Broadly considered to be the ‘Silver Award’ of the Cannibal subgenre. There really isnt many Cannibal films out there that could legitimately be considered better than ‘Cannibal Ferox’ a poster child of the Video nasty era, It REALLY stressed the limits of taste and decency in its time, and even today would make many uncomfortble.

The plot follows a PHD student, working on her dissertation into the history of Cannibalism, with her main goal being to prove that its a myth. In particular, she intends to prove this by travelling to a remote tribe in the Amazon that have the strongest living evidence of Cannibalism. Her thinking is that if they get there and they either dont exist, or if they DO exist but arnt cannibalistic. Her theory will be proven correct and her work becomes justified.

However, things start to derail fairly quickly as while part way on their journey, their jeep gets stuck in the mud and they lose a large chunk of their survival equipment. Around the same time 2 other explorers emerge from the scrubland, badly hurt and talking about being attacked by cannibalistic tribes. Gloria (our PHD student) is sceptical. But decides to continue on her journey to see for herself. After several gory and unpleasent incidents of Animal cruelty, they arrive at the village, there’s a frosty reception for them and it slowly becomes apparent that ‘Mike’ (one of our found explorers, an aggressive sod and a MASSIVE Cocaine fiend) MAY have done more than just ‘fled from a cannibalistic tribe after an unprovoked meeting’…

I feel the best way to sum my feelings up on this one is ‘Its like Cannibal Holocaust, but not as good’. It feels to me like they were making this film, Cannibal Holocaust came out, the film makers saw it, and decided to amp up the exploitation and hideousness.

The paralells with ‘Holocaust’ are many, in essence the plots share similar beats. Both films featrure horrible people upsetting predominantly passive tribes by being aggressive and violent towards them, and both films spend an elongated period of time showing EXACTLY what happens if you take part in that kind of behaviour or support anyone taking part in that kind of behaviour.

Ferox has a bit of a trade off on its hands…I dont think its *quite* as nasty as ‘Holocaust’ but it INSTEAD trades that, for being much MUCH crueller to our main cast. In ‘Holocaust’ the main characters were iredeemable…even the nicest member of their crew was bad. Which made it justifyable to the audience when they got punished.

Here, we have pretty squeaky clean people ultimately getting VERY badly punished. Mike and Pat as characters are obvious for the ‘Cannibal Torture’ treatment, because Mikes pretty awful throughout and does a LOT of drugs and Pat gets pulled into Mikes world, but Glorias only crime really is being arrogant about what she *thinks* she knows…and Rudy’s only crime as far as I can recall was beating up Mike. yet EVERYONE gets punished…VERY harshly.

Holocaust has the edge in terms of more memorable scenarios and visuals. But Ferox ‘feels’ colder both in terms of its cast and how theyre treated.

The script on the whole is fine, we DO have a clean 3 act structure. Though its VERY saggy in the middle. the first acts relatively tight, but once they meet Mike and co, things slow down to a crawl as we spend a LOT of time wandering around the jungle until they find the village and then a LOT of time i the village while Gloria tries to piece things together…

Its slow and a bit trudging…and as someone who isnt entirely smitten with graphic violence towards animals. When that’s the ONLY thing punctuating these long saggy breaks in the action…it was a bit dissapointing.

The 3rd act however does bring everything back up to a solid pace as we enter an act almost entirely focussed on Revenge. Leading to a wonderfully bleak ending that feels a little less natural than some of the Cannibal films…but otherwise ends things about as solidly as they could be ended.

I do have some gripes about the script, filming is split between New York and the Amazon. While I totally get using New York as a locational base for Gloria and her studies. Theres this weird B-plot that isnt really integrated all that well in which some cops in New York are looking for Mike, and they end up getting his landlady involved, and then the cops and the landlady end up heading to the Amazon to try and find him…It was really bizarre and honestly? apart from using it as an excuse to grab footage of New York landmarks…they seemed almost entirely pointless to the main drive of the film.

