Umberto Lenzi's despicable response to the equally despicable Cannibal Holocaust is sick on many levels and infuriating because without the animal cruelty the gore and story are much more palatable and stupid than Ruggero Deodato's sadistic monstrosity. It's sick because it contains (depressingly) animal cruelty, excessive gore, and bases the main storyline on the Jonestown massacre that was barely a year old at the time. Too soon, Lenzi...too soon!
I can't deny however that the opening credits are cool. Following several people being murdered by blow dart at Niagra Falls and New York, we see Janet Agren walking down 42nd Street, NYC, to a tremendously funky soundtrack. Janet's from the deep south and has lost touch with her cotton plantation owning sister. She goes to Mel Ferrer for help and heads off for New Guinea, as it seems that her sister has joined a cult run by a mystery figure called Jonas.
The jungle isn't a place you can go wandering in, so Janet hooks up with Vietnam vet Robert Kerman (from Cannibal Holocaust of course) and they both of them head off in an adventure that features stock footage of such cannibals films as Umberto Lenzi's Deep River Savages, Sergio Martino's Mountain of the Cannibals, and Rugger Deodato's Last Cannibal World. Why? I guess it saves money. Plus, if I guess you don't have to buy animals to kill if you're just using footage of them from a previous film. Godfrey Ho would be proud.
It comes as no surprise that Ivan Rassimo is Jim Jones I mean Jonas and Janet's sister is full of drugs and brainwashed. Me Me Lai is a native girl in the cult to Lenzi gets to have her generally abused too as Janet and Kerman end up suckered in by the cult and then try to escape in an avalanche of old footage of people being eaten and carved up and some new footage of people being eaten and carved up while Lenzi draws the whole thing to a close by having the whole cult commit suicide like those 900 or so people who did the same in Jonestown in 1978. Hmmm.
It's sad that Lenzi went from kick-ass films like From Corleone to Brooklyn to this in such a short time. He would redeem himself with the craptacular Nightmare City but he wasn't done with the cannibal genre yet - we've still got to suffer through Cannibal Ferox!
The theme tune of this gets a TEN! I love it.
I can't deny however that the opening credits are cool. Following several people being murdered by blow dart at Niagra Falls and New York, we see Janet Agren walking down 42nd Street, NYC, to a tremendously funky soundtrack. Janet's from the deep south and has lost touch with her cotton plantation owning sister. She goes to Mel Ferrer for help and heads off for New Guinea, as it seems that her sister has joined a cult run by a mystery figure called Jonas.
The jungle isn't a place you can go wandering in, so Janet hooks up with Vietnam vet Robert Kerman (from Cannibal Holocaust of course) and they both of them head off in an adventure that features stock footage of such cannibals films as Umberto Lenzi's Deep River Savages, Sergio Martino's Mountain of the Cannibals, and Rugger Deodato's Last Cannibal World. Why? I guess it saves money. Plus, if I guess you don't have to buy animals to kill if you're just using footage of them from a previous film. Godfrey Ho would be proud.
It comes as no surprise that Ivan Rassimo is Jim Jones I mean Jonas and Janet's sister is full of drugs and brainwashed. Me Me Lai is a native girl in the cult to Lenzi gets to have her generally abused too as Janet and Kerman end up suckered in by the cult and then try to escape in an avalanche of old footage of people being eaten and carved up and some new footage of people being eaten and carved up while Lenzi draws the whole thing to a close by having the whole cult commit suicide like those 900 or so people who did the same in Jonestown in 1978. Hmmm.
It's sad that Lenzi went from kick-ass films like From Corleone to Brooklyn to this in such a short time. He would redeem himself with the craptacular Nightmare City but he wasn't done with the cannibal genre yet - we've still got to suffer through Cannibal Ferox!
The theme tune of this gets a TEN! I love it.