Mike_Bracken's Full Review: Slave of the Cannibal God
Mountain of the Cannibal God aka Slave of the Cannibal God: Dania Film/ Medusa Produzione Rating: USA: R (cut)/ USA: Unrated (uncut)
Join me, Mike_Bracken, your fearless guide, for yet another tour of duty in the savage jungles of New Guinea where today we travel to The Mountain ofthe Cannibal God.
By the time Italian exploitation veteran Sergio Martino (Torso, The Great Alligator—a really cool Jaws rip-off that I highly recommend) released his 1978 film Mountain of the Cannibal God, the popularity of the cannibal subgenre in Italy was just beginning to cycle into high gear. After the release of Umberto Lenzi’s 1972 film Man From Deep River and Ruggero Deodato’s Jungle Holocaust (see my review if you’re interested) in 1976, Italian exploitation fans had discovered that they just couldn’t get enough of these films set in the jungle where civilized white Europeans became tasty meals for flesh craving savages—and the Italian film studios, who never missed an opportunity to cash in on a hot idea—were more than happy to oblige them with a seemingly never ending stream of jungle epics.
Susan Stevenson (Ursula Andress: Dr. No, Clash of the Titans) and her brother Arthur (Antonio Marsina—who bears a bit of a resemblance to David Hyde Pierce of Frasier fame) head off to New Guinea in search of her missing scientist husband. After arriving, she meets Dr. Edward Forster (Stacey Keach: American History X, Escape From LA), a scientist/colleague of her husband. After filling Forster in on their situation, Susan convinces him to lead her and her brother on a jungle expedition to find her man. But, Forster knows something—and while he’s not totally forthcoming about what information he possesses, he tells them that Dr. Stevenson has undoubtedly traveled to a nearby island. Said island is shrouded in thick jungle, and at the center stands the infamous mountain Ra-rami, a mountain said by many, including Forster, to be haunted.
Undaunted by such silly native superstition, our intrepid Europeans set out with Forster and a crew of local natives to explore the mysterious island. While there, they see Darwin’s Theory first hand (there are lots of animals eating other animals in this film), find a friendly mission, get kicked out, run into the infamous Puka tribe of masked cannibals, pick up another party member named Manolo (Claudio Cassinelli—who looks a lot like Highlander’s Christopher Lambert), endure the trials of the jungle, and eventually wind up at the infamous Ra-rami—where everyone’s real motivations are revealed, and then we finally get to the cannibal action.
While this film has a much more polished look than Deodato and Lenzi’s cannibal films, a better cast, and Martino attempts to treat the subject matter seriously, Mountain of the Cannibal God just isn’t all that fun. It’s not nearly as inept as Lenzi’s Eaten Alive, but it’s not as intense or harrowing as Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust (which is certainly the high water mark for these kinds of films). So, what do we end up with? A middle of the road safari flick with a few cannibals and some decent gore thrown in for good measure. Is this a bad thing? Not really…if you’re a cannibal film neophyte, this is probably the place to start—most of the standard elements that comprise a cannibal film are present here (nudity, gut-munching, animal cruelty, and some gruesome special FX) but it’s all presented in an almost tasteful way (well, tasteful when compared to films like Cannibal Ferox). However, hard core cannibal flick fans (like yours truly) should be prepared for a bit of a letdown. Simply put, this film just isn’t as sick as it should be.
Ok, so what went wrong? First off, the film spends way too much time setting up its premise. Things start off promisingly enough with Andress and Marsina disembarking from a plane in New Guinea, but from there, the film bogs down with Stacy Keach offering us a long, drawn out speech, a foray into the jungle that offers up next to nothing in cannibal action, another long sequence at the forest mission, and then yet another trek through the jungle—again, relatively cannibal-less. So, the pacing is all off…you can’t call a film Mountain of the Cannibal God and then spend 80 minutes of the 95 minute run time showing us a film without cannibals.