Also…as an aside, when they do get to the Amazon, the setup thats given to the audience is that the cops/landlady are going to find and possibly rescue our travellers…they have one scene in the Amazon and then they’re literally never seen again.

Tonally this things bleak, NOT for the feint of heart, its oppressively dark for most of the runtime, and if utterly depressing cinema with largely unlikeable characters and HUGE amounts of unpleasent animal murder is your bag, you’ll probably quite dig this one.

The direciton and cine are actually pretty gorgeous all things considered, we have Umberto Lenzi firing on all cylinder’s here delivering a genuinely interesting piece. I dont feel like he *quite manages* the degree of emotional investment that ‘Deodato’ managed with ‘Holocaust’ but instead that cold distance that Lenzi puts between us and the horror helps ampliphy the feeling of isolation. Which I feel helps deliver a Cannibal picture that is of the ‘ilk’ of ‘Holocaust’ but strikes out very much to the beat of its own drum.

Compositionally this things lovely with some excellent ‘on location’ footage, colour use is rich and highly enjoyable. its a visual feast…if you happen to like nightmares. The editing is pretty rock solid, particularly for this genre which is known to struggle with coherent sequence building…id argue that it may even be the best edited Cannibal movie ive seen.

Its a creative picture in that sense that has a lot to offer somebody looking to see the more technically proficient side of the ‘Video Nasties’.

The performances are all terrific, with a slight tinge of hamminess coming from the V/O crew and the onset cast its JUST the right tone to help give a little light to the darkness. they’re all highly animated and absolutely NOT opposed to properly getting stuck into the blood, guts and oompska.

Add all this to an ASTOUNDING score which is arguably one of the best of the subgenre AND one of the best of Italian exploitation of the day. and you have the makings of a pretty solid production.

‘Cannibal Ferox’ absolutely wont be for everyone, nor would I want it to. While I personally feel that it lacks the emotional depth, pacing and authenticity of ‘Holocaust’. What IS here is a wonderfully bleak production that manages, even now, to shock and immerse it’s audience into its deeply unpleasent but beautifully shot world. I have a real soft spot for ‘Ferox’ its not perfect. But if your looking for ‘good’ examples of exploitation cinema or video nasties…you likely wont find better.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/cannibal-ferox/

“GATOR ATE MY BABY!”

Before he made arguably he most beautiful film ‘Cannibal Holocaust’, Ruggero Deodato began to test the waters of the mondo cannibal genre, and ‘Jungle Holocaust’ very much feels like that, someone testing the waters and feeling out what they can and cant getaway with.

Im convinced i’ve seen this film before, but for the life of me I cant remember when or where. Which means the most likely answer is I saw it when I was in university while VERY much under the influences…Which is probably the best way to watch these kinds of Cannibal movies honestly…

The plots simple enough, a group of business people are flying over a remote region to have a meeting with their partners for a rigging proposition when their plane encounters trouble and has a rough landing, while the planes being repaired the gang decide to explore the crash site and almost immediately half the crew are killed, and the other half are split up with our lead ‘Robert Harper’ being seized by the cannibals and taken to a cave where he’s stripped, tormented and dumped in a pit/cell.

And…the bulk of the rest of the movie is pretty much Robert being tortured, escaping with one of the tribes women, encountering all manner of horrible things such as extreme animal mutilation, cannibalistic tendancies and a scene that made me laugh for how blunt it is, in which a woman gives birth on a river bank unaided, sees that it’s a girl and just…casually tosses her into the river where a gator eats it.

The actual plotting of the films fine enough, but this is a lot more of a slow burn than ‘Holocaust’ with the middle act sagging awfully. Theres plenty of ‘shock’ moments, but nothing as intense as what would come after it. This was really the early days of the mondo cannibal flick however, so it still needed a fair bit of time to warm up.

