13. Cannibal Ferox (1981)
In New York City, Mobsters are after a drug dealer called Mike. Meanwhile, in Paraguay, Rudy, Gloria and Pat are heading into the jungle to prove cannibalism doesn't exist. They run into Mike and his pal Joe who is badly injured - Mike tells them it was at the hand of cannibals. Poor Gloria goes missing in the night and Rudy comes across a native village whilst searching for her. Mike gets high on coke and tries to get Pat to kill a native girl. When she refuses to, a dying Joe tells the group the reason why the cannibals are all so pissed off with Mike and himself. Turns out they came to the jungle to exploit the natives for cocaine and emeralds. High on cocaine, Mike killed the native guide in front of the cannibals. The natives go bananas and attack the group - partially cannibalising Joe's dead body, chopping off Mike's willy, killing Rudy with a poison dart, putting the women in a hole on the ground, chopping off Mike's hand when he is escaped and then recaptured. As if the bizarre acts of horror perpetrated above are not enough, Cannibal Ferox goes into Grand Guignol territory. Pat has hooks put in her breast and she dies in agony as Gloria is forced to watch. Mike has the top of his head chopped off and his brains eaten. Gloria escapes by the skin of her teeth, but she is sufficiently frightened by what she has seen to tell the world cannibals don't exist! What more proof could she need?! Cannibal Ferox was the first DVD of a video nasty that I came across. I saw it in a DVD rental place and I got wildly excited, insisting that my best friend and I rent this movie over something vaguely decent she had chosen. We were to be sorely disappointed. Arguably the most lurid of the Italian cannibal films, the film had been cut by at least six minutes and this snipping rendered it an impotent shell of a film - a nonsensical jungle adventure. Total waste of time. As far as I know, there hasn't been any meatier (excuse the pun) version of the film released since then in the UK. I am currently awaiting my Region 1 uncut version in the post. Hehehe! Controversial because: It contains oodles of violence including gratuitous real life animal snuff and a woman dying by impaled breasts. 'Nuff said.