''Cannibal Ferox'', also known as ''Make Them Die Slowly'' in the US and as ''Woman from Deep River'' in Australia, is a 1981 Italian

cannibal Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, bo ...

exploitation Exploitation may refer to: *Exploitation of natural resources *Exploitation of labour ** Forced labour *Exploitation colonialism *Slavery ** Sexual slavery and other forms *Oppression *Psychological manipulation In arts and entertainment *Exploi ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

written and directed by

Umberto Lenzi Umberto Lenzi (6 August 1931 – 19 October 2017) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and novelist. A fan of film since young age, Lenzi studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and made his first film in 1958 which went unr ...

. Upon its release, the film's US distributor claimed it was "the most violent film ever made". ''Cannibal Ferox'' was also claimed to be " banned in 31 countries", although this claim is dubious. The title derives from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''ferox'', meaning cruel, wild or ferocious.

Plot

In Colombia, siblings Rudy and Gloria and their friend Pat prepare for a journey into the rainforest. They plan to prove Gloria's theory that cannibalism is a myth. The trio encounters a drug dealer named Mike and his business partner Joe. Joe is badly wounded; Mike explains that cannibals attacked them. Gloria goes missing during the night, and Rudy finds a native village while looking for her. Due to Joe's injuries, the travelers decide to stay in the nearly deserted village. Mike seduces the naive Pat. In a cocaine-fueled rage, he encourages Pat to kill a native girl. She is unable to do it, so Mike kills the girl himself. In his dying moments, Joe reveals that he and Mike were responsible for the cannibals' aggression. They 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 the tribe. A badly charred body, previously believed to be that of a different guide, is actually this native. Mike kidnapped a native girl to lead them out of the jungle, but the outsiders were followed and attacked. After the murder of the native girl, the cannibals finally snap and hunt the outsiders. Joe dies of his wounds, and his body is found and cannibalized by the natives in full view of Rudy and Gloria, hiding from the natives. Mike and Pat abandon the others, but all are captured by the natives and forced into a cage. The prisoners are forced to watch Mike as he is tortured, beaten, including having his

penis A penis (plural ''penises'' or ''penes'' () is the primary sexual organ that male animals use to inseminate females (or hermaphrodites) during copulation. Such organs occur in many animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, but males do n ...

sliced off with a large machete-like knife and then eaten by a native villager. The natives transport their prisoners to another village, but Rudy manages to escape. He is caught in a booby trap in the jungle, and his bleeding wounds attract piranhas. He begs the natives to help him. The natives shoot him with a poisoned dart, and he dies instantly in front of everyone. Pat and Gloria are put in a hole in the ground. Mike is placed in a separate cage. A native man, whom Pat had saved from Mike's aggression, lowers a rope into the hole so the women can escape. Mike digs his way out of the cage, chases the man away, and cuts the rope, preventing the women from escaping. Mike flees into the jungle, where he tries to attract the attention of a search and rescue plane, but he is recaptured. The natives sever one of his hands and drag him back to the village. The search plane lands, but the natives tell the rescuers that the outsiders' canoe capsized in the river and crocodiles ate them. As the search team leaves, Pat is bound, stripped to the waist, and the natives run hooks through her breasts to be hung by them. Gloria can only watch as Pat dies a slow and painful death. Meanwhile, Mike's head is locked in a crude contraption, and the top of his skull is cut off so that the natives can eat his exposed brain. During the night, the sympathetic native returns and frees Gloria. He guides her through the jungle but falls victim to one of the natives' booby traps. Gloria eventually encounters a pair of trappers, who take her to safety. Instead of telling the true story, she recounts the natives' lie about the others being eaten by crocodiles. Gloria, deeply disturbed by her experiences, returns to civilization. She publishes a book titled, ''Cannibalism: End of a Myth'', which lies to support her theory and covers up the events of her ordeal.

Cast

Giovanni Lombardo Radice Giovanni Lombardo Radice (born 23 September 1954, Rome, Italy) is an Italian film actor, better known to audiences as John Morghen. He first began his career in theater before he starred in Ruggero Deodato's ''The House on the Edge of the Park'' ...

(as John Morghen) as Mike Logan ** Frank von Kuegelgen as Mike Logan * Lorraine De Selle as Gloria Davis ** Pat Starke as Gloria Davis * Danilo Mattei (as Bryan Redford) as Rudy Davis **

Gregory Snegoff Gregory Snegoff (born June 22, 1955) is an American voice actor, writer and dialogue director who frequently works on English-language anime-dubs. He is also known by the names Greg Snegoff, Gregory Snow, and Greg Snow. Early life Snegoff is a ...

as Rudy Davis *

Zora Kerova Zora Ulla Keslerová (born 11 August 1950) is a Czech actress, dancer, singer and model. Often credited under the names Zora Kerova, Zora Kerowa or Zora Keer, she became known for starring in numerous Italian horror films during the 1980s. Born ...

