In the same tradition of Cannibal Holoaust (1981), Cannibal Ferox is as brutal and gory as films of this type and genre were back in the 80's (and still nowadays). Both films are practically the exact same thing (considering that Cannibal Holocaust came out first), but this one has worst acting, free real animal killings (trying to gain more shock value) and a predictable plot. Some violent and gory scenes and repeated throughout. This was a good effort, but fails since it was just worse. Period. It was just more of the same without the same amount of substance that previous films had.
Not very gory. A kind of Cannibal Holocaust light and what do you know primitive tribes of the Amazons have hooks. Now we have learned something from this movie
Awful cannibal flick from Umberto Lenzi, who evidently excelled at giallos and crime flicks but based on what I've seen never made a good horror film. Even the gore effects aren't all they're cracked up to be: running a pole with red paint on it down someone's torso DOES NOT look like you are cutting them open. Would've gotten half a star if it hadn't been for the cool theme music.
There are so many versions of this movie floating around that I have absolutely no idea what was cut from the version I saw, and what wasn't. All I know is that it was the recent Grindhouse Releasing version.
I expected absolutely nothing from this movie, other than completely amateurish nonsense in the vein of an updated Hershell Gordon Lewis. I was shocked to find that Cannibal Ferox really isn't a bad movie at all. The storyline, acting and production values were as solid as you could expect from such a multi-lingual low budget exploitation flick, especially considering the amount of outdoor location shooting, and Grindhouse have done a really good job with the remastering. Lorraine De Selle is great, trying to take the whole thing seriously while Giovanni Lombardo Radice chews the scenery around her with leering, bog-eyed abandon. Zora Kerova looks like she wandered in from the set of Friday 13th Part II, all blond curls and pert tits, and suffers the consequences. The whole New York subplot stinks of running-time-filler and could be totally done away with.
The gore is minimal but effective ? a blink and you'll miss it latex castration and a rather more shocking breast-on-hook impalement. The much criticized animal cruelty really isn't as bad as everyone tries to make out ? usually consisting of little more than Discovery Channel style documentary footage of animals chasing and killing each other. On the few occasions in which people actively kill animals, they do so quickly and efficiently, and there's no sense that the animals are suffering, or no more than they would in the average abattoir. It's interesting that when animals are butchered for your viewing pleasure in Italian exploitation movies it's banned in a dozen countries, but when Coppola does it (far less humanely) in Apocalypse Now, it's art.
This was my first journey into the Cannibal genre, and if I can get my hands on Cannibal Holocaust, it won't be my last. Ferox is a fun, trashy, low budget, exploitation fest that is far more enjoyable than some of the big-budget mainstream dross that I've had to endure (Constantine anyone?).
I love this flick, so am I perverted or even totally weird?!? None of both, because "Cannibal Ferox" is a great guilty pleasure and an excellent stare-if-you-dare-movie! It is banned in 31 countries and there are truly good reasons for that: nearly no film delivers such an immense load of explicit gore, blood and guts, castration and sadism as this one features! But even though you like to hear it or not, Lenzi´s film is pretty suspense-packed, full of dramatic and entertaining from beginning till the end! Once more the a whole zoo of animals was slaughtered and the most disgusting take is when in a nearly heart-braking scene a little tethered and despaired screaming anteater gets strangulated by a huge Anaconda! However this shot has an almost symbolic character in view of the plot... The cast includes such exploitation-greats like Robert Kerman ("Eaten Alive"), John Morghen ("Cannibal Apocalypse"), Perry Pirkanen ("Cannibal Holocaust") and in the first line the wonderful Zora Kerova ("The New York Ripper"), who makes some really bad experiences with meathooks at the unhappy end..! Faint-hearted persons will surely turn away in deeply disgust, however all those who threw their political correctness over board may surely enjoy this sick symphony of sheer cruelty
This movie wasn't scary and it was SO SLOW. I felt like falling asleep all the time. The acting was so terrible stiff and the dialogue awful! I can't even imagine the actors getting a chance to rehearse even once, they lack any emotion when they say their lines.
Widely considered to be one of the most gruelling and gruesome films ever made - it was reputedly banned in over 30 countries, Umberto Lenzi's rumble in the jungle manages to cram in as many violent and gory set-pieces and stomach-churning make-up effects as possible. This film is extremely uncomfortable to watch at times and is guaranteed to shock and offend just about everyone.
A ripoff of Cannibal Holocaust, Umberto Lenzi's infamous shocker approaches the film in terms of grisliness, but intellectually it's not even close.There are many films out there in the cannibal genre, Although not as good as Cannibal Holocaust.Will recommend to the gore-hounds & fans of this genre.
Cannibal Ferox is a rip off of the much better film Cannibal Holocaust. Ferox makes me yawn. Holocaust makes me cringe.