I do feel that the film somewhat overstays its welcome, at 91 minutes, this could have easily been an 80 minute feature and been better for it. The animal mutilation, while not as graphic as Holocaust is still quite unpleasent and is likely to put a lot of people off.

the dialogue (by which I mean the dub) is fine enough, a bit dull honestly, the Voice actors are playing things relatively straight, and most of the dialogues basic, and once the gang get split up its pretty much grunts from then on till the end credits.

visually, its a bit flat too. Deodato seems to be feeling out his style within the genre here and while there are absolutely some genius moments on display (pretty much everything inside the cannibals cave lair is VERY well handled and feels quite unsettling) the location work when they’re out in the open is a bit incoherent and frustrating. And not in a ‘Oh! it makes you feel what the characters are feeling! confusion and uncertainty!’ kind of way…in a; ‘Im pretty sure they’re recycling footage at this point, and everything looks samey’ kind of way.

Composition is rough around the edges. I feel like this style is used to its best effort when Deodato turned to faux documentary. Because with a linear narrative feature like this, it just feels a bit rushed, messy and unpleasent. Composition is quite hit or miss, and I dont feel they got the best out of the wonderful colours of the jungle either…Not to mention the edit, which. is. ROUGH. with sound that drops in and out infrequently awkward cuts and shocking pacing on sequence structuring. This isnt a polished product. it feels like a ‘best job possible givent he circumstances’ edit, rather than one that was planned.

The performances are all actually not to bad for low budget italian films of the time. Massimo Foschi as Robert gets a LOT of range to work with and for the most part pretty much nails EXACTLY what was required for the role, really pushing himself and not being afraid to get dirty if needs be. Me Me Lai as ‘Pulan’ the tribeswoman who helps robert escape in someways had the hardest job of this shoot because she had to look fairly glam (this IS an Italian exploitation film…there HAD to be a glam italian cannibal girl…thats just how these things work) while being entirely limited to grunts, groans and screams. Shes superb here really knocking it out of the park and arguably even outshining Massimo in some scenes.

The rest of the cast more than fit the bill, given how low quality these Cannibal movies can and will get from this point onwards, I think they’re actually pretty above average all things considered. and the speaking supporting cast, while shortlived here, I feel do more than an adiquate job, I really cant flaw them.

While the soundtrack is unremarkable, its not offensive…so thats a good thing, though the quality of the audio recording here is a bit problematic in places. Again; its no as bad as I know these films CAN get…but its not great.

For me (and to keep it simple) This ones better than a LOT of the Cannibal exploitation films that were pumped out between the mid 70s and mid 80s…but I wouldnt class it as ‘one of the best’ its definitely in the uper half of quality, with an interesting and (for the time) unique plotline, some genuinely unpleasent sequences. Good, solid acting. and direction and cine that…while a bit hit and miss at times, does deliver a reasonable amount.

Its a slow burner, so do be prepared to clock watch after a while, with better pacing and maybe a little contrast in tone, this could have been great. As it stands, its just ‘good’ which is a shame…but folks, we all gotta start somewhere!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/last-cannibal-world/

A comment on counter culture (almost infact a counter to counter culture culture in itself) ‘Fritz the Cat’ is an oddity of a film, in the sense that it was made in 1972 (inspired by the works of Robert Crumb) but is set in the far out mists of time that was 1965-1968…Its not time specific, but the hippie/woodstock/free love movement is in full swing and beginning to be ridiculed during the time the events of this film take place, so im guessing it closer to ’68 than it is ’65…

Essentially we take a trip with Frtiz, a quote ‘egotistical man child’ careering around New York, passing himself off as a poet and revolutionary artist. Though in reality he’s just looking to score and to see what he can get from society. Thats not to say he’s an irredeemable character…just that he’s a false one, and that we as the audience are set up to expect him to be unreliable in the face of self interest and satisfaction.

And…the movie…in essence is just that, a scathing takedown of that particular cross section of white heterosexual ‘hippie’. The sort who’ll fein concern and interest in the protection of minorites or vaguely gesture goodwill to people…While not actually doing all that much to actually make the situation better beyond words. Which is illustrated by the one time in the film where a chance to ACTUALLY change things comes up, and he realises he’s NOT that invested.

