“When the cannibals attack, I want you to kill me!” exclaims Sheila, making a
doom-laden proposition to her jungle guide, Mark.
Although he is technically
credited for launching the so-called ‘Italian cannibal film’ cycle with his
gruesome if well-mounted jungle adventure THE
MAN FROM DEEP RIVER (1972), director Umberto Lenzi’s film – despite
featuring a brief, gory bit of cannibalism – is simply a copy of Elliot
Silverstein’s A MAN CALLED HORSE
(1970) which transposes that film’s Native American setting over to Southeast
Asia instead. Like the Silverstein film, most of the primary promotional
materials for Lenzi’s unofficial ‘remake’ likewise centered on its grisly initiation
rituals, albeit in a far more exploitative manner. However, it was the success
(or infamy?) of Ruggero Deodato’s harrowing CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1979), which truly kicked-off this questionable
‘body horror’ subgenre, resulting in a number of inferior imitations, including
Umberto Lenzi’s notorious CANNIBAL FEROX
(a.k.a. MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY, 1981)
and the present EATEN ALIVE! (1980),
one of the more, um ‘entertaining’ and completely bonkers films the genre had to offer, which even incorporated – and
certainly tried to capitalize on – the notoriety of real-life fanatical cult
leader Jim Jones and the tragic 1978 mass suicide / massacre he presided over
in Jonestown, Guyana.
Following a series
of baffling murders perpetrated by some low-level assassin by means of (quote)
“tiny darts dipped in cobra venom” in both Niagara Falls and New York City, our
blow-dart killer is, during a moment of panic, run-over by a garbage truck in
midtown Manhattan. Soon after, Sheila Morris (Janet Agren), a (quote) “good ’ole
Southern gal from Alabama”, is summoned to NYC because the police happen to
find a canister of 8mm film in the murderer’s pocket (!) – yet another
connection to CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST –
featuring footage of Sheila’s sister Diana participating in some sort of native
ritual involving mondo-styled scenes of suspension piercing. More disconcerting
still, though, is her involvement with Jonas (Ivan Rassimov), a (quote) “first-class
nut”, who has set up camp somewhere in the wilds of New Guinea with his cult of
worshippers, a bunch of (quote) “ecology freaks”. With the help of Professor
Carter (a seriously slumming Mel Ferrer), Sheila heads to New Guinea, where she
meets up with Mark (Robert Kerman / a.k.a. Richard Bolla), a Vietnam deserter,
who begrudgingly agrees to help locate her sister and, in the midst of some
shocking sights, promises the wide-eyed Sheila (quote) “you’ll see worse before this is over!”
Unbelievably
crass, but highly entertaining, Lenzi’s first real cannibal film is a genre-hopping
jungle romp, which features some form of indignity and/or gory set-piece every
few minutes. However, unlike Deodato’s unforgivably harsh and misanthropic CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, Lenzi’s film is just
so slapdash and preposterous that it’s hard to take seriously. Furthermore,
Lenzi – rather brazenly – includes footage from a number of previous cannibal flicks,
including Deodato’s THE LAST CANNIBAL
WORLD (a.k.a. JUNGLE HOLOCAUST,
1976), Sergio Martino’s upscale THE
MOUNTAIN OF THE CANNIBAL GOD (a.k.a.
SLAVE OF THE CANNIBAL GOD, 1978),
and also from his very own THE MAN FROM
DEEP RIVER, which was undoubtedly done to pad the film out with as much gore
for a modicum of the cost. Minus some of the film’s obligatory animal cruelty,
most of the gory makeup effects are of the “H.G. Lewis” school, but at the same
time, it’s hard to deny the effectiveness – and nastiness – of shots showing cannibals slowly eating people alive during
one of the film’s climactic sequences, which is done without the use of any music
whatsoever and is accompanied by sounds of the natives hungrily chewing on raw
flesh, the victims’ dying breaths and birds chirping in the background. It’s
certainly a grisly, unforgettable tableau. For the most part though, this is an
enjoyable, fast-moving film, which also affords prominent porn-star Kerman /
Bolla another leading man role following his turn in CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, and who also gets to perform many of his own
stunts; it’s too bad he wasn’t offered more non-adult roles over the course of
his lengthy career. Usually cast as the heavy, veteran Eurocult star Ivan
Rassimov really gets to chew on the scenery here as well, in what is
undeniably, one of his more over-the-top roles as the Jim Jones-inspired (if
that’s the right term!) Jonas, who is seen either barking orders, overseeing
native sexual rituals or, in yet another one of the film’s more ‘notable’
eyebrow-raising scenes, gleefully participating in some ceremonial mumbo-jumbo involving
a drugged Agren, who he seems to perceive as some sort of deity.