Lenzi stole almost the whole movie from Cannibal Holocaust. White people lost in the jungle stumble upon cannibals. They witness brutal animal dissections and the dissections of their friends.
Ferox includes a slutty female supporting actress that screwed everyone. Holocaust had multiple rape scenes.
Don't waste your time with Cannibal Ferox, just watch the superior Cannibal Holocaust. (hint: have something ready to puke in)
This gory film is so similar to Cannibal Holocaust with few graphic scenes that are brutal but the problem with this film is the pace which is slow in parts.From the Italian Cinema too many cheesy cannibal films came out but this one stands out as one of the best ones of the genre but is not on the same level of Cannibal Holocaust that is by far the best one among these cannibal films.
I saw the original trailer from back in the day. No wonder it's banned in 31 countries (from what I read). Looks very shocking and violent. With crazy cannibals.
Tonight I've been blessed (or cursed) by Umberto Lenzi's Cannibal Ferox. That's right readers the ex-Video Nasty, which was apparently banned in 39 Countries.
Our ensemble cast consists of John Morghen; all you Italiana aficionados will know him as the 'serious actor' Giovanni Lombardo Radice. Who plays a complete badass criminal named Mike Logan. He's also a bit of a sadist. Logan who appears in the jungle with his partner Joe at the same time as our 3 intrepid explorers; Gloria Davis who is a New York grad student and anthropologist, her brother Rudy and their friend Pat Johnson who basically just wants to get high and have her photo taken. Radice's acting in this is surprisingly better than his other outings..."...and then they...ate his genitals". As for the other actors...it's your typical Italiana acting. Bad.
As the story progresses so does Joe's ill condition. He eventually dies and the cannibals get a pretty tasty meal. Turns out the story that Mike told them was bullshit and that he actually went mad and killed a few innocent natives. The group then get captured by the cannibals and thrown in a pit, to be kept for a little while. When Logan escapes the girls hope he will help them escape, but as usual he has other things in mind. But unlucky for him, he gets captured again and tied to a post, as the women are then taken out of the pit. This is when things start to get nasty. I won't say anymore as you won't really have a film to watch. As the police choppers go looking for them, they have no luck in finding to troop. Until one of the cannibals helps Gloria free so she can escape she manages to get out into the river and just in the nick of time a boat is going up, she climbs aboard and makes her way back to New York.
Many people say this is Lenzi's rip off Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust. If I was to compare the two I'd have to say both are very different as they are the same. Cannibal Ferox seems much more comical than it is shocking, unlike Cannibal Holocaust. This was shot on location in the savage Amazon, this features some really lush locations. From the deep jungle to grassy plains. This does feature some pretty iconic sequences, such as the hook through breast hanging.
The music score in this is actually pretty good, and you'll be humming along with it every time you hear it and you will hear it a lot.
Like many of the cannibal/jungle adventure films this features some animal cruelty, which ranges from animals being pitted against each other, a pig being gutted (this is very quick, not that graphic), a crocodile gets gutted and a turtle scene which isn't anything like the one Cannibal Holocaust. Those are the worst ones in there.
While Cannibal Ferox lacks the substance of say Cannibal Holocaust and has precious little cinematic merit, as a blood-drenched endurance test of gory special effects and gloating sadism it is more or less without parallel as Lenzi dares the viewer to run a stomach-churning gauntlet of castration, graphic mutilation, dismemberment, cannibalism and some horrifically inane English dubbed dialogue. When uptight right wing MP's condemn "Video Nasties" this is exactly the kind of film they're thinking of! A must then for gorehounds, provided one can live with all the dodgy animal abuse.
My full review can be read here at my website... www.piczo.com/jacksmoviepage/?g=23099894&cr=5
Putting aside the animal cruelty for a moment, which is completely gratuitous, this is a very odd film to watch. I wouldn't call it enjoyable but it does exert a morbid fascination.
It's a shame that this isn't a better film because there is a germ of a good idea in here - about the real savages being the white invaders - but the film really fails to go anywhere with this.
Lenzi classic, if you dig italian horror, especially of the cannibal variety check this one out. Women hung on hooks by their breasts, penises are chopped off, check it out if you have the chance.
Well, with next to no story and pointless animal cruelty this is not a very good film. But its worth watching for the gore. which is all in the last few minutes.
A cool cannibal movie from the italian director Umberto Lenzi, I more like his italo-crime movies like Gangwar in Milan, The cynic, the rat and the fist, Viloent Naples and on. But this works too!
Great sleaze classic. John Morghen is heartwarming as the cocaine dealer who incurs the cannibals' wrath and dooms the others in his troup. Love the score and the deaths are all very inventive (except blowdart death, but it had to live up the the Eaten Alive death). A wonderful, magical film.
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