Cannibal Ferox
DVD Image Entertainment
1980, 93 minutes

review by Shade Rupe

The film that took the 'banned!' label as a compliment and milked it for all it was worth has hit the DVD format, and the clarity of seeing John Morghen's penis getting chopped off by vengeful cannibals can finely be appreciated in all the artistry and finesse it was designed to be viewed with. (joke!)
 
Definitely in the realm of the 'how sick can you get' pics, and a real giant among cannibal pics, Cannibal Ferox is a jewel in the crown in Lenzi's bloody career.
A different sentiment than the equally famous Cannibal Holocaust, the film still shows that the civilized man is a much more dangerous beast than the savages out in the wild.

The film promises gore and depravity from the onset. A placard reads how horrible the film is, while a female voice bemoans the tone of the film in a voice much like an advertisement for an Oprah book-of-the-month, her speech of 'barbaric violence,' besotted with a 'look at this poor child and I care a lot' annunciation. Too classic!

Italian flick face John Morghen plays nasty cocaine-snorting Mike, in trouble with the mob back in the US, who harrass and threaten his girlfriend. Mike travels to the Amazon with a crew doing research on cannibalism, mostly for Gloria Davis' paper debunking the myth of men eating men. After no word from the troupe, Mike's girl also travels to the Amazon, looking for the travelers.

Lenzi does everything he can to gross the viewer out. A few shots of Amazon men eating bugs get frame-filling closeups of chomping mouths. Hooks through breasts, chopped-off penises, disembowelling, the works, are all given the close-up touch. This film was made for the gorehound, and it definitely delivers.

Along with the great-sounding digital stereo surround '70s soundtrack embedded in the film, Image packs a few extras on this DVD, including one of the coolest menu screen selections yet produced, with machetes popping out from the side slicing John Morghen's head clean off. The commentary from Lenzi is a hoot, a bit hard to decipher with his thick accent, but the man has a very funny sense of humor. Image also includes trailers from the US, Germany and Italy, a rare production still gallery with posters and publicity materials from around the world, liner notes by Bill Landis, and an on-camera interview with Umberto Lenzi.

Really only for the true cannibal fan and gorehound, though newcomers will not walk away unscathed.
 

Official Website:

http://www.image-entertainment.com