Cannibal Ferox
Encyclopedia
Cannibal Ferox, also known as Make Them Die Slowly, is a 1981 Italian
exploitation film
written and directed by Umberto Lenzi
. Upon its release, the film made claims to being "The most violent film ever made". Claims were also made in promotional material that Cannibal Ferox was banned in 31 countries, though the official list of countries that have banned it has never been released. This figure has been quoted in the Guinness Book of Records.
, U.S. with an unnamed man visiting an apartment to get heroin (using the term "horse") from his dealer named Mike. Instead of finding his usual pusher, the man finds two mobsters who are also looking for Mike, who had apparently skipped town owing them $100,000. After questioning the man about Mike's whereabouts, they shoot him and leave him for dead.
Meanwhile, in Paraguay, two siblings, Rudy and Gloria, with their friend Pat, prepare for a journey into the rain forest. The three have ventured there to help prove Gloria's theory that cannibalism no longer exists, and that it may not have existed all along, being a myth concocted by greedy Europe
an empires to justify colonising the land. After encountering a pair of natives who were brutally killed in a booby trap, the trio encounter two other westerners; Mike, the drug dealer mentioned in the beginning (who is also addicted to cocaine
), and his partner Joe. Joe is badly wounded; Mike explains the two were attacked by cannibals. They claim they were with a Portuguese
guide who was tied to a stake, castrated, and killed by the cannibals. During the night, Gloria goes missing, and Rudy finds a native village while looking for her. It is populated by a small group of natives, mostly the old.
Due to Joe's injuries, the troupe decides to stay in the nearly deserted native village. Mike seduces the naive Pat, and has sex with her, as well as giving her cocaine. In a cocaine-fuelled rage, he encourages Pat to slowly kill a young native girl with a knife, but she is unable to do it, so he kills her himself with a gun. Pat, horrified by Mike's actions, warns the native girl's accomplice to flee before Mike gets to him. In his dying moments, Joe reveals that he and Mike were responsible for the cannibals' aggression. The two came to the region to exploit the natives for emeralds and cocaine, taking advantage of their trust in white men. One day, while high on cocaine, Mike brutally tortured and killed their native guide in full view of his tribe. The badly charred body that the troupe thought to be the Portuguese guide (who never existed) is actually this native. Mike kidnapped a native girl to lead them out of the jungle, but the two were followed and attacked, explaining Joe's injuries.
In light of Mike's murder of the young girl, the natives finally snap and begin to hunt the troupe. Joe eventually dies of his wounds, and his body is found and cannibalised by the natives in full view of Rudy and Gloria, who are hiding from the natives. Mike and Pat had abandoned the rest of the troupe, but they are all rounded up by the natives eventually. They are forced into a cage (that Mike originally used to lock up natives) and forced to watch Mike have his penis
cut off and eaten. The wound is then cauterized to ensure he does not bleed to death. When the natives take the troupe to another village, Rudy manages to escape, hiding in a pool of water from the natives. However, he is caught in a booby trap in the jungle and the bleeding wound of his attracts the attention of piranhas
, who force him out of the pool screaming. The natives shoot him with a poisoned dart, and he dies almost instantly.
Pat, Gloria, and Mike are taken to a new village where their suffering continues. The women are put in a hole in the ground as Mike is placed in a separate cage. The native man that Pat saved from Mike at the beginning appears, and lowers a rope into the hole so the women can escape. However, at this point Mike digs out of his cage, chases the man away, and cuts the rope, preventing the women from escaping. He then flees into the jungle. He is almost spotted by a plane being flown by a search party looking for the missing troupe (one of which is Mike's girlfriend from New York), but shouting in an attempt to be noticed by the plane causes the natives to finally locate him. They drag him to a fallen tree and cut off his right hand with a machete
before taking him back to the village. When the search party lands, they are told by the natives that the explorers were in a canoe, which capsized. They were then eaten by crocodiles.
Pat is bound, stripped, and has hooks put through her breasts. She slowly bleeds to death as Gloria is forced to watch. Mike's head is placed in a crude apparatus, and the top of his head is cut off; the natives then proceed to eat his brains. Gloria is left for the night; during this time the same sympathetic native who Mike chased off earlier returns and frees her. He guides her through the jungle but is eventually killed by one of his own people's booby traps. A desperate Gloria eventually meets up with a pair of trappers, who take her to safety. Instead of telling the true story, she backs up the natives' lie about the others being eaten by crocodiles.