Still, Martino is an adept exploitation director…and even though he cheats us out of a bunch of cannibal action, he does give us some grue to hold us over. There’s lots of the aforementioned animal cruelty in this film, with snakes, lizards, etc. all skinned, bludgeoned, devoured, and so on. There’s a really nice decapitation, a guy who gets all cut up in some kind of cannibal mantrap, and best of all, a guy who gets devoured by an alligator. Yet, while all of this is good stuff, we’re really here for the cannibals—and they just aren’t anywhere to be found for much of the film.
Another problem is the movie’s lack of tension. Honestly, this plays sort of like a violent Tarzan flick, minus the apeman. Keach, Andress, Marsina, and Cassinelli traipse through the jungle almost carefree. There’s none of the claustrophobic element that made most of the other entries in this subgenre so harrowing. For all we know, these guys could be hiking through the empty lot behind their house. This is a fatal mistake, because one of the main tenets of any successful cannibal flick is that the white folks must get lost. Not only must they lose their way, the jungle must come alive around them—closing in on them, becoming a living, breathing, and ever-changing antagonist that’s potentially as dangerous as the cannibals in pursuit. Without this, and with relatively no cannibals in sight until the climax, we wind up with a film that wants to be suspenseful, but ultimately falls well short of the mark.
Of course, on the plus side, the cannibals do appear by the climax. These masked man-eaters are actually pretty scary looking—and I think it’s mostly because of the masks. Many of the other cannibal films simply feature local natives with weird wigs, skimpy loincloths, and bad teeth. Here, though, Martino actually adds something new and impressive to the subgenre. The appearance of the cannibals is good, if a bit anticlimactic…with so little running time left in the film, they don’t get to do a whole lot (in fact, these cannibals only eat one guy—and he was already dead). However, this does provide the opportunity for Martino to get Andress to do a full nude scene—and that’s gotta count for something.
Eventually, they all meet the cannibal god of the title, and if you can’t sort of guess who he is, then you haven’t been paying attention (a hint—it’s her husband’s corpse). Granted, this god does nothing (except hang on some pseudo cross with a Geiger counter embedded in his abdomen, ticking like a hearbeat), but he’s kind of cool anyway. Oh yeah, almost forgot…a cannibal intends to rape Ursula Andress, but she’s rescued by the other cannibals (who think she’s a goddess since she was in a picture they found on her husband), who castrate the perverted savage for good measure. From there, we get the obligatory happy ending, even though these two white people are still trapped in the savage jungle. Hurray!
It’s not that Mountain of the Cannibal God is a bad film, it’s just that in relation to its cinematic brethren, it’s sort of a ho-hum affair. Martino clearly is a competent director who is capable of making some great exploitation films, but for some reason, his work here seems almost restrained—as if he was afraid of pushing the boundaries of bad taste…and I shouldn’t have to tell you that’s not a good mindset for the director of a cannibal flick to have. Maybe it was the film’s larger than average budget, or its more famous than normal stars, but whatever the reason, Mountain of the Cannibal God comes across rather flat. If you’re a cannibal newbie, this is a good starting point—you’ve got the best of the subgenre still ahead, and you don’t know enough about cannibal films to feel let down by what you don’t get here. If you’re a hardcore cannibal fan, you’re almost certain to be disappointed (even the plusses, including the Andress nudity, aren’t really enough to counterbalance the negatives). Still, you need to see it—because any real cannibal flick fan needs to see all the films in the canon just so he can brag that he has.
Arriving at a final rating for this flick is hard…but I’m going with three stars. I can hear you saying "but Mike, you really picked at this movie, and there were more negatives than positives", and you’re right. However, upon further reflection, I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re always hardest on those things we expect the most from. I expect a lot from a cannibal flick—it’s got a lot to live up to, afterall. But, even though Mountain of the Cannibal God falls short of classic status, it’s still a solid little jungle exploitation film…and for that, it earns each one of its three stars.
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