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14 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Ouch!, 4 January 2002
Author: Moshing Hoods from Peterborough, UK

This is a total mess of a movie. A Spanish/French co-production, this was accredited to Jess Franco for a long time until the real culprit (a Spanish ex-actor by the name of Julio Tabacana) was revealed. However, the fact it shares cast/scenes/plot with Franco's THE CANNIBALS, which was released at a similar time, hints that his veiled hand may have been at work somewhere in the production. Other "Franco-isms" include looping stock sound track (in this case, the same bird call repeated ENDLESSLY) and long shots of characters doing absolutely nothing and wandering endlessly through the jungle.

Getting through this is an ordeal. The "natives" are clearly white in origin (possibly cast members?)- many of them have coiffured hair and beer guts, and the only thing to distinguish their cannibal nature are smatterings of paint on their flabby bodies. In some scenes they clearly can't hide their amusement at the "tribal rituals" they are involved in. Their "cannibal village" is quite obviously not in a jungle, as the lawn is neatly mowed and in some shots you can see a road in the background with vehicles parked on it. Adding insult to injury, the disembowelment scenes are all achieved by shamelessly swapping the victim's torso for that of an actual pig corpse wrapped in clothing. Seriously.

For the cannibal enthusiast only, this is painfully boring and inept. It is an insult to CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST that the films share a genre.

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7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
French Cannibals..., 18 October 2006
2/10
Author: PCyst from The Base of Your Spine

Well, what else can you say about this movie other than it sucked royally. I don't normally use such mediocre words to describe a movie but nothing else could come to mind. The acting was bad, the script was bad, the story was bad, the gore was disgusting (but still bad), and the cannibals take the cake as being the worst looking I have ever seen. It looks like a bunch of French guys got together and decided to put on make up and pretend to be cannibals... wait a second!

Anyway, the story is about 3 crooks who kidnap a little girl and demand a ransom. When the heist fall apart they escape out to the jungle (which looks like a forest) and take refuge with a Spanish couple. When one of the crooks rapes the Spanish wife, the husband leads the crooks to the cannibals and now there is Hell to pay... yeah, right.

I can't help my sarcasm with this movie. It was just dreadful. I read other reviews that say something about Jess Franco having something to do with this movie. Man, if that's true he must have come to a real low point in his career.

This movie is strictly for people that have to see all of the cannibal films. If you aren't into that sort of thing, stay far FAR away from this train wreck. Even I who love the genre struggled to sit through this. 2/10

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Terrible cannibals!, 31 October 2006
2/10
Author: The_Void from Beverley Hills, England

It's safe to say that cannibal films are an acquired taste, but I think it's safe to say that it is one that I have acquired. However, even I am struggling for good things to say about Cannibal Terror. The best cannibal films hail from Italy, so the fact that this one was a French and Spanish co-production may have something to do with its sub-par quality. The plot follows two would-be kidnappers who end up hiding out in a house near the jungle. However, when one of them rapes the home-owner's daughter, the bunch is left to the nearby cannibals. Cannibal Terror was one of the handful of cannibal films banned by the DPP back in the eighties. Indeed, there is some rather nasty gore on display; but it's nowhere near as gory as the best films that this genre has to offer, and the gore is hardly shocking as the whole production is so badly done. Director Alain Deruelle never manages to impose the jungle atmosphere on his audience, and the film feels like merely a rip off of better cannibal films. Needless to say, the plot doesn't really go anywhere and the overall effect is really rather dull. Overall, I can't recommend this film as the only reason for watching is that it was once banned! Avoid.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Vraiment Terrible!, 18 April 2008
1/10
Author: Benjamin Gauss from Salzburg, Austria