The film ends with a shocked and jaded Gloria part of society once again. She has published a book called Cannibalism: End of a Myth which completely covers up the story of what happened. This was most likely done because of her realisation that the natives were only vicious because of the extensive cruelty they had endured under the white man they once revered.
imagery and scenes of unjustifiable (real) animal torture and slaughter resulted in the film promptly being banned under the Obscene Publications Act, finding itself languishing for years on the video nasties
list. The most complete version currently available on DVD in the UK is missing around six minutes of footage (chiefly of animal cruelty), which was pre-cut before being given to the BBFC
for a rating.
In the United States, Cannibal Ferox is readily available as an "original, uncensored director's cut".
Cinema of Italy
The history of Italian cinema began just a few months after the Lumière brothers had patented their Cinematographe, when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera.-Early years:...
exploitation film
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
written and directed by Umberto Lenzi
Umberto Lenzi
Umberto Lenzi , is an Italian film director who was very active in low budget crime films, peplums, spaghetti westerns, war movies, cannibal films and giallo murder mysteries ....
. Upon its release, the film made claims to being "The most violent film ever made". Claims were also made in promotional material that Cannibal Ferox was banned in 31 countries, though the official list of countries that have banned it has never been released. This figure has been quoted in the Guinness Book of Records.
Plot
The film begins in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, U.S. with an unnamed man visiting an apartment to get heroin (using the term "horse") from his dealer named Mike. Instead of finding his usual pusher, the man finds two mobsters who are also looking for Mike, who had apparently skipped town owing them $100,000. After questioning the man about Mike's whereabouts, they shoot him and leave him for dead.
Meanwhile, in Paraguay, two siblings, Rudy and Gloria, with their friend Pat, prepare for a journey into the rain forest. The three have ventured there to help prove Gloria's theory that cannibalism no longer exists, and that it may not have existed all along, being a myth concocted by greedy Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an empires to justify colonising the land. After encountering a pair of natives who were brutally killed in a booby trap, the trio encounter two other westerners; Mike, the drug dealer mentioned in the beginning (who is also addicted to cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
), and his partner Joe. Joe is badly wounded; Mike explains the two were attacked by cannibals. They claim they were with a Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
guide who was tied to a stake, castrated, and killed by the cannibals. During the night, Gloria goes missing, and Rudy finds a native village while looking for her. It is populated by a small group of natives, mostly the old.
Due to Joe's injuries, the troupe decides to stay in the nearly deserted native village. Mike seduces the naive Pat, and has sex with her, as well as giving her cocaine. In a cocaine-fuelled rage, he encourages Pat to slowly kill a young native girl with a knife, but she is unable to do it, so he kills her himself with a gun. Pat, horrified by Mike's actions, warns the native girl's accomplice to flee before Mike gets to him. In his dying moments, Joe reveals that he and Mike were responsible for the cannibals' aggression. The two came to the region to exploit the natives for emeralds and cocaine, taking advantage of their trust in white men. One day, while high on cocaine, Mike brutally tortured and killed their native guide in full view of his tribe. The badly charred body that the troupe thought to be the Portuguese guide (who never existed) is actually this native. Mike kidnapped a native girl to lead them out of the jungle, but the two were followed and attacked, explaining Joe's injuries.
In light of Mike's murder of the young girl, the natives finally snap and begin to hunt the troupe. Joe eventually dies of his wounds, and his body is found and cannibalised by the natives in full view of Rudy and Gloria, who are hiding from the natives. Mike and Pat had abandoned the rest of the troupe, but they are all rounded up by the natives eventually. They are forced into a cage (that Mike originally used to lock up natives) and forced to watch Mike have his penis
Penis
The penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...
cut off and eaten. The wound is then cauterized to ensure he does not bleed to death. When the natives take the troupe to another village, Rudy manages to escape, hiding in a pool of water from the natives. However, he is caught in a booby trap in the jungle and the bleeding wound of his attracts the attention of piranhas
Piranhas
Piranhas is a historic city and municipality in the western of the State of Alagoas, in the Northeast Region of Brazil. Located on the bank of the São Francisco River, just at the border with the State of Sergipe, Piranhas was founded in 1891 and originally named Floriano Peixoto...
