Main Cast: John Morghen, Lorraine de Selle, Bryan Redford, Zora Kerova, Walt Lloyd
Release Year: 1981
Country: IT
Run Time: 93 minutes
Plot
Primarily a showcase for the gory special-effects artistry of Gianetto de Rossi, this revolting horror film stars Giovanni Lombardo Radice (also known as "John Morghen") as a drug-dealer who comes to the Amazon jungle from New York looking for a cache of stolen emeralds. He joins some American college students and soon introduces them to his special lifestyle, raping a native girl, then beating a young Indio senseless before gouging out his eyeball with a knife. Naturally, the local cannibals don't take too well to this treatment, so they cut off Radice's penis with a machete, gouge out his eye, then scalp him and eat his brain. Deciding that his companions are also to blame, the natives hang a young woman by impaling her breasts on meat hooks while her sorrowful companion sings "Red River Valley." Eventually, one woman gets back to New York, where she reads a dissertation on cannibalism to earn her PhD. Cult filmmaker Umberto Lenzi really outdid himself with this bloody spectacle, which maintains a consistent air of cruelty with a non-stop procession of beatings, rapes, real-life animal slaughter, larva-chewing, genital-chopping, cannibalism and the infamous meathook scene. Definitely for acquired tastes only, this nauseatingly effective shocker features a brief appearance by adult-film star Richard Bolla as a New York policeman. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Cast
John Morghen
Lorraine de Selle
Bryan Redford
Zora Kerova
Walt Lloyd
Robert Kerman; John Bartha; Venantino Venantini; Danilo Mattei; Giovanni Lombardo
Credit
Umberto Lenzi - Director, Enzio Meniconi - Editor, Antonio Crescenzi - Executive Producer, Roberto Donati - Composer (Music Score), Giuseppe Bassan - Production Designer, Gianfranco Bergamini - Cinematographer, Vito Di Bari - Production Manager, Evi Farinelli - Production Manager, Antonio Crescenzi - Producer, Umberto Lenzi - Screenwriter
Cannibal Ferox (1981), also known as Make Them Die Slowly, is an Italianexploitation film written and directed by Umberto Lenzi. Upon its release, the film made claims to being "The most violent film ever made". Claims were also made in promotional material that Cannibal Ferox was banned in 31 countries, though the official list of countries that have banned it has never been released.[1]
The film is in the mold of a survivalist adventure yarn set in the Amazon jungle, with set-pieces including animal mutilation, eye-gouging, castration, cannibalism (as the title suggests), and a live and screaming female victim impaled through both breasts by suspended iron hooks, identical to the ritual Richard Harris' character endured in A Man Called Horse. John Morghen (AKA Giovanni Lombardo Radice) stars as a drug-crazed, womanizing lout, and porn star Robert Kerman turns up as a world-weary New York detective.
Release information
Cannibal Ferox was released uncut on video in The United Kingdom circa 1982 by Replay, but the film's transgressive imagery prompted it to be quickly banned under the Obscene Publications Act, finding itself languishing for years on the video nasties list. The most complete version currently available on DVD in the UK is missing around six minutes of footage, which was pre-cut before being given to the BBFC for a rating.
In the United States, Cannibal Ferox is readily available as an "original, uncensored director's cut" from Amazon.com and similar sites.[2]
Behind the scenes
In an interview on the old Living-Dead.com horror site, Giovanni Lombardo Radice stated that he wished he had never portrayed Mike Logan in Cannibal Ferox.
A pig was actually killed, as was also confessed by Radice. He explained further into the Living-Dead interview that he somehow avenged the pig by almost cutting off the 'killer of the pig's' hand because he refused to kill it himself. This happened in the scene as we see it on screen, as Lombardo Radice's job was to somehow hold a bowl under or above the knife. Pressure was applied and the force thereof almost sliced off the stage-hand's hand.
During an audio commentary track for the film's DVD release, director Lenzi gently ribs actor Radice for not killing the pig. "Robert DeNiro would have done it", says Lenzi, to which Radice replies "Robert DeNiro would have told you to fuck off".
In Australia this film was titled Woman From Deep River as one of the director's previous films was titled The Man From Deep River in Australia.
The character Lt. Rizzo, portrayed by Robert Kerman, wears a suit and tie identical to the costume worn in Kermans' previous role in Cannibal Holocaust.