Before watching "Terreur Cannibale" (aka. "Cannibal Terror") I was expecting to see a film of the kind that is so awful that it is actually kind of funny. Awful it is indeed, but in a manner that is nothing but... awful! I am a huge fan of the gruesome Italian Cannibal flicks that were made around the time (most memorably Ruggero Deodato's disturbing masterpiece "Cannibal Holocaust"). Director Alain Deruelle obviously wanted to cash in on this popular wave of gruesome movies about Cannibals, that were mostly ingeniously set in the Amazon Jungle. "Cannibal Terror" is also set in the jungle. A jungle that is very obviously situated in France, that is, however. I will not even try to explain the absolutely ridiculous and moronic story, the performances are among the worst I have ever seen. In the first half of the movie, the Deruelle obviously wanted to enhance the atmosphere by having crickets chirp for about ten minutes. The scenes change, but the chirping of the crickets keep monotonously drowning out all other sounds (such as the dialogue), which is even more annoying than it sounds.The 'Cannibals' in the film are entirely white guys in savage costumes, some of them sport beards, others are bald and have beer-bellies. Apart from being the whitest savages ever seen on film, they are also astonishingly well-behaved, as they never seem to leave their territory, and their hunger for human flesh obviously concerns bad people only. The score wouldn't be that bad, but it nearly always seems terribly out of place. Also, the gore-sequences are quite well-made and nauseating for a film with such a low budget. Nevertheless, it is beyond me why this film landed on Britain's infamous Video Nasty list, as nobody could possibly see anything but ridiculousness in this sorry attempt of a film. The moderately disgusting gore cannot save this. The only reason to watch "Cannibal Terror" is the wish to look at absolute awfulness. AVOID!

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Makes you want to rip out your eyeballs and EAT THEM!, 6 December 2007
1/10
Author: Coventry from the Draconian Swamp of Unholy Souls

Ah, the wondrous mysteries of late 70's/early 80's Euro-exploitation cinema… With almost a 100% positive certainty, the script of this film was improvised along whilst shooting. Judging by the tone and cheerful atmosphere of the opening sequences, it doesn't even look like the creators (Alain Deruelle and Julio Tabernero) ever intended to make a movie about cannibals, but maybe the producers forced them in order to quickly cash in on the gigantic success of contemporary horror-hits like "Cannibal Holocaust" and "Cannibal Ferox". As you probably know, everything was possible in the exploitation industry, even hiring the notorious smut filmmaker Jess Franco to shoot some additional footage. The film opens with a rhythmic and jolly carnival song, introduces several comical characters and a potentially interesting (but poorly elaborated) kidnapping/ransom plot. The cannibal tribe and obligatory grossness only kicks in after about 40 minutes and comes across as totally ridiculous. Three amateur thugs, one voluptuous woman and two guys, randomly decide to abduct the daughter of a wealthy businessman and demand a ransom. When one of their accomplices gets involved in a banal car accident, they flee towards the jungle (I think the South American) and seek shelter in the hut of a friend. Nearby there's a tribe of primitive cannibals, but they appear to remain politely within their perimeters. Only when one of the thugs rapes the lady of the house, her husband almost literally feeds them to the cannibals. Meanwhile, the parents of the kidnapped girl have also arrived in the jungle (don't ask me how, though), but they're good people and hence don't get eaten. Needless to say "Cannibal Terror" is an incredibly bad film and I honestly can't name one good element, apart maybe from the jolly theme song. Sure, there's a bit of nasty gore, but there's absolutely no prior tension building and the actual munching goes on for far too long. You know you're in trouble when even the gory bits in a movie are dull. The acting performances are atrocious. The lines of the little girl are practically inaudible and I'm pretty sure an adult woman imitating the voice of a child spoke them. The "jungle" setting is quite hilarious, as the film is clearly shot in someone's home garden and the "natives" are plain white day-players. Several of them even have sideburns and sophisticated haircuts. Oh dear…

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Not very interesting cannibal movie, but with a kickin soundtrack, 14 June 2000
6/10
Author: Ivan Ravenous from California

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

(sort-of spoiler) Cannibal Terror is the least interesting of the cannibal movies I've seen. It involves a group of criminals who kidnap a little girl and then cross the border into another country (I forget which one). There, they are taken in by a man and his wife. But, when one of the gangsters rapes the wife, and the parents of the little girl lead a search for her, the criminals are forced to flee. They are then attacked by a pack of cannibals.

This boring film lags a lot, and is burdened further by an incredible amount of pointless footage (I mean, how long do those natives dance around anyway?). Also, it's not too gory, and the gore scenes aren't done very well. But it does have one hell of a groovy soundtrack! If you can find a copy (which isn't very easy), I'd recommend picking it up for the music alone.