, who force him out of the pool screaming. The natives shoot him with a poisoned dart, and he dies almost instantly.
Pat, Gloria, and Mike are taken to a new village where their suffering continues. The women are put in a hole in the ground as Mike is placed in a separate cage. The native man that Pat saved from Mike at the beginning appears, and lowers a rope into the hole so the women can escape. However, at this point Mike digs out of his cage, chases the man away, and cuts the rope, preventing the women from escaping. He then flees into the jungle. He is almost spotted by a plane being flown by a search party looking for the missing troupe (one of which is Mike's girlfriend from New York), but shouting in an attempt to be noticed by the plane causes the natives to finally locate him. They drag him to a fallen tree and cut off his right hand with a machete
Machete
The machete is a large cleaver-like cutting tool. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the English language, an equivalent term is matchet, though it is less commonly known...
before taking him back to the village. When the search party lands, they are told by the natives that the explorers were in a canoe, which capsized. They were then eaten by crocodiles.
Pat is bound, stripped, and has hooks put through her breasts. She slowly bleeds to death as Gloria is forced to watch. Mike's head is placed in a crude apparatus, and the top of his head is cut off; the natives then proceed to eat his brains. Gloria is left for the night; during this time the same sympathetic native who Mike chased off earlier returns and frees her. He guides her through the jungle but is eventually killed by one of his own people's booby traps. A desperate Gloria eventually meets up with a pair of trappers, who take her to safety. Instead of telling the true story, she backs up the natives' lie about the others being eaten by crocodiles.
The film ends with a shocked and jaded Gloria part of society once again. She has published a book called Cannibalism: End of a Myth which completely covers up the story of what happened. This was most likely done because of her realisation that the natives were only vicious because of the extensive cruelty they had endured under the white man they once revered.
Release information
Cannibal Ferox was released uncut on video in the United Kingdom circa 1982 by Replay, but the film's transgressiveTransgressive art
Transgressive art refers to art forms that aim to transgress; i.e. to outrage or violate basic mores and sensibilities. The term transgressive was first used by American filmmaker Nick Zedd and his Cinema of Transgression in 1985...
imagery and scenes of unjustifiable (real) animal torture and slaughter resulted in the film promptly being banned under the Obscene Publications Act, finding itself languishing for years on the video nasties
Video nasty
"Video nasty" was a colloquial term coined in the United Kingdom by 1982 which originally applied to a number of films distributed on video cassette that were criticized for their violent content by the press, commentators such as Mary Whitehouse and various religious organizations.While violence...
list. The most complete version currently available on DVD in the UK is missing around six minutes of footage (chiefly of animal cruelty), which was pre-cut before being given to the BBFC
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
for a rating.
In the United States, Cannibal Ferox is readily available as an "original, uncensored director's cut".
Behind the scenes
- In an interview on the old Living-Dead.com horror site, Giovanni Lombardo Radice stated that he wished he had never portrayed Mike Logan in Cannibal Ferox.
- A pig was actually killed, as was also confessed by Radice. He explained further into the Living-Dead.com interview that he somehow avenged the pig by almost cutting off the 'killer of the pig's' hand because he refused to kill it himself. This happened in the scene as seen on screen, as Lombardo Radice's job was to somehow hold a bowl under or above the knife. Pressure was applied and the force thereof almost sliced off the stage-hand's hand.
- During an audio commentary track for the film's DVD release, director Lenzi gently ribs actor Radice for not killing the pig. "Robert De Niro would have done it", says Lenzi, to which Radice replies "Robert De Niro would have told you to fuck off".
- In AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
this film was titled Woman From Deep River as one of the director's previous films was titled The Man From Deep River in Australia.
- The character Lt. Rizzo, portrayed by Robert Kerman, wears a suit and tie identical to the costume worn in Kerman's previous role in Cannibal HolocaustCannibal HolocaustCannibal Holocaust is a 1980 Italian horror film directed by Ruggero Deodato from a screenplay by Gianfranco Clerici. Filmed in the Amazon Rainforest and dealing with indigenous tribes, it was cast mostly with United States actors and filmed in English to achieve wider distribution...
.