Ultimo mondo cannibale (1977)

Director:

Ruggero Deodato

Writers:

Tito Carpi (screenplay)
Gianfranco Clerici (screenplay)

Release Date:

March 1978 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Horror

Tagline:

Can this modern man survive in a Stone Age world?

Plot:

An oil prospector escapes from capture by a primitive cannibal tribe in the Philippine rain forest and heads out to locate his missing companion and their plane to return home.

Plot Keywords:

Cannibal | Escape | Jungle | Heart In Hand | Actual Animal Killed

Cast

Massimo Foschi	...	Robert Harper
Me Me Lai	...	Pulan
Ivan Rassimov	...	Rolf
Sheik Razak Shikur	...	Charlie
Judy Rosly	...	Swan
Suleiman	...	Native
Shamsi	...	Native

Also Known As:

Cannibal (UK) (video title)
Carnivorous (USA) (reissue title)
Jungle Holocaust (USA) (DVD box title)
Last Cannibal World (International: English title)
The Last Survivor (USA) (censored version)

Runtime:

92 min | Sweden:82 min (heavily cut) | USA:82 min (R-rated version) | South Korea:85 min (heavily cut) | UK:87 min (heavily cut) | Australia:82 min (heavily cut)

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:18 (re-rating: 2005) (uncut) | Norway:(Banned) (1982-2005) | Australia:R (re-rating: 1984) (heavily cut) | USA:X (1984 release) | USA:Unrated (uncut) | UK:18 (re-rating: 2003) (heavily cut) | USA:R (heavily cut) | Australia:Refused Classification (original rating: 1977) | UK:X (original rating: 1977) (heavily cut) | USA:X (1984 re-release) | Germany:Not Rated (DVD rating) | West Germany:18 (uncut) | Netherlands:16 (DVD rating: 2007) | Finland:K-18 | France:-18 | Iceland:(Banned) | Italy:VM18 | South Korea:18 (1995) | Sweden:15 (heavily cut)

Filming Locations:

Malaysia

Company:

Erre Cinematograsica S.r.l.

Trivia:

First part of Ruggero Deodato's "Cannibal Trilogy" also including Cannibal Holocaust (1980) and Inferno in diretta (1985).

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Killing of America (1982)

Just a warm-up to Cannibal Holocaust

It was interesting to see Ruggero Deodato in the introduction to this film because he certainly doesn't look like someone that would put out the gut-churning films that he does. It was also interesting to hear that he was very much against the scenes of animals being killed and they were more or less inserted into the movie afterward. I guess he could have insisted they be taken out? Oh well. As for the film, some folks are headed for the jungle and upon landing their small plane they find out that their people that were stationed there are missing, apparently victims of the local cannibal tribe that lurk in the jungle waiting for Italians to happen along. The researchers have lost a wheel on their plane but when it's been fixed it's too dark to leave, so they hole up in the plane for the night & all might have been well had it not been for the need of Swan, the woman that was with them, to step out of the plane for a pee break. Of course she's dragged away by the natives and the remaining three go in search of her when it's light and quickly become the remaining two. Now these two men build a raft and take off down a river, only to become separated at some rapids when they hit the rocks and one remains. He is hungry and picks the wrong type of mushroom to eat and ends up being caught by another tribe (not cannibals, I guess) and imprisoned, and subjected to torture and humiliation. He does manage to escape with the help of a young native woman (Me Me Lai) and off they go into the jungle. They do find the other guy though (Rolf) and the three of them try to make their way back to the landing strip, although Me Me Lai is frequently trying to lead them away from that area because she knows what lurks in that direction. This isn't bad as far as cannibal/jungle movies go, it does have a couple disgusting scenes but is far eclipsed by Deodato's later film "Cannibal Holocaust". One thing that this shares with many other Italian Cannibal Operas is that the music chosen (especially for some of the more gruesome scenes) is incredibly inappropriate..lush orchestration more suited to romances or ANYTHING other than scenes of folks getting eviscerated or decapitated. Overall this is a decent jungle cannibal adventure flick, though, and a bit more tolerable than some of Deodato's later gruesome stuff. 7 out of 10.