(as Zora Kerowa) as Pat Johnson * Walter Lucchini (as Walter Lloyd) as Joe Costolani **

Andy Luotto André Paul "Andy" Luotto (born 30 July 1950) is an American actor, comedian, musician, chef, and restaurateur. He has resided in Italy since the mid-1970s, where he is a prolific television personality, and is the owner and operator of the Lá re ...

as Joe Costolani *

Robert Kerman Robert Charles Kerman (December 16, 1947 – December 27, 2018), also known as R. Bolla, was an American actor who had a noted pornographic acting career during what is considered to be the "golden age" period of the porn film industry during ...

as Lt. Rizzo **

Edward Mannix Edward Leo Mannix was an American voice actor, author and journalist. He is mainly known for his work in dubbing films and TV shows in Rome and Los Angeles, including '' Caliber 9'', '' Golgo 13: The Professional'' and '' Robotech: The Movie'' ...

as Lt. Rizzo * Fiamma Maglione (as Meg Fleming) as Myrna Stenn ** Susan Spafford as Myrna Stenn *

John Bartha János Bartha (6 February 1915 – 1991), better known as John Bartha, was a Hungarian film actor who appeared primarily in Spaghetti Westerns in the 1960s and 1970s. He is probably most recognizable in western cinema for his role as the Sheriff ...

as Brooklyn Mobster ** Richard McNamara as Brooklyn Mobster *

Venantino Venantini Venantino Venantini (17 April 1930 – 9 October 2018) was an Italian film actor.Dominic Raacke Dominic Raacke (born 11 December 1958) is a German actor and screenwriter. He is best known for his performance as Till Ritter in ''Tatort ''Tatort'' ("Crime scene") is a German language police procedural television series that has been r ...

as Tim Barrett ** Steven Luotto as Tim Barrett *

Perry Pirkanen Perry Pirkkanen is an American actor. He is best known for starring in the 1980 Italian cannibal film '' Cannibal Holocaust''. In the movie he is erroneously credited as 'Perry Pirkanen'. Pirkkanen, then a student at New York City's Actors Studio ...

as Paul ** Larry Dolgin as Paul

Release

''Cannibal Ferox'' was released in Italy on April 24, 1981. ''Cannibal Ferox'' was released uncut on video in the United Kingdom circa 1982 by Replay, but the film's transgressive imagery and scenes of 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 is a colloquial term popularised by the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (NVALA) in the United Kingdom to refer to a number of films, typically low-budget horror or exploitation films, distributed on video cassette that ...

list. Early DVD versions, available in the UK were missing around six minutes of footage (chiefly of graphic violence and animal cruelty), which was cut before being given to the

BBFC The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...

for a rating. The full version of the film was submitted to the board in 2018, and again received 2 minutes of cuts to the animal violence. In Australia, where it was released as ''Woman from Deep River'', the film also faced censorship issues, being given numerous censored releases. In 2005, the uncut version was released on DVD by

Siren Visual This is a list of anime industry companies involved in the production or distribution of anime. Japan-based companies Animation studios There are over 500 animation studios in Japan. Below are those notable enough to have an article. * 3Hz ...

under the ''Cannibal Ferox'' title. In the United States, ''Cannibal Feroxs (a.k.a. ''Make Them Die Slowly'') "original, uncensored director's cut" was released by

Grindhouse Releasing Grindhouse Releasing is a Hollywood-based independent cult film distribution company led by film editor Bob Murawski and co-founded by Sage Stallone. Grindhouse digitally remasters, restores, and produces bonus materials and video documentaries f ...

in the late 1990s. Grindhouse is still the sole official licensed distributor of the film in North America. On May 22, 2015, Grindhouse released the film in a 3 Disc Blu-ray/DVD feature, the film's first time on

Blu-ray Disc The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and c ...

. The Blu-ray featured the documentary film ''Eaten Alive! The Rise and Fall of the Italian Cannibal Film'' and a 12-page booklet.

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has a 40% approval rating, based on five reviews.

AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...

called the film "revolting," but "nauseatingly effective," though noting that it is "primarily a showcase for the gory special-effects artistry of Gianetto de Rossi". Some critics criticized the film for its depictions of animal abuse, the poor acting and lines, and sexism.

References

External links