Robert crumbs artwork here is replicated with relative love, his artistic style is always a delight (if not somewhat more questionable these days) and the animation teams did a fantastic job of bringing his style to life with wonderfully strange results.

It looks good, it sounds good. Its absolutely dated by modern standards, but I had a bit of a soft spot for Fritz, early adult animation that wasnt just straight up porn was a rarity at this point, and without Fritz its quite likely a lot of YA and adult animation (such as 80% of Adult swims output) likely wouldnt exist, or would be WILDLY different.

Worth catching at least once, I cant comment on it’s rewatch value. But I have no regrets. Would probably be best enjoyed in an alcohol fueled fug.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/fritz-the-cat/

Another watch for a larger project thats on the way; so to keep it short.

I think I prefer this one to the original. It brought up an old arguement I’ve had before with films like this where I get stuck between whether its better to like a film that has an original(ish) idea thats quite badly executed. Or a much more stable picture that lacks originality as a result.

This one kind of falls into the latter, its nailed the eroticism (something the first film was VERY hit or miss on) the direction, cine and pacing all get MASSIVE overhauls that yield better results, but some of this feels just like they’ve reworked scenes from the first film into a new format and tried to pass it off as new content.

That and I dont think my eyes will ever *truely* recover from the ’16 year old, voyeur, gerontifile, three way gangbang scene featuring a animate stuffed animal’ which somehow TOTALLY missed the mark and came across like an NSPCC advert directed by Gary Glitter…EASILY the worst thing i’ve seen while researching for this larger project (and I saw ‘Sex in the Comics’ a few days ago.

Beyond that though, this is definitely a heavy technical improvement over the first film..still a little wobbly in places, but of the two. I think this one just pips it for me.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/fantasm-comes-again/

I’m starting to think I just don’t like Keith Allen or Keith Allen’s sense of humour. Here we have a parody of 70s cop shows, with ‘The professionals’ seemingly being the main influence. Alan plays a former cop turned stuntman who partnered up with an old friend to help recover the chiefs daughter from two performers who want 50 grand in exchange for her return…

But at nearly 45 minutes long, it’s about 20 minutes longer than I could stomach. Not particularly funny…if men running around the streets in their underwear and jokes about bad singers are peak humour for you. Then this is your kind of bag…for me? I struggled with it. Not particularly clever or funny. I got about half an hour into it before clock watching and that last 13 minutes was a serious slog.

Won’t be watching it again, and I can’t recommend it.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-bullshitters-roll-out-the-gunbarrel/

Basically ‘The Comic strip takes the piss out of the kind of movies Channel 4 would play at 2 In the morning’

An art house parody flick about a couple of sisters known as ‘The slags’ who are released from Neo noir future prison and join up with their ‘almost 18’ years old gang…only to discover their stomping ground has been overrun by Hawaiians.

It’s low hanging fruit generally speaking to poke fun of art house cinema. But this one is eerily accurate to the real thing (it reminded me heavily of films like ‘Decoder’) the jokes are fine, but no gut busters unfortunately.

It’s just a pretty good entry in ‘The Comic strip’ and given I wasn’t aware of Jennifer Saunders writing ability, I think this is a pretty sturdy piece!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/slags/

A Wonderfully bleak dark comedy and a frankly hilarious half hour of television. ‘Eddie Monsoon: A Life?’ Is a mockumentary charting the recent events in the life of Eddie, a chronically alcoholic, manic depressive with severe liver failure, cancer, prolapses, a broken arm and leg and asthma.

His television career in tatters after a string of controversies, Eddie is in rehab for the 17th time (in 18 months) and this documentary interviews him and the people around him, to try and find out, what went wrong…

Honestly, one of the best ‘Comic strips’ I’ve seen so far. Written and Starring Ade Edmondson as Eddie. There’s a certain frantic unknowing energy that radiates off this thing, you honestly never *quite* know what direction its going to fly off in.

