Customer Reviews

Cannibal Ferox

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

The DVD itself is a very satisfying package - we get commentaries, a beautiful transfer. Whether the film itself really has any merit depends on personal taste really. For my money, this is not a patch on Deodato's excellent Cannibal Holocaust, which is just as gory and a hell of a lot more realistic, with believable actors and an intelligent script. In comparison, Ferox seems like just an exploitative rip-off. But taken in its own terms, Cannibal Ferox does deliver the goods (I'm talking gore-wise) with hard-to-watch sexual violence accompanying genuine animal deaths. The music is cheesy, and again not up to the standards of Holocaust, but it grows on you.

Overall, this Holocaust rip-off is obviously a must-buy for italian cannibal/gore fans (legions ahead of rubbish like Eaten Alive etc). People new to the genre may do best to check out Cannibal Holocaust (availible on import from europe) first, as it is cinematically far better although harder to watch. But if you're in the mood for a little mindless gore, and don't mind certain scenes looking a tad unrealistic not to mention the laughable dialogue, you could do far worse.

Happy New Year...I think! I spent the last two hours
watching my first flick of 2005, and just when I
thought I had seen it all, along comes Umberto Lenzi's
1981 horror classic "Cannibal Ferox". After the first
30 minutes I had a true understanding as to why this
feature has been banned in 31 countries. This deluxe
uncensored letterbox edition was filmed in New York City
and in the Amazon (very similar) Perhaps the movie
poster says it all. "Warrning! Due to its shocking
and violent subject matter, no one under 17 should
view this film." Seventeen??? I'm 55 and I'm not too
sure the ratings commission shouldn't have banned it
in this country. Believe it or not, I purchased it
from Amazon.com.

As most of you know, I am a horror film connoissseur.
This isn't horror...it's gore. Those who don't easily
feel nauseated over blood, guts and ooze, will adore
this "classic" (???). But be forewarned, it is
definitely not for the squeamish. I can't destroy the
shock value by telling you the explicit nature of this
grizzly stomach turner, but the letterbox states..."98
on the vomit meter".

[...]

The premise of the film is simple. A young college
student sets out to write her thesis on the "myth"
that cannibals do not eat humans. Her journey is well
worth a PhD.

To provide you with one last clue as to the extreme
sadistic focus of this flick, here's the opening
credit.

"The following feature is one of the most violent
films ever made. There at least two dozen scenes of
barbaric torture and sadistic cruelty graphically
shown. If the presentation of disgusting and
repulsive subject matter upsets you, please do not
view this film."

If you are a horror/gore fan, it gets a resounding
"10" on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest). If
not, please (and I warn you), DO NOT SEE THIS FILM. I
honestly thought I had seen it all, until Lenzi
released this ^&*%(^ on DVD. I'm still catching my
breath.

I am a horror video fan and seeing that there are not that much reviews for the rerelease of this infamous video, I will contribute my opinion to the curious. The best parts of this release are the trailers, the director and actor commentary (they travelled all the way to Rome to interview Lenzi himself exclusively for the video), production stills, background on making the film, movie posters from other countries, and a very special "Cannibal survival kit" which is just too hilarious to reveal.

However, the movie itself is not at all the "most violent film ever made." It drags on a lot and takes a long time for the action to start going. It goes back and forth between city scenes and the amazon scenes, probably just to have a longer running time. Lots of zoom-ins of monkeys in trees...is Lenzi trying to say something? The monotonous music makes it even drag more. The pros are the gore, which feature realistic scenes of eye gouging, hanging by breasts, severing of a guy's you-know-what, and a worm going in and out of a native, but there are other scenes like slicing the top of a guy's head off, or a spear going through a chest which look very fake and corny. What is real is the animal cruelty, over 5 scenes of animal deaths, which has caused the controversy of the film in some countries. Otherwise, if you've seen "Dead Alive" or "Pink Flamingos" it's pretty tame. The gore won't make you cringe but actually chuckle at the way it's presented in the movie. Overall, a must have collectors item for horror fans, but stars go down for the actual film itself. Good release, not so good film.

P.S. Keep on the lookout for more RMM agency/Grindhouse releases. They will release many more horror videos, complete with special features like this one.

Absolutely boring (and over-rated) Italian made drivel about mafia gangsters, cocaine addicts, cannibalism & wild animals attacking each other ! I bought this supposedly "shocker to end all shocker" DVD based on it's grisly, cult reputation, and boy, what a let down ! As for all the film critics & fans who rate "Cannibal Ferox" as some "gut churning, mind blowing, nerve shattering experience", they are obviously used to watching tamer, family movies like "The Care Bears" or "Hambone & Hilly". Hey, don't get me wrong.....I love Italian zombie / cannibalism / horror films, but this film is hugely overrated in terms of shock value, and reputation.

