Year of release: 1980
Run time: 1 hr. 26 mins. | Rated: Unrated | Genre: Horror / Gore | Language: English / Spanish / Italian

“During a rescue mission into the Amazon rainforest, a professor stumbles across lost film shot by a missing documentary crew whose goal was to study the region’s indigenous cannibal tribes.”
[ubasjuice reviews]
This film about cannibalism sparked controversy across the globe, banned in over 50 countries, ironically not because of cannibal, but because of real animal cruelty. Honestly, I had to watch around 5-6 gory films and Cannibal Ferox to top it all off before going into this one, just so I’d be desensitized a bit; and yes, I watched the 96 minutes uncut version.
Official soundtrack by Riz Ortolani was great. I’d listen to it any time of the day, it’s ironically a relaxing playlist, specially the main theme. This is one of the two good things I loved about this film. The second was, the storytelling was actually good, despite everything else and what I thought about Deodato. At first I thought the professor and his group will be the victim, and the way they switched to found-footage film was perfect.
Aside from using real live animals, i.e.: the pig, monkey, and that poor turtle, for “those scenes”, the other thing I got disturbed about was the inclusion of “The Last Road to Hell” it is shown as a documentary that the missing film crew had previously shot. It consists of real-life firing-squad executions of prisoners by the military. Director Ruggero Deodato says the footage is from Nigeria. All that I’ve mentioned here was, in my opinion, Deodato put in to add shock value to this mediocre narrative about cannibalism.
This was a more entertaining cannibal film than its predecessor Cannibal Ferox.
Fun fact:
Ruggero Deodato was charged and arrested for making a snuff film. He had to produce the 4 actors in court, just to prove that they’re still alive, and explained his special effects in court. All charges were dropped.
Definitely NOT for everyone.
Trigger warning: Real animal cruelty
*4/10 considering the immoral acts done during filming.

Perry Pirkanen as Jack Anders
Luca Barbareschi as Mark Tomaso
Salvatore Basile as Chaco
Ricardo Fuentes as Miguel Lujan
Carl Gabriel Yorke as Allan Yates
Directed by: Ruggero Deodato
Writer: Gianfranco Clerici & Giorgio Stegani
Produced by: Franco Di Nunzio & Franco Palaggi
Music by: Riz Ortolani
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