Main Cast: Shannon Tweed, Adrienne Barbeau, Bill Maher, Karen Mistal, Brett Stimely
Release Year: 1989
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Buxom Playboy foldout Shannon Tweed plays a sexy college professor assigned to investigate a sudden, disastrous avocado shortage; her predecessor, a Dr. Kurtz (Adrienne Barbeau) has never returned from the dreaded California Avocado Jungle. Accompanied by air-headed assistant Karen Mistal and macho guide Bill Maher (of Politically Incorrect fame), Tweed ventures into the deepest jungle, where the Piranha Women rule. Proof that this civilization is a matriarchy is the presence of a tribe of wimpy, domesticated men called the Donnahews, who chant names like Alan Alda and Fritz Mondale as their mantra. Fortunately, Tweed is armed with her N.O.W. membership card, so she is allowed safe passage. She finally catches up with Kurtz, who reveals that the avocado shortage is phony, designed by the government as an excuse to capture the Piranha women and transform them into Malibu housewives. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Centerfold Shannon Tweed may be the putative star of this likable B-movie, but it's Adrienne Barbeau who gets to have the most fun. Poking fun not just at Marlon Brando but also at her own scream-queen image, the buxom brunette hits every mark like she's still hoofing it on Broadway instead of wading through an increasingly shallow pool of post-John Carpenter career options. As for the film itself, it never takes itself too seriously, and it never pauses long enough to make the silliness lose its charm. Heck, even Tweed comes off as a smart cookie thanks to her knowing smirk, her campy scientist getup, and her oh-so-intellectual spectacles. Bill Maher isn't much of an actor, but one could imagine him having made the leap to latter-day Mel Brooks satires instead of late-night TV; he more than holds his own. The title itself may be the best thing about Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death, but the flick just about lives up to its moniker. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Barry Primus - Ford Maddox; James MacKrell - College Dean Stockwell; Paul Ross - Col. Mattel; Pat Crawford Brown - Secretary; Junero Jennings - Anvil; Jim Maniaci - Black Masked Avenger; Andy David - Frat Rat; Lloyd Gordon - Sam; Christopher Doyle - Fred
Credit
Kimberly Charles Reese - Art Director, Jeff Johnson - Boom Operator, Dorian Dunas - Casting, Carl Dante - Conductor, Barbara Anne Klein - Costume Designer, Mike Snyder - First Assistant Director, J.D. Athens - Director, J.F. Lawton - Director, King Louis - Editor, King Wilder - Editor, Charles Band - Executive Producer, Peggy Teague - Hair Styles, Harry Lawton - Location Manager, Jeanne Stack - Line Producer, Carl Dante - Composer (Music Score), Peggy Teague - Makeup, Patty Beigel - Makeup, Robert G. Knouse - Cinematographer, Thomas Calabrese - Production Manager, Gary W. Goldstein - Producer, Jerry Wolfe - Sound Mixer, Jesse Turajski - Sound Recordist, J.D. Athens - Screenwriter, J.F. Lawton - Screenwriter, Judd Maslansky - Production Assistant, Russ Anderson - Production Assistant, Oliver Hoyos - Production Assistant, Jennifer Love - Production Assistant, David "Castro" Spears - Production Assistant, Chris Howard - Production Assistant, Adriane Marfiak - Sound Effects Editor, Mark Cookson - Sound Effects Editor, Heather Bryga - Animal Trainer/Wrangler, Lynn L. Smith - First Assistant Camera, Lloyd Moriarity - Gaffer, Mike O'Brien - Grip, Lloyd Moriarity - Key Grip, Clayton Woolley - Music Editor, Carl Dante - Music Producer, Sabrina Nathanson - Production Coordinator, Chet Hilgers - Properties Master, Ted Kosiusko - Re-Recording Mixer, Lars Nelson - Re-Recording Mixer, Corey Yugler - Script Supervisor, Diana L. Hayes - Second Assistant Director, Nancy Lee Andrews - Still Photographer, Jan Marie Sessler - Still Photographer, Sarah Brady - ADR Editor, Andy Napell - ADR Recordist, Dino Kovas - Assistant Properties, Bam-Bam Crow - Best Boy Electric, Elaine Huzzar - Casting Assistant, Danny Coscia - Dolly Grip, Pam Reisenleiter - First Assistant Editor, Douglas Reed - Foley Artist, Douglas Reed - Foley Editor, Sarah Brady - Foley Editor, Tammy Hashery - Key Costumer, Anthony Mazzola - Second Assistant Camera, Debra Piazzie - Second Second Assistant Director, Jackie Trost - Set Dresser, Andy Napell - Foley Recordist, Chris Weber - Negative Cutter, Gary Weber - Negative Cutter
The U.S. government grows worried for the nation's avocado supply after some confrontations with the "Piranha" tribe of cannibal women, who live in the mysterious "Avocado Jungle" (westernmost outpost: San Bernardino) and ritually sacrifice and eat men. The government recruits Margo Hunt (Tweed), a professor of feminist studies at a local university, to travel into the Avocado Jungle and make contact with the women to attempt to convince them to move to a reservation/condo in Malibu. Along the way, she and her travelling companions -- male chauvinist guide Jim (Maher) and ditzy undergraduate Bunny (Karen Mistal) -- meet a tribe of subservient men called the "Donohue" (a reference to talk-show host Phil Donahue) and face dangers in their path.
Eventually, the group meets the Piranha women, including Dr. Kurtz (played by talk-show psychologist-celebrity Adrienne Barbeau), Dr. Hunt's former colleague in feminist studies and now her nemesis, who has joined the tribe of Piranha women with her own exploitative agenda. The two argue about the morality of sacrificing men and the exploitation of the Piranha women, and Bunny decides to join the tribe, her first sacrifice being Jim. Bunny cannot go through with the kill, however, and Dr. Hunt makes her escape, aided by the handsome, intelligent, and sensitive Jean-Pierre (Brett Stimely), who also was to be sacrificed. Dr. Hunt finds in the jungle a rival tribe of cannibal women who are at war with the Piranha women due to differences over which condiment (guacamole or clam dip) most appropriately accompanies a meal of sacrificed man. Hunt returns to the Piranha stronghold with this other tribe, rescues Bunny and Jim as well as Jean-Pierre, with Dr Kurtz perishing as she falls into a pit filled with water and piranha fish. Having discovered the government plot to domesticate the Piranha women through aerobics classes and frequent exposure to Cosmopolitan magazine, Hunt refuses to bring the Piranha women with her, and instead persuades the warring cannibal tribes to reunite, maintaining the peace by means of consciousness-raising groups.
The film ends happily for the trio of main characters: Bunny and Jim are to be married, and Jean-Pierre has enrolled at Dr Hunt's university as a feminist studies major, becoming in the process the ideal companion for Hunt.
Allusions
The film's plot parallels very loosely that of the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad as well as Apocalypse Now, the latter of which was based on Heart of Darkness. Both Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now feature a character named Kurtz who has gone deep into the jungle to become the deranged leader of a group of "savages" engaging in barbaric rites as an alternative to the rigid and restrictive values of the outside world.
Cannibal Women alludes to and/or satirizes a broad array of literary and pop-culture phenomena, including:
Gulliver's Travels (the warring feminist tribes paralleling the conflict between the Big-Endians and the Little-Endians, and in the sacrifice scene the iconic image of Maher's character tied down like Gulliver)
A brief clip of the film appears in Maher's documentary Religulous. Maher states on the DVD commentary that the movie was a fun way to spend two months in the summer.
