Cannibal ferox (1981)

User Rating:

5.0/10   

Director:

Umberto Lenzi

Writers:

Umberto Lenzi (screenplay)
Umberto Lenzi (story)

Release Date:

November 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Horror

Tagline:

They raped and killed his sister while he watched helplessly. Now it's his turn to Make Them Die Slowly

Plot:

Three friends out to disprove cannibalism meet two men on the run who tortured and enslaved a cannibal tribe to find emeralds, and now the tribe is out for revenge.

Plot Keywords:

Tribe | Jungle | Anthropologist | Cannibalism | Emerald

Cast

Giovanni Lombardo Radice	...	Mike Logan (as John Morghen)
Lorraine De Selle	...	Gloria Davis
Danilo Mattei	...	Rudy Davis (as Bryan Redford)
Zora Kerova	...	Pat Johnson (as Zora Kerowa)
Walter Lucchini	...	Joe Costolani (as Walter Lloyd)
Fiamma Maglione	...	Myrna Stenn (as Meg Fleming)
Robert Kerman	...	Lt. Rizzo
John Bartha	...	Brooklyn Mobster
Venantino Venantini	...	Sgt. Ross
'El Indio' Rincon	...	Native who helps Gloria

Also Known As:

Make Them Die Slowly (USA)
Woman from Deep River (Australia)
Caníbal Feroz (Portugal) [pt]
Caníbal feroz (Spain) [es]
Cannibal ferox (France) (video title) [fr]
De kannibalen vallen aan! (Netherlands) [nl]
Die Rache der Kannibalen (West Germany) [de]
Jaget af kannibaler (Denmark) [da]
Kannibalen massakren (Sweden) [sv]
Lefki sarka sta dontia tous (Greece) [el]
Los últimos canibales (Argentina) [es]
Terreur cannibale (France) (video box title) [fr]

Runtime:

93 min | South Korea:85 min (heavily cut) | UK:86 min (heavily cut)

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Not Rated | Norway:18 (re-rating: 2005) (uncut) | UK:18 (re-rating: 2000) (heavily cut) | UK:(Banned) (1984-2000) | Norway:(Banned) (1984-2005) | Canada:R (Alberta) | Sweden:15 (uncut) | South Korea:18 | Netherlands:16 | Canada:18+ (Quebec) | West Germany:18 (cut) | Finland:K-18 | Italy:VM18 (VHS rating) | Argentina:18 | Australia:R | Canada:(Banned) (Ontario) | France:-16 | Italy:VM14 | New Zealand:R18 (cut) | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Amazon Rainforest, Colombia

Company:

Dania Film

Trivia:

When filming the death of the wild boar, Giovanni Lombardo Radice nearly severed the hand of his double. Although Radice refused to kill the pig himself, a shot of Radice slashing the knife downward was needed to show that his character killed the pig. (The shots of the pig's death were later spliced in between.) To create blood splatter for this shot, Radice's double, who actually killed the pig for the film, was to hold a bowl of fake blood, which Radice would then stab. However, the double held the bowl from the bottom, and when Radice stabbed the bowl, the knife went through and cut his double's hand badly. Because of this accident, Radice saw himself as possibly "avenging" the pig's death.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When the group arrives at the village, the corpse of the Portuguese is decomposed far more than it would normally be after one day, even in the rain forest. Also, other people who died before him weren't decomposed at all.

Quotes:

Gloria Davis: Oh God, please let her die soon. Oh, let her die soon. And let me die soon too, please.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ban the Sadist Videos! (2005) (V)

Soundtrack:

Red River Valley

"Then...THEN THEY ATE HIS GENITALS!!!"

Still one of the funniest movies of all time, assuming you're not shocked by cheap gore. Never mind the "20 scenes of extreme brutality" mentioned in the introductory "warning" (ROLL UP! ROLL UP!), there are at least 30 scenes of extreme hilarity....

If you're looking for a good cannibal flick, "Cannibal Holocaust" is the one - still pretty dumb, but good. "Ferox", on the other hand, is the one to choose if you want a good bad-taste laugh. There are way too many hilarious moments to list, but I love the central premise that Lorraine de Selle is going into the jungle to prove that cannibalism DOESN'T exist, and NEVER HAS. Right - I just walked home from the pub and didn't get into a fight, that proves that no one has ever got in a fight on the way home from the pub. And no one who's seen this film will ever forget John "Giovanni Radice" Morghen's acting as he wails the immortal line, "then...THEN THEY ATE HIS GENITALS!!!"

The commentary track on the DVD is fantastic - Lenzi is a hilariously arrogant idiot, while Morghen's camp, bitchy comments had me in hysterics.

But don't believe this nonsense about how "Ferox" is "sickening" for showing a snake crushing something to death, or South American tribes killing a turtle. Have you never watched a documentary about snakes on the BBC or the Discovery Channel? Guess what - they show them crushing things too! And if you don't believe that nature documentary crews actually feed "innocent" animals to predators just to get good footage, you're very naive. As for the turtle -- these tribal guys live IN THE JUNGLE, ok? "But you don't have to show them actually cutting the head off a live turtle!" Well first of all, the fact that it's a "live" turtle is neither here nor there - if it was a dead one, it would still have been killed, duh. And secondly, what? We can eat our turtle soup, but we don't want to watch it being made? Grow up.