This Coleslaw Archive: Cannibals (1980) aka Mondo Cannibale



Movie Review: Cannibals (1980) aka Mondo Cannibale
By Tucker Battrell

There has been a pretty high bar set when it comes to this string of cannibal tribe films. Ruggero Deodato's iconic Cannibal Holocaust will always be the high water mark with its over-the-top gore and actual animal killings. Mondo Cannibale director Jesus Franco says in an interview on the DVD for this film that he thought Cannibal Holocaust was too obviously fake and lingered on the gore too long which made it look all the more counterfeit. This could be a valid criticism if it weren't for Franco's own film. To get things started our hero is on a boat in the jungle where we get some foreboding talk about the journey and then a shot of an immobile, incredibly fake crocodile. It could have been a fake alligator, I'm not sure. I'm not Steve Irwin. That is the scary opening. Our hero is going on an expedition and his wife and young daughter weasel their way onto the boat. I'm still willing to suspend my disbelief at this point, but then a "native" starts climbing up the side of the boat. He seems to be white and appears to be wearing a wedding band. Then another "savage" boards the boat and while he has face paint on, I can still see his mustache. They attack the hero's wife and eat her. This is where I have a problem with Franco's remarks concerning Deodato's film. As soon as the cannibals start eating her, we are treated to long slow motion shots of them ripping apart steak after steak and it goes on and on and on. It doesn't look real. It never feels real. The cannibals don't even look authentic.
The hero escapes after having his arm chopped off and his daughter is kidnapped by the tribe and worshipped as the "White Goddess". Apparently our hero has amnesia and a gigantic fake arm stump, and after many years gets his memory back in a flash and realizes that he must go back and look for his daughter because he believes she may still be alive. That's really all there is to it. It's a terrible movie with a hilarious lead performance by Al Cliver as the one-armed hero. The only way I can sum up the feel of this is to say that it seems like a home movie some kids made in junior high. The jungle doesn't even look authentic. It looks like a park or something. A palm tree grove perhaps. This one may be better for laughs, but if you want to see a disturbing, realistic cannibal movie (and who doesn't?) then seek out Deodato's classic Cannibal Holocaust.

Grade: F
Entertainment Value: C+