Cannibal tribes invade Hollywood
With the much delayed wait for the commercial release of Eli Roth's THE GREEN INFERNO (not to be confused with the 80s jungle action movie) now over it seemed a good time to look back over the genre that has been heralded many times by Roth and playmate Tarantino to see where it has come from and to ponder why it has now resurfaced from a director who is arguably mainstream in terms of distribution and promotion.
The act of eating human flesh unsurprisingly has been delivered in many cinematic guises from the survivalist (Antonia Bird’s RAVENOUS), the psychotic (Antonio Margheriti’s CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE), the psychotic survivalist (D’Amato’s ANTHROPOPHAGUS), the backwards hillbilly (WRONG TURN series) and also the thriller (HANNIBAL, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS). But if you asked the majority of genre fans, one type of film would instantly come to mind, one specific niche, sub-genre – the indigenous cannibal tribe film.
These films combined gore and adventure with a dash of xenophobia and, regrettably, sometimes a dash of animal cruelty, as film makers sought to out-do one another, going one step further than before but was it really worth it? Can the hype, notoriety and indeed the reputation be justified?
It can be argued that these films have their roots in the ‘Mondo’ films which were popular at the time in Italy and were basically exploitative documentaries focussing on the weird and wonderful cultures of the world. Often lacking narrative these pseudo-documentaries would instead eventually focus on the salacious, the macabre and the terrifying aspects of these strange alien cultures. But if scenes depicting these sorts of events couldn’t be found that was no problem….they could just be staged.
From this fascination with these almost other worldly cultures, the desire to shock and no doubt an element of condescendence for others the cannibal films would develop. Primarily set in poverty stricken and undeveloped Jungle regions such as the Amazon or South East Asia, areas in which the general western public had little factual knowledge about, the majority of these films highlighted the advanced-primitive, civilised-uncivilised divide and perpetuated the negatively held stereotypes.
In these films, the cannibals were always primitive natives with strange barbaric rituals, a case in point being the famous impaling in Deodato’s CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST as punishment for the loss of virginity by one tribeswoman, and this audience held perception allowed the directors to indulge in seemingly any form of gratuitous violence they could think of. One could even go as far as to say these were the beginnings of what we now know as torture porn, with the graphic violent set pieces obviously an influence on Eli Roth who would later become synonymous with the sub-genre through Hostel and coming full circle has now completed his own jungle cannibal film in THE GREEN INFERNO.
Origins of a tribe
The birth of the Italian cannibal tribe sub-genre as it were can arguably be traced back to 1972 with Lenzi’s THE MAN FROM DEEP RIVER; starring Italian film stalwarts Ivan Rassimov and Me Me Lai it followed the great Italian film tradition of replication, in this case a reimagining of the 1970 Richard Harris western A MAN CALLED HORSE. Aside from entertaining this film proved that there was an international (but not Italian) audience for these kinds of films, the kind that showcased the exotic and strange cultures that regular people may never get to witness or experience.
If history has taught us anything it’s once the Italian movie industry find a style that is profitable they go for it, as shown by the burst of spaghetti westerns, gialli and zombie movies throughout specific periods of the past 30-40 years. So it is surprising that it would be another five years before the cannibal boom and market saturation occurred. Although we may never know why, one could attribute it to the rise of the gialli and euro crime films during this period as well as the lack of interest held by Italian audiences in these films increasing the financial risk to film companies if they could not guarantee foreign distribution.
Devouring cinema
However, times and most importantly audience tastes change and by 1977 audiences wanted to see white folk getting eaten by supposedly backwards, uncivilised savages and were willing to pay for the privilege. It would be the infamous, Ruggero Deodato with LAST CANNIBAL WORLD who kick-started the sub-genre with the standard fish-out-of-water tale as a group of oil prospectors crash-lands into the jungle and run afoul of the natives.
