Up until recently, I never heard of this film even though it is one of the most notorious films ever made. And rightfully so. Director Ruggero Deodato and his crew were actually brought to court over the film’s extremely real looking violence and the film has been banned in nearly 60 countries. The film is ugly, bloody and savage, but it is not without some merit.
A film crew of four disappears while filming legendary tribes in the deep jungles of South America. Prof. Harold Monroe (Robert Kerman, DEBBIE DOES DALLAS) ventures to South America to discover what happened to the filmmakers. Along with his guide Chaco (Salvatore Basile), the weak stomached professor witnesses the brutal and violent rituals of the native tribes before discovering the bones of the missing filmmakers along with their film footage.
Monroe brings the footage back with him and is pressured to use the footage in a tell-all documentary about the filmmaker’s ordeal. However, once the footage is viewed, we begin to learn that the four filmmaker’s methods were more savage than the “savages” they were trying to film.
The film is unrelenting in trying to show the lengths director Jack Anders (Perry Pirkanen, CANNIBAL FEROX) will go to capture the tribe’s violent rituals. The film’s main flaw is Deodato’s tendency for excess. The film as an expose of unethical methods in documentary filmmaking and television journalism works, however Deodato undermines his noble message with the same kind of excess that he is fighting against.
He graphically depicts sodomy, cannibalism and rape when it comes to the rituals of the tribes and excess of the four filmmakers. However, he rarely lets the humanity of the “cannibals” to shine through, depicting them more as savage sub-human beasts. Likewise, Anders is a monster of grand proportions. Only his girlfriend Faye Daniels (Francesca Ciardi) displays any trepidation with his actions.
The film also has a structural problem that brings it too close to a snuff film. We watch the footage that the filmmakers shot (BLAIR WITCH was obviously influenced greatly by this film) as the professor and TV execs debate its merits. Because we know the four filmmakers are dead, then we are just watching the footage to witness them being eaten… and worse.
However, what the footage reveals about their behavior does provoke thought even if it is overly explicit. The filmmakers were obviously trying to fool audiences into believing the footage was real and for many it worked. The make-up effects in the film are some of the best ever.
Another example of the film’s needless excess is its filming of the killing of real animals. Some may be fake, but the butchering of a turtle is certainly not. Even so, its purpose is for shock value only, which leads us to believe that many of the film’s disturbing images are for shock value only as well.
For fans of cult cinema, the film holds an influential place in history and I recommend fans of the twisted and shocking to seek this film out. However, the film is way too flawed to be recommended outright and for most viewers this will be too disturbing for them to handle. I don’t get shocked too often from films anymore, but this film did. It’s sad that too many of its shocks were needless and excessive. It’s understandable why this film is so debated, because there is a good movie buried within. The film walks the bleeding edge, but cuts itself too deep too many times in the process.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