An astonishing hit rate on the joke front, shot just like the documentaries of the day and with some wonderful faux archival recordings of Eddie’s TV show. This one made me gut laugh a good few times. I really liked it and I’m honestly stunned that this was a one off. It just SCREAMS for a follow up honestly…in fact…the longer the gap between this and a follow up, the funnier and bleaker it gets really!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/eddie-monsoon-a-life/

Another Comic Strip outing that’s light on laughs and heavier on story telling. This one center’s around a guy named Gino, who’s on the run from the police (for an unspecified reason) and basically the whole film is just following him on the run, occasionally getting into slightly daft situations.

Honestly? I found this one a bit dull. The closest I came to laughing was Lionel Jeffrey’s doing his best Peter Cook impersonation as an elderly taxi cab driver…but that was unfortunately short lived.

Keith Allen seems to think that being Keith Allen in a funny situation is enough to make comedy happen (spoilers: it isnt) no matter how hard he tries to make wearing a flat cap look silly…

All the main players barring Jennifer Saunders are pushed into supporting roles here, non of which are interesting of likeable.

As a piece of comedy, I’ve been to funnier wakes. As a piece of television or as a short film. It’s to standard. But it’s not one I’ll revisit in a hurry.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/gino-full-story-and-pics/

‘The Comic strip’ tries it’s hand at spaghetti westerns with semi mixed results. It’s basically 2 groups of travellers, one led by Rik Mayall in full Lee Van Cleef garb, and another led by French and Saunders playing a couple of aussies who pick up a drugged up hitchhiker.

I think one of the biggest things that holds this one back from really being up there is its kind of half hearted on mimicking the directional style of those kinds of movies. Those grand, ultra wide shots that really take In the scenery are few and far between.

The tone isn’t quite right either. It does dabble with that hyper moody atmosphere, but by the end its given way to just a bit of a slapstick runaround…which is something we’ve seen in other specials handled quite a bit better.

That being said this one does have a pretty solid laugh hit rate, Mayall picked up writing duties on this one, and while the pacings a little uneven, and the characters a little poorly defined (I’m STILL not 100% sure what the point of it was, other than ‘here’s some random characters being goofy in spain) it’s still quite good fun and one of the more enjoyable ‘comic strip’ specials.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/a-fistful-of-travellers-cheques/

The comic strip at times dances a fine line between traditional comedy, parody and drama. That’s not strictly a bad thing, I’d take a comedy that handles drama well over just a poor quality comedy any day. ‘Susie’ is essentially a parody drama of those heated and lusty stories of free thinking women having multiple affairs and living their best life, only to find a slightly hollow experience at the end of it as their world comes crashing down once the lies have been revealed.

Susie is in a relationship with Martin, but cheating on him with Dave, and about to cheat on both of them with a pop star named Gary.

The humour in this one really is down to the fact that in these dramas the women who do what they want are usually shown to be remorseful or regret their free wheeling ways.

Susie on the other hand isn’t bothered. And quite happily makes blunt decisions quickly depending on whatever going on.

That’s about half the humour for this story, with the other half being Garry the popstar listlessly bounding around his country estate in a drug fueled haze getting his staff to help him with everything, having a vision of wanting to be a land working farmer…but non of the volition to actually BE a land working farmer.

I think if those Jilly cooper-esq novels are your thing, you’ll quite enjoy this, but unfortunately to someone who isn’t a dedicated reader of steamy fiction…as of 2024…the lines between parody and legitimacy have been blurred beyond recognition.

A little too subtle for its own good, to modern audiences it’s just too ‘straight cut’ to really get the laughs in. Dawn French is really good fun here as Susie…she gets the tone, but I think she really nails this type of ‘self aware, but blunt’ style of performance best in things like ‘Murder most horrid’.

I can appreciate what it’s trying to do, but I ultimately wasn’t won over.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/susie-1984/