A lot more brutal than Lenzi’s earlier cannibal effort, Deodato showed us the graphic and sometimes sexualised violence and torture that would become synonymous of the films and, rather regrettably for the director himself even if he did not shoot them, the film featured the burgeoning tradition of scenes of real life animal killings often shot at the producers request in order to boost popularity with the Asian market. Relatively successful all over the world, Deodato would provide the true blueprint and benchmark for others to follow as well as sparking a rivalry with fellow director Umberto Lenzi.
Growing in popularity with the people, if not the film critics, even big name stars would soon feel the wrath of cannibal clans, with Stacy Keach and former Bond girl Ursula Andress appearing in journeyman Sergio Martino’s only cannibal film, PRISONER OF THE CANNIBAL GOD (1978) which at least added some legitimacy to the sub-genre while contributing to the momentum of the cannibal boom.
However, 1980 proved to be the watershed moment for the sub-genre as Deodato unleashed his second foray into the genre with CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST which not only raised the bar cinematically, stylistically and conceptually but also in terms of controversy due to its graphic and realistic nature, resulting in the director having to go to court to prove the actors were actually still alive!
Splitting critical acclaim and received positively by audiences the film proved a huge success returning far far more than its modest $100,000 budget. What made this film so special wasn’t just the extreme violence but also the highly effective cinematography, as a large element of the film utilises a found footage technique designed to mimic the mondo films of the early 70s.
Also we must not do a disservice to the superb plot and the questions it raises regarding our own civility as well as how we perceive other cultures and this is something that elevates the film above its peers, whether intentional or not. Although that’s not to say it is all positive, the film features, as had become the normality, several scenes of unnecessary animal cruelty for which the director would be indicted for back in Italy.
Hot on the success of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, would be Lenzi’s return to the sub-genre which he helped create with EATEN ALIVE (1980) and CANNIBAL FEROX (1981), both moderate successes with the later highly recommended to fans of Deodato’s masterpiece. It even uses a few of the same locations and actors! Of particular note for recommending CANNIBAL FEROX is the delightful way in which Italian horror star Giovanni Lombardo Radice is dispatched, a truly visceral experience and the punishment faced by his female compatriot, even displaying some similarities to Hooper’s ‘THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974).
Other notable films of this period included the mis-titled, clear broad hit all angles cash in ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST (1980) and MONDO CANNIBAL (1980). Unfortunately however CANNIBAL FEROX also marked the decline of the sub-genre in both quality and quantity as tripe such as MASSACRE IN DINOSAUR VALLEY (1985) aka CANNIBAL FEROX 2 sought to cash in on the home video market disappointing many fans with its attempts to trade off the earlier success of Lenzi’s enjoyable film.
A new tribe
While every now an then major release cannibal film still makes it onto our screen it was around a 20-odd year gap from the last cycle before one jungle cannibal film made it out alive to tell its tale with a major release, in the form of the American 2007 release WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE (while Mattei put out two low budget jungle cannibal films with MONDO CANNIBAL and LAND OF DEATH a few years before) which sought to almost replicate CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST but lacked both the shock factor and potency of its predecessor and it failed to ignite any further interest in the genre. This lame duck however was most likely a reaction to the initial success of the WRONG TURN series which repackage the jungle cannibal for an American audience by transposing the action to backwards, rural America.
All of this makes it strange for Roth to, playing devils advocate here, try and reinvigorate the genre. With a delayed release schedule, mixed reviews and a non-mainstream product it is highly unlikely that THE GREEN INFERNO will start a mini boom much in the same way the zombie film exploded again back in the mid-2000s. So what is Roth's angle? Is he merely seeking to re-establish himself at the top of the Hollywood pecking order, to remind those who lack cinematic context but saw Hostel and not much else that he still has it and that this is horror?
It is much more likely after the success of his previous films that he is now in a position to dictate more of his own ideas (or those of Deodato) to industry execs and get a green light knowing that a vast majority of the audience would not have heard of let alone seen the likes of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST or CANNIBAL FEROX. And if it results in sparking interest in the Italian output then this can only be a good thing and regardless of the quality of THE GREEN INFERNO, here's hoping cannibalism is back.