Most of the "sadistic brutality" in this film consisted of footage of jungle animals attacking each other for a meal. BIG DEAL ! Anyone watching "The Crocodile Hunter", or a National Geographic special about Africa or the Amazon on the Discovery Channel, will see the same sort of thing and their photography & commentary is much, much more entertaining !!!! The acting is woeful, even by Italian shock movie standards....and the special effects are very crude & amatuerish....looks like the effects department just threw around a lot of spaghetti bolognaise & chicken gizzards on the cast members to simulate them being disemboweled. The "South American Indians" in this film are an absolute hoot.....they all stand around like silent, granite statues ( whilst the Italian members of the cast are all wildy over acting ), they never exhibit any emotion ( except when they are dining on the bolognaise & chicken innards), and they all look they've been dusted down with bags of talcum powder ????

I'm giving this DVD two stars, instead of only one, as Grindhouse Releasing have put together plenty of additional features to supplement the main movie including interviews/audio commentary with the director Umberto Lenzi, foreign trailers, plenty of production stills & liner notes. So, even though I'm not going to give the film a thumbs up, the DVD is good value for the well featured extras menu.

From my experience, if you want to watch better made European cult films to turn your stomach & shock your unsuspecting friends try Jorge Grau's excellent "Let the Sleeping Corpses Lie", Lucio Fulci's living dead epic, "Zombie", Piero Pasolini's tirade against fascism, "Salo: 120 Days of Sodom" or Corali's violent sexfest "Baise-Moi".

You're snooping around on the Cannibal Ferox page because: A) You have some basic Italian horror film knowledge(Fulci, Argento), and have heard about this film through a fanzine, other dvd trailers, websites, creepy Italian horror fan friend. Or B) You've already seen this film and are just curious what other people think of it. Well, like all films of this genre, you're gonna hear both ends of the spectrum. If you already have the basics of Italian horror, then you know how this gamble works. Personally, I think this film is great. Only Italian directors would risk death by filming in a real jungle for authenticity. Only Italian directors would use real natives in the film. Only Italian directors would expose their actors and crew to potential animal attacks and disease from the jungle environment just so you, the viewer, can enjoy an hour and a half of trashy junkfood cinema. I adore Italy! I adore Umberto Lenzi! This movie is quite fun. We get a group of people running into a cannibal tribe in the South American jungle. Two of these guys are cocaine dealers(every Italian horror flick seems to slip the cocaine in there), the rest are students. There is a message here, basically the same message as Cannibal Holocaust: DON'T .... OFF THE NATIVES! These cannibals would leave everyone alone if they weren't provoked, which our coke dealers gladly do(another message?). Well, because of these two schmucks, the entire group is gonna pay.....and pay dearly. Regardless of the lousy acting(except for Giovanni Radice who is always good in these films), you do kinda feel sorry for these students(maybe not so much for the blonde) because they end up fighting for their lives when they really had no bad intentions towards the tribe. But this film has everything you look for in this kind of movie. From the funky opening tune, you know it's gonna be a gem. Maybe it could have done without the New York subplot which is ultimately pointless, but these scenes go by quick and aren't terribly boring. Get it? You bet you should! Your wife will hate you for it, but you deserve a gift don't you?

I love gory movies (Zombie, Re-Animator) and this one was kind of cool until some characters started chopping off the parts of a real turtle. It was upsetting. There should be a warning for this kind of material. Just a heads up in case you're gonna buy it. (I've read that Cannibal Holocaust also has animal cruelty, but I haven't seen it.)

This is one of the best restored movies ive seen in a long time. I am a video collector and have seen many so called restored videos that offer little more than the trailor. This video is phenomenal! it is virtually the laserdisc on vhs! It has A still gallery, trailors for Doctor Butcher MD and Lucio Fulcis Cat in the Brain, excerpts of Giovanni Lombardo Radice (John Morghen)s commentary, an intro by Umberto Lenzi and the film offered uncut and widescreen for the first time in America on vhs!! Not to mention a great box for your collection! A great release that i am glad to own. A true horror video collector should have this! A rare video collectors DREAM!! get this now! It doesnt get much better! A warning to those who havent seen cannibal movies: BE PREPARED FOR EXTREME VIOLENCE! To fans of the cannibal genre: THIS IS THE ULTIMATE CANNIBAL FILM!! IT RIVALS CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST FOR THE BEST CANNIBAL FILM EVER! A must own for all horror fans, worth 10 times the price.

Lenzi's Ferox is famous for one reason, it holds the record for being banned in more countries at one time than any other movie. Not sure that thats something to be proud of but if you listen to Lenzi's commentary on this dvd i'm sure he would find some joy in that. This transfer is awesome though and all special editions should be influenced by this release. This is the most full version of Ferox that has been released to date, although the case states uncut there is still a further 9 minutes of footage excised from this cut that the director lopped out after initial screenings, have a look at the stills and you'll see shots that were left out (probaly a good thing for squemish folks) For the most Ferox is a nature trail interspersed with un called for shots of real animal violence (The directors commentary is a must on this film just to hear him try and wriggle out of that one) and shots of bodies that are a few arms short of a human. Nasty rape sequence and Animal violence aside it's all 70's until Lenzi goes for the juggular in the final third where manhoods are lopped off, woman is strung up by breasts and heads are used as soup bowls. Its a rather intense 15-20 minutes and is still relatively shocking to this day which is a credit to the make up guys. Where Ferox fails is in it's attempt to be something other than a cheap cannibal movie, lenzi misses the point completely and takes everything far too seriously, and all the animal violence is non-excusible and leaves a very bitter taste. Not as intelligent as Deodatos 'cannibal holocaust' it just becomes another exploitation flick that hype has given a reputation and in turn more viewers than this sort of thing would normally get. 3 stars for the dvd release though, they obviously love the movie and it's layout and packaging is fantastic alas much better than the content of the movie.