Briefly released
theatrically by Continental in 1985 as DOOMED
TO DIE, which also flaunted a “Banned in 38 Countries” moniker (that’s a
whopping 7 more countries than
Lenzi’s MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY!),
Continental released it soon after on home video in 1986 as THE EMERALD JUNGLE (retitled once again to cash-in on John Boorman’s
then-recent THE EMERALD FOREST
[1985]), in a colourful, over-sized box, which housed an uncut copy of the film.
In the early 2000s, a number of DVDs surfaced in Europe, but for the time, the
best release came from Shriek Show in 2002, which included a solid transfer (albeit
incorrectly framed at 1.78:1) of this low-budget film and a trio of interviews
with Lenzi, Rassimov and Kerman. Severin’s new Blu-ray (the first out of the
gate) is most definitely a vast improvement, which includes the film’s correct
aspect ratio of 1.66:1 and is a far more pleasing presentation. And despite the
film’s low-budget origins and ‘borrowed’ footage, everything looks damn fine.
Unbelievably, the DTS-HD MA mono audio is included in English, Italian and
Spanish, and in a nice surprise, English subtitles are even included for the
Italian audio track, which differs slightly and makes for a highly welcome
inclusion; but it’s hard to resist the English language track, which features
the usual voice talent, including Susan Spafford (she dubs Sheila) who, quite
hilariously, tries her best to affect a ‘Southern twang’; Closed Captions are
also included for the English audio.
Extras are
plentiful, and these begin with Federico Caddeo’s Freak-O-Rama-produced Welcome to the Jungle (16m37s), an
on-camera interview with the always enthusiastic Lenzi, who discusses one of
his most popular and infamous phases in his long and varied career, beginning
with THE MAN FROM DEEP RIVER and
that film’s inception; apparently it was based on some of Emmanuelle Arsan’s
first-hand experiences in Myanmar and Thailand where, according to Lenzi
(quote) “the nature was wild!” Of
course, he goes on to discuss his later films, as well as his dissatisfaction
with star Kerman (“…we didn’t have a relationship”), and also Agren’s
professionalism. The second, most-substantial extra, is Me Me Lai Bites Back: Resurrection
of the Cannibal Queen (79m55s), a feature-length documentary originally
included with 88 Films’ THE MAN FROM
DEEP RIVER U.K. Blu-ray, which
runs through her entire career while placing a particular emphasis on her
Italian film work. In The Sect of the
Purification (13m03s), yet another Freak-O-Rama production, veteran
production / costume designer Massimo Antonello Geleng goes into detail about
his time in Ceylon and his (quote) “instinctive” approach to his work, and how
most of EATEN ALIVE!’s (quote) “raunchiest
scenes” were filmed back at DEAR Studios in Rome. Culled from Shriek Show’s
DVD, a pair of archive interviews (12m20s) with Kerman and Rassimov are also
included, but are significantly improved upon thanks to some skilled editing. In
the last extra, on September 21st, 2013, Lenzi attends a Q&A at
the Manchester Festival of Fantastic Films (23m43s), where he discusses much of
the same topics from the previous interviews, including his dislike for these
cannibal films, but because they continue to bring in the royalties, he has no
choice but to modestly declare them (quote) “masterpieces!” The original
English-language export trailer finishes-off the extras.
Available in a
number of editions, including a DVD, a standard Blu-ray, a Limited Edition Blu-ray (which includes a soundtrack CD and a rather striking slipcover) and a special Cannibundle (which
includes the Limited Edition Blu-ray, a T-shirt and an enamel Umberto Lenzi pin
[!]), Severin have definitely gone all-out for the film’s Blu-ray debut, which will,
most certainly, remain the ultimate edition for as long as physical media
continues to thrive. It can also be ordered from DiabolikDVD, and you Canadian
readers can get it via Suspect Video.
No comments:
Post a Comment