Mangiati vivi! (1980)

Director:

Umberto Lenzi

Writer:

Umberto Lenzi (story)

Release Date:

20 March 1980 (Italy)

Genre:

Adventure | Horror

Tagline:

They didn't have a chance!

Plot:

A young woman teams up with an adventurer to find her missing sister in the jungles of New Guinea and they stumble upon a religious cult led by a deranged preacher whom has located his commune in an area inhabited by cannibals.

Plot Keywords:

Cannibal | Jungle | New York | New Guinea | Dart

Cast

Robert Kerman	...	Mark Butler
Janet Agren	...	Sheila Morris
Ivan Rassimov	...	Jonas Melvyn
Paola Senatore	...	Diana Morris
Me Me Lai	...	Mowara
Fiamma Maglione	...	Alma (as Mag Fleming)
Franco Fantasia	...	Brother Reeves
Franco Coduti	...	Karan (as Gianfranco Coduti)
Alfred Joseph Berry
Michele Schmiegelm	...	Native girl
Mel Ferrer	...	Professor Carter

Also Known As:

Doomed to Die (USA)
Eaten Alive by the Cannibals! (Europe: English title)
Eaten Alive! (International: English title)
Eaten Alive: Mangiati vivi! (USA) (DVD box title)
Mangiati vivi dai cannibali (Italy) (alternative title)
The Emerald Jungle (USA) (video title)
Ad kannibalov 2 (Russia) (DVD title) [ru]
Antropofagos (comidos vivos) (Spain) (poster title) [es]
Cannibal holocausto 2 (Argentina) (video title) [es]
Comidos vivos! (Spain) [es]
Fate tous zontanous (Greece) [el]
La secte des cannibales (France) [fr]
Lebendig gefressen (West Germany) [de]
Massakren i junglens dyb (Denmark) [da]
Omänsklig fasa (Sweden) (video title) [sv]
To ourliahto ton kannivalon (Greece) (reissue title) [el]
Vivos Serão Devorados (Brazil) [pt]

Runtime:

92 min | UK:85 min (heavily cut)

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-18 | UK:18 (re-rating: 1987) (heavily cut) | UK:X (original rating: 1981) (heavily cut) | Italy:VM14 | Germany:18 | Netherlands:16 | Canada:18+ (Quebec) | Argentina:16 | Ireland:18 (cut UK version) | Norway:(Banned) | South Korea:18 | USA:Unrated | West Germany:(Banned) | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Italy

Trivia:

Scenes originally from the movies Il paese del sesso selvaggio (1972) (crocodile being killed with a small knife, and a woman being killed and eaten by cannibals), Ultimo mondo cannibale (1977) (Me Me Lay's death sequence), and La montagna del dio cannibale (1978) (castration scene, footage of a snake eating a monkey, and a man being pulled into the water by a crocodile), were edited into this movie.

Goofs:

Continuity: Near the end, when Mark throws a spear just before entering the helicopter, the spear flies sideways and into the ground, but it is then shown to impale someone yards away.

Quotes:

Professor Carter: Cannibals. Instead of buying frozen meat in the supermarket, they get theirs fresh from people like you. One way to solve the problem of starvation in the world.
Inspector Logan: Is this any time for wisecracks?

Movie Connections:

References Goldfinger (1964)

Soundtrack:

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Let's eat...

(aka: EATEN ALIVE)

This is the second of three cannibal films directed by Lenzi (filmed in Sir Lanka) with CANNIBAL FEROX (1981) being the third. To be honest with you, I saw both of these films one right after the other and I can truly say that they are both about the same. One isn't any more gross or gory than the other, imo.

Film starts in Niagara Falls where a policeman is killed by an asian fellow blowing poison darts. Then the movie cuts to NYC where the same guy kills two more people using poison darts before he is run over by a truck and killed. It's all a part of an ecological cult that Janet Agren is investigating in regards to the disappearance of her sister.

Her search takes her to 'New Guinea' where she hires a Viet-Nam deserter (porn star R. Bolla) to guide her to the village where her sister was last seen. On the way there, we get to watch snakes eating animals, natives gutting and skinning crocodiles and our two heroes being chased by cannibals.

They finally reach the village and meet the cult leader (Ivan Rassimov) who has absolute control over everybody. He's an obvious copy of Jim Jones.

Gross food scenes include:

Cannibals eating native girl's arm and left breast. Not bad...

Then we see three native guys screw another native girl in a ritualistic soft-porn scene. One goes down on top of her, right after the other.

Janet Agren, naked, covered in gold paint getting a snake blood covered dildo inserted into her. It doesn't actually show it, but it's implied by the pain shown on her face.

A native guy who has betrayed the cult, getting his dick cut off before he is gored to death with a stick. Cool !!

Another native girl and Algren's sister being eaten by cannibals after they escape from Rassimov's camp. They are first disemboweled and then their organs are eaten before they are hacked and gored to death with spears. You know it's all fake because the bodies look like full-size rubber latex mannequins. It's still a cool scene, anyway.

The Shriek DVD is taken from an excellent wide-screen print with a few film extras such as an interviews with Lenzi, Bolla and Rassimov. Lenzi says that his next film, CANNIBAL FEROX did better at the box office, but he equates both of these films as being of the same quality. So do I.

In these politically-correct times, films like these wouldn't get made today. It get's a 6 out of 10 for being interesting and un-PC misogynistic at the same time.