Cannibal Ferox aka Make Them Die Slowly (1981)

Studio: Grindhouse Releasing

DVD Release Date: October 31, 2006

Directed By: Umberto Lenzi

Cast: Zora Kerowa, John Morghen, Brian Redford, Venantino Venantini

Brutal As Hell Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Review By: Marc Patterson

An anthropologist working on her PhD dissertation travels with two friends to the jungles of the Amazon to prove that the idea of cannibalism is simple myth, and nothing more.  Once in the jungle they meet up with a couple of hustlers from New York City who escaped to the Amazonian jungle to hide out from the mob.  We soon learn that these hustlers tortured and murdered members of a tribe in their search for exotic gems.  Now, all five are on the run from enraged natives who intend to exact retribution in the most hideous of ways!

Cannibal Ferox is an unarguable grindhouse classic in every sense of the word and a sordid tale of eviscerating violence to boot!  It contains some of the most memorable scenes of violence ever filmed in cinematic history.  This is a film that will stick with you for years afterwards, and you’ll be able to vividly recall scene after scene with stunning detail, and I say this as someone who watched this film for the first time over a decade ago well “under the influence”.  Since that initial viewing it has become one of my favorite grindhouse films, and to date hasn’t been topped in pure terms of entertainment and shock value. 

If one wanted to be an ass they could effectively criticize the piece for not being especially well written, with plentiful poor dialogue.  But seriously… this is grindhouse folks.  It’s ain’t fuckin high society cinema.  In terms of basic execution (no pun intended) Umberto Lenzi more than gets it done.  I’m not exactly sure the original intent was to do much more than shock, appall, and create notoriety.  Without a doubt Lenzi accomplished this on all counts, evidenced by the highly publicized “banned in 31 countries” moniker that is toted everywhere the name of the film is mentioned.

Video wise, I’ve seen better clean up jobs.  But, this DVD treatment isn’t horrendous and certainly isn’t unwatchable.  The audio is where this release really stands out.  It’s the best treatment the film has had yet, and I’ll be damned if every time I watch this film I don’t have that catchy theme song running through my head for at least two days afterwards. 

The extras on the disc are fantastic and truly make the scales tip in the favor of this release over prior versions.  We get three theatrical trailers, Italian, German, and American respectively.  There are cast bios on a few of the major players well worth reading over.  Umberto Lenzi’s biography contains a video interview with him that was nice to see included, but very hard to follow due to heavy accents and poor audio.  The Still Gallery is one of the better collections I’ve seen, though I typically don’t care for such galleries. 

As a hint – there is a special “Easter Egg” to be found in the Disc.  On the main menu if you click on “Grindhouse Releasing” it will take to you what is more or less an “About” page for the company.  However, keep that remote scrolling.  At the bottom are two icons.  Click on the one to the left that says “Banned in 31 countries”.  This will take you to a reel of footage from a theatrical showing of Cannibal Ferox, in Los Angeles.  While it doesn’t say when it is, we can safely assume the event was staged to co-ordinate with this DVD release, so should be roughly 2005 or 2006.  It’s a pretty fun clip showing audience reaction shots, comments from audience members. 

Unlike so many of today’s horror films you won’t forget seeing this one.  Cannibal Ferox should properly belong in your collection in one form or another, but with this release we highly recommend upgrading whatever prior version (bootlegged or otherwise) you might have kicking around, and own the film in the best quality release yet.