Ruggero Deodato's cannibal movies, and most of the Italian mondo cannibal films have themes about how most other humans are actually worse than the cannibals. This one is different. It's much more micro than the themes in others. The premise of this movie is basically about how the only thing separating us "civilized" people from our primitive, survivalist, and at worst, cannibal selves is a few days without food or water. This movie takes rich oil prospectors and forces them to survive against primitive cannibals, two groups of people on the opposite end of any social structure and sees them essentially become the exact same, This is also the scariest of the Italian cannibal movies. This is like being dropped into a nightmare which is a treacherous jungle but also being subject to the people who are only interested in getting their next meal and you can't communicate with them.
Synopsis: An oil prospector escapes from capture by a primitive cannibal tribe in the Philippine rain forest and heads out to locate his missing companion and their plane to return home.
The film starts with oil prospectors Rolf and Robert, played by Ivan Rassimov and Massimo Foschi respectively. Along with them is their pilot Charlie (Sheik Razak Shakur) and Swan (Judy Rosly). They are surveying land to set up oil drilling sites. They eventually crash part of the plane on a makeshift unstable runway. They find the other prospectors killed and from one of the primitive spears hypothesize their are natives on the island. That night while waiting in the plane their is an excellent jump scare as a Native sneaks up to the window. Swan eventually goes outside and taken. They go into the jungle the next day and Charlie is killed by a giant swinging mace with spikes. Robert and Rolf get lost and eventually their survival instinct kicks in and they make a raft. I do enjoy seeing Robert struggle with the machete which of course are actually usually dull in real life. Starting a more adventurous part of this movie they try to traverse rapids in the raft and the two get separated after it breaks.
After eating some poisonous mushrooms, Robert is eventually captured by the cannibals. They take him back to his cave which starts the cave section of the movie as I like to call it because it is just cave light for around 30 minutes. This cave full of cannibals that you have no communication with is truly a nightmare. At first they strip him of his clothes which is in a way stripping him of being civilized. They mess with his watch and try to eat it. Others literally pull at his penis, including one played by the beautiful Me Me Lai who takes an interest of sorts in him. In what I assume could have been a real stunt they strap him into this bungee and pulley thing because they believe he can fly and drop him many times until he passes out.
Robert wakes up in this prison underground from where the rest are. They also have a bird in there and eventually he wrestles with the bird for the food they drop in. That starts what I said in my thesis about how a few days without food can lead to this version of yourself. At one point they get an alligator and in typical animal cruelty in these movies they bash it's head and then it from tail to head for real. That scene is incredibly troubling as you see how scared it is and how disgusting the insides of it are. Eventually he sees the dead bird and surmises they will use him as bait just like the bird. He escapes and finds one of the cannibal men raping Me Me Lai so he knocks him out takes her with him. Can't say that I blame him I need something nice to look at when I'm in the jungle too.
Me Me Lai in this movie
For a few days they survive and there is a troubling scene where they see one of the other natives forcibly abort her baby and feed it to the alligators. That actually lead to some questions. It made me realize that humans have a drive to reproduce because let's be real how do these people know how to have sex? Also it lead to more thoughts about how these tribes might be thinking about overpopulation or maybe their women had some autonomy about how their children would survive in such a culture. When Me Me Lai eventually tries to escape Robert captures her again and rapes her. This sexual assault is weirdly the only real communication they ever share and it actually endears her to him as she starts gathering food and fishing for them the next morning. Robert interestingly enough spits out some of the food showing a funny westernized value for liking food even though at that point whatever you can eat do it.
On stormy night with some really good lighting cinematography Robert fights someone in a cave who turns out to be Rolf. He survived and has one of the nastiest gangrene infections I've ever seen. Showing that jungle and survival is just as big of a villain in this movie as the cannibals are. They find the current to the river back to the plane but Me Me Lai leads them in the wrong direction as she is scared of crossing back into cannibal territory. They also run into alligators on the river. Rolf eventually kills a snake and puts it's venom on spear for Robert. They eventually run into the cannibals again Me Me Lai is captured. They eventually slice her apart cut her torso to her ribs to eat. I enjoy how they prep her by liquidating certain areas. These cannibals really know how to marinate humans. There are some awesome practical effects here and I think them slicing her apart has been used as stock footage in other movies.
Meanwhile Rolf is shot by an arrow in the chest and Robert uses the poisonous spear to stab and kill one of the natives. He then cuts a hole in his torso and eats some of his guts in an attempt to communicate with the cannibals. They continue chase but Robert and Rolf get the plane. In a sad ending Rolf dies just as soon as they take off. At least he has the solace of knowing his body will get home.
I really like this movie as it's really the only one in the genre to show the cannibals as full villains. While Rolf and Robert do come across as rich oil hunters they aren't exactly doing anything wrong. You can say that anytime land is exploited or demolished it is bad for the world. The movie never casts them in a bad light though it only compares them to the cannibals. I did enjoy Ubaldo Continiello's score as well. He mixes in some good pleasant woodwinds and strings in the raft building scene. They are some great psychedelic strings when people either pass out or their vision goes fuzzy. Also great human voice in the main theme. The practical effects are great as well. Me Me Lai is gorgeous and charming as always and Ivan Rassimov is always great. Massimo Foschi though impresses me more every time I watch this. If I didn't believe in his reactions and emotions to what he goes through this would be a lesser movie and I never think he isn't being real in his performance.
Cannibal movie king and one of the most versatile Italian genre actors Ivan Rassimov
Rating: 8.5/10
Trivia: The film was originally conceived as a sequel to Man from Deep River aka Sacrifice! directed by Umberto Lenzi. The producer's didn't pay him enough so he dropped out. The elements of a sequel are still there though mostly because of both Ivan Rassimov and Me Me Lai being in the same movie again.
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