My favorite part is the beginning, in which the gangsters use even more profanity in five minutes than in the opening of "Make Them Die Slowly"! Now that's impressive!

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Quite possibly the worst cannibal movie of them all., 3 May 2009
1/10
Author: capkronos (capkronos00@hotmail.com) from Ohio, USA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

For a long time this was mistakenly listed online and in various books as either an alternate title for Jesus Franco's MONDO CANNIBALE (aka WHITE CANNIBAL QUEEN), or an entirely different Franco film altogether. It was also mistaken for Franco's DEVIL HUNTER because it basically shares an almost identical kidnappers-stranded-in-cannibal-country premise. However, despite being made by the same production company (Eurociné) around the same time and containing some of the same actors, this isn't a Franco film. I'm not sure he even had anything to do with it despite still being listed in the credits here. And speaking of credits (as if they aren't confusing enough already), the ones in the version I saw list Ilona Kunesova (the script supervisor for MONDO CANNIBALE) as the screenwriter and "Allan W. Steeve" as the director. It says here that "Allan W. Steeve is an alias for Alain Deruelle, yet also lists the films co-star, Olivier Mathot, as well as Spanish actor Julio Pérez Tabernero, as additional uncredited directors. So who the hell actually did make this thing? I can't really answer that, but after watching it, I can't blame everyone for wanting to hide behind a pseudonym.

A trio of "gangsters," Roberto, Lina and Mario (the latter played by Franco movie regular Antonio Mayans) decide to kidnap little Florence (Annabelle) and keep her hostage until her wealthy parents (Silvia Solar and Olivier Mathot) can come up with the ransom money. To ensure an easy escape, the trio decide to drag the little girl across the border into "Indian territory" to hide out with some guy named Antonio and his much-younger wife Manuela (Pamela Stanford). On the way there, their jeep overheats and the female guide is kidnapped by a cannibal tribe, dragged off to their village and is then sliced open and eaten. The kidnappers manage to get the jeep running again and make it to Antonio's home. After Antonio leaves, Mario ties Manuela to a tree and rapes her. When Antonio returns, he ties Mario to a tree and whistles so that a couple of nearby cannibals can come eat him (?!) Everyone else flees into the "jungle" when the parents finally show up looking for their little girl and are picked off one by one by in unexciting ways by the tribe. The end.

I don't even know where to start describing how awful this thing is. I can only say that it's consistent in that everything (the acting, the ridiculous dubbed dialogue, the inappropriate score, badly edited in stock footage, etc.) is awful. It also commits the cardinal trash movie sin of being extremely boring. Aside from just two moments of gore (which are recycled from the aforementioned WHITE CANNIBAL QUEEN) and one scene of nudity (provided by Stanford during a hilarious bathing scene where she rapidly tries to scrub her body because she's obviously freezing her ass off outside in the "jungle") this movie is lacking in anything cannibal movie, horror or exploitation fans want to see. The entire grueling first hour consists mostly of people sitting around complaining, while the last half hour consists mostly of people walking around in the "jungle."

Notice I keep putting quotes around "jungle." That's because the "jungle" consists of pine trees, a couple of strategically-placed ferns, gravel roads and a snow-covered mountain backdrop to capture that authentic tropical feel. Even more ridiculous is the "cannibal tribe," which seems to consist of all ethnicities that they try to hide by painting everyone with multi-colored clown makeup. There are Asians, Caucasians, skinny guys, fat guys, little boys and hippies with porkchop sideburns, yet oddly just one female tribe member to populate the entire village. Even if you're a cannibal movie completist, I would think twice about picking this one up.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Dreadful., 4 April 2009
2/10
Author: BA_Harrison from Hampshire, England

For years, Cannibal Terror was believed by many to be the work of horror/sleaze director Jess Franco, a reasonable assumption since the film bears what seem to be most of the prolific Spaniard's hallmarks, most notably a dreadful script, unconvincing locales, inept direction, terrible acting, and endless meandering shots of nothing much in particular (and I guess, for some, it was also hard to believe that there might be another person out there who could make films quite as bad as Franco).

