tackiness only becomes truly apparent after viewing Lenzi's previous Cannibal pic, "Eaten Alive" (A.K.A. Emerald Jungle), which not only used the same music as Ferox, but also featured many of the same cast members and used the same (not so) special effects scenes.
Cannibal Ferox is actually in the Guinness book of records for being banned in 31 countries (and quite rightly so in my opinion).
John Morghen (or Giovanni Lombardo Raddice as he is also known) also starred in "Cannibal Apocalypse" and Lucio Fulci's "City of the Living Dead" The film also stars former porn actor Robert Kerman (aka Richard Bolla), who is a veteran of various cannibal flicks including "Holocaust". Also, look out for the blond haired guy from "Cannibal Holocaust" who makes a couple of brief appearances.
Star John Morghen openly admitted in an interview to Fangoria magazine that he hates the film, and was heavily critical of the script, the production and even the director Lenzi. One of the more interesting stories Morghen recalled about the films production was one scene where he refused to stab a pig on camera, Lenzi apparently told him "Robert DeNiro would do it" to which Morghen replied "Robert DeNiro would kick your ass all the way back to Rome". A great pity no-one did!
Originally released direct-to-video in the UK back in the early eighties, prior to the introduction of the "Video Recordings Act", in both a cut and uncut form on the "REPLAY" label. The film was subsequently listed on the governments Video Nasties List and the distributors where successfully prosecuted for obscenity for BOTH versions, even though the heavily cut version had been unofficially approved by the BBFC.
The heavily edited version of the movie was re-submitted to the BBFC for an official video certificate in 1999 by the "Vipco" label, and was finally passed in 2000. This version removed all the animal violence, and edited the breast impalement and castration scenes. However, the BBFC still insisted on making an additional 6s cut to remove a scene where their pet muskrat accidentally falls out of the jeep and bangs up the side door.
The film is available uncut on Danish video by Vipco, on German video and DVD by Astro, on Austrian DVD by Sazuma and across Europe on the Cosa Nostra video label. The film is also available uncut in the US on video and DVD. Their was also a special-edition laserdisc released in 1998 which came packaged with it's own special vomit bag, a feature that would undoubtedly come in very handy.