8. Cannibal Ferox (1981)
REPRESENTING ITALY Villainous Mike (the ever resourceful Giovanni Lombardo Radice) is chased after by mobsters wanting their pound of flesh from him. What's a good criminal to do but bugger off into the Amazon with his pal Joe. Meanwhile siblings Rudy and Gloria and their friend Pat go into Amazonia to disprove the notion that cannibals exist. Mike and Joe in some cocaine fuelled mayhem managed to piss off the natives with their antics - including murdering a native girl. The locals fight back and capture Mike. They slice off his penis but cauterise the wound to stop him from bleeding to death. Mike manages to escape and this time gets his hand cut off. The natives eventually crack his head open and feast on his nice, warm, fresh brains. Pat gets strung up by her breasts and eventually bleeds to death. Gloria makes it home but because of all of the terrible things she has witnessed, she denies that cannibals exist. Best to put a line under that can of worms. Nowhere in the league of Cannibal Holocaust type brilliance, Cannibal Ferox is, nonetheless, a much sleazier film than Cannibal Holocaust. I do believe that Cannibal Holocaust is a worthy, serious film. Cannibal Ferox, on the other hand, only exists to titillate and shock the viewer with grotesque acts of violence and flesh eating. The film wants to be Cannibal Holocaust but it lacks any depth or meaning - it is just a sleazy pastiche of the film with shocks and violence in place of social commentary. There is adequate nastiness and gore to satisfy sleaze mongers. As an Italian sleaze film, it is an important title in the canon.