The real culprit, however, was French director Alain Deruelle, who proves that he can be just as inept as Jess when it comes to delivering jungle horror.

Deruelle's dreadful film follows a trio bumbling kidnappers-two men and one woman-who escape across the border (to where, I have no idea!) with their hostage, the young daughter of a rich businessman. Arriving at a safe house that borders 'cannibal country', the threesome are able to relax for a while, until one of the gang, Mario, decides to rape the wife of their host (after spying on her having a wash in a giant wooden bucket). This kick starts a chain of events that results in the criminals and their hostage being pursued by bloodthirsty natives, with the father of the little girl in hot pursuit.

Taking a leaf out of Franco's Big Book of Cannibal Movie-Making, Deruelle opts to set his adventure in what appears to be a large botanical garden, hires himself some of the least convincing cannibals ever to grace an exploitation film (some have sideburns, many have coiffured hair, a few have beer-bellies, nearly all of them are Caucasion, but none of them look like savages), and throws in some cheapo blood and guts (using what looks like pig carcasses to stand in for human remains) in order to satisfy the gore-hounds.

The result is a mind-numbingly dull piece of Euro-sleaze that now shares top spot with Mondo Cannibale on my Crap Cannibal Movie list.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Just like a Jess Franco "cannibal' movie, but perhaps even worse, 29 March 2009
Author: lazarillo

Many suspect that this film was directed by Jess Franco because it's very similar to (and at least as bad as)two Eurocine films he DID direct--"Mondo Cannibale" and "Sexo Cannibale". The movie in fact was made by some of Franco's cronies at the low-rent French production house Eurocine. One of the directors on record was another Spaniard, Julio Tabernero, who directed the superior film "Sexy Cat", but since that film has no cannibals in it, it will probably never get the kind of upscale DVD release this one--and the two Franco cannibal films--have gotten in recent years. There's just no justice in the world.

There's no point in rehashing the idiotic plot again. Everything about this is laughably unconvincing from the horribly dubbed dialogue to obviously European "cannibals" to the "jungle" setting which was obviously a European zoo. The canned sound effects include one bird who seems to be chirping all the time in every single place in the "jungle". The public domain music is imported entirely from Mexico (with horrid variations on such standards as "La Bamba" and "La Cucaracha"), a country not exactly famous for its cannibalistic tribes. (If this had been an actual Franco film, it would have at least had better music).

Franco-regular Anthony Mayans has a small role here. Pamela Stanford has a nice nude scene, which is literally the ONLY worthwhile scene in the entire movie. Sabrina Siani, the heroine of "Mondo Cannibal" has a a don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it cameo, which (aside from her not being naked) is probably her best role ever since she makes no attempt whatsoever to act (actually she made no attempt whatsoever to act in "Mondo Cannibale" either, but the horny producers still insisted on casting her as the lead). But I'm obviously really grasping at straws to find ANYTHING nice to say about this. This movie has nowhere near the power of an Italian cannibal flick like "Cannibal Holocaust" and frankly it barely rises to the level of a bad Jess Franco imitation. Avoid with extreme prejudice.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Terrible French cannibal movie., 16 September 2001
4/10
Author: Paul Andrews (poolandrews@hotmail.com) from UK

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

****possible spoilers**** Nobody makes cannibal films like the italians. This a good case in point. Three crooks, Mario Roberto and a woman, kidnap a young girl Florence Danville. They call in a favor and hide out in a house near a jungle with a guy and his wife. Mario rapes the wife. The guy extracts revenge by leading Mario into the jungle and leaving him there to be eaten by cannibals. The girls parents find out where she is and go looking for her. The remaining crooks leg it into the jungle, hotly pursued by the parents and owners of house. And so it goes on until the cannibals dole out some punishment on the crooks. Inept and poorly made in every department don't waste your money. Theres only a couple of gore scenes in it, and not very well done either. The jungle setting is'nt very convincing with neatly cut grass clearly visible in certain tight shots. The native cannibals themselves are laughable, they have strange 70s styled hair-dos and neatly cut side-burns!!!! Cannibal Holocaust still rules.

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