Another "so bad it's good" video nasty classic now available on dvd! "Cannibal ferox" was written and directed by Italian Umberto Lenzi and filmed on location in New York and South America. It was originally released in 1981, two years after the excellent "Cannibal holocaust", which many people consider to be the pinnacle of the "cannibal" genre. Personally I prefer "Ferox" to "Holocaust", mainly because the latter tries a little too hard to be a "proper" movie, while "Ferox" has no such pretensions and just gets on with delivering the gore by whatever cheap and nasty means are required.

The film actually starts off in NYC, with the rather annoying subplot which serves as an intermittent and completely pointless distraction throughout the film, and involves gang members (and later police) searching for a missing drug dealer who has run away with their money. All of a sudden we switch to South America, just as three young explorers (Gloria, the leader, plus her brother Rudy and friend Pat) are about to set off into the jungle.

They don't believe in cannibals! In fact, this is a research trip to help Gloria finish her thesis, which seeks to prove that cannibalism is a myth. Little do they know....

After a series of minor disasters and encounters with the local natives and wildlife they eventually bump into two other Americans, Mike and Joe, who tell them they've escaped from some cannibals that killed (and partly consumed) a friend of theirs. Our three well-meaning innocents believe them at first, and before long they all arrive at the cannibals' village, which is temporarily safe due to the fact that most of its inhabitants have left. The few mainly elderly natives who remain are obviously rather wary of Mike, and Gloria and her two companions are shocked by the sight of some decaying and partly consumed human remains, whose presence seems to back up the story Mike and Joe have told them.

However, by the time they realise what's really happened in the village and what a fine mess they've got themselves into, it's too late....

When the gorefest really begins, most of the cutting, stabbing, chopping and impaling is surprisingly realistic (although there are some very amateurish moments as well). I'll refrain from describing it all, but my favourite moment is a particularly juicy "lobotomy" scene that you won't forget in a hurry, and of course, there's also some cannibalism....

Overall the quality is well above average for a video nasty and while the plot, dialogue and acting aren't exactly brilliant, I've certainly seen and heard a lot worse. The main problem with the film is the unnecessary sub-plot which starts in New York and eventually ties up with the action in the jungle, but mainly just gets in the way; and listening to the same burst of cheesy disco music during every cut-back to NYC starts to get on your nerves after a while. The director is also a little too keen on punctuating the jungle scenes with endless footage of the local wildlife, and seems to be particularly fond of monkeys, but it's worth enduring all this for some genuinely excellent gore!

This dvd re-release has been put together very well. The packaging is excellent and whoever wrote the chapter headings has an appropriately sick sense of humour (eg a scene in which one of the women is hung up by hooks through her breasts is described as "Pat hangs out"). The menus are also rather amusing and the film has been superbly transferred to dvd. The extras include an interview with Umberto Lenzi, commentary from Lenzi and one of the actors, production stills, movie posters and more.

Although often talked about as if it's the most horrific of all gore movies and apparently banned in a huge number of countries, "Cannibal ferox" is not as shocking as you might expect. Many of the complaints about it have come from animal rights activists who object to the fact that apart from the fake gore inflicted on the humans, the film also includes some animal deaths which are obviously real. If you do enjoy this film then "Cannibal holocaust" is definitely worth seeking out as well, but most of the other cannibal films ("Cannibal apocalypse", "Cannibal terror" etc) are best avoided....

Cannibal Ferox is one of the most infamous & notorious films, and its transfer to DVD is accomplished. The film is about a woman, her brother and another female companion, who venture into the Amazon region to study cannibalism. While there they meet a drugged-up crazy guy and his friend (on the run having stole money from a drug gang in New York) who have previously terroised the natives. Then the natives seek revenge, and the unfortunate trio are in the thick of it.

The gory bits include 'Mike's Member Whacked and Eaten' (that's how the scene is described on the DVD chapter menu) and chapter 44: 'Pat Hangs Out', a woman is hung up by hooks through her breasts, plus chapter 45: 'Brain Hors d'Oeuvres', Mike has the top of his head sliced off and his brain eaten.

The DVD is well presented. The menus are good. When you open one menu you are presented with Mike having his head chopped off, then put back on by a cannibal's spear. Also included is an interview with director Umberto Lenzi, although he speaks mostly Italian in it, even though he is questioned in English. There is also a commentary track from Lenzi and John Morghen, who plays Mike, who admits he hates the film. There is an excellant lengthy segment showing stills, posters and photos took making the film. It rolls automatically at a nice pace, a neat idea. There is even a hidden easter egg showing the film being shown at a theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, with interviews with some fans of the film. The picture is in widescreen and clear, and the sound in stereo is good, especially during the electro music scenes. All in all, a good DVD transfer of a pure exploitation film.