Invaders of the Lost Gold (1982) User Reviews

Really, REALLY poor jungle-boogie!

[Coventry · 2/10 · 5 November 2006]

There's a reason why "Horror Safari" isn't as known or infamous as most of its contemporary Italian jungle adventure-movies like, say, "Cut and Run" or "Massacre at Dinosaur Valley". Despite the cheerful title and a promising sounding plot description on the back of the DVD-cover, it's a tremendously dire and stupid movie. We have a bunch of very unlikable characters searching for a shipment of gold that was left behind in the Phillipines jungle (among a cannibalistic tribe) near the end of WWII. The expedition is put together by a rich bastard and assembles the most incompetent adventurers you've ever seen. The "leader" is an American drunk who's heroic years are long over, one of the original Japanese army commanders that lost the gold in the first place, a black strongman who's far too friendly to be believable, two women that are completely useless and one mean, double-crossing sleazebag. "Horror Safari" feature the absolute weakest death scenes I've ever seen; hands down. Instead of getting torn apart by the cannibals – that have just vanished suddenly, by the way – the characters just fall off of cliffs or walk straight into the open mouths of plastic crocodiles. One poor girl, the dreadfully miscast Laura Gemser, even spontaneously drops dead during a skinny dip! Honestly, if there's anyone who can give a reasonable explanation for Gemser's character dying, please email it to me! This must be one of the worst films ever made, complete with lousy editing, uninspired use of beautiful locations and bad acting with an even worse dubbing. Even the most hardcore fan of Italian cult cinema shouldn't waste one penny on this piece of crap.

Pass!

[haildevilman · 3/10 · 13 August 2006]

This won't be easy.

But I have to slag a film starring Goddess Gemser, but I've got little choice.

This ripped off war movies, jungle flicks, and the Cannibal sub-genre, an in every case, poorly. Cliché' characters, crap acting, predictable scenes, and in many cases, unfinished.

I'll pay it one compliment. Gemser is, and always will be beautiful. This got 3 stars out of me just for having her in it. Without her, I probably wouldn't have even bothered.

Despite having talent like Whitman and Strode, the acting was absolute crap. These guys, along with Purdom and Sakata (Oddjob), were obviously picking up a quick paycheck.

Miss it.

A Lost Opportunity

[JHC3 · 4/10 · 26 May 2003]

The Philippines, 1945. Japanese troops escorting a gold shipment are ambushed by headhunting natives. Most of the soldiers are killed, but not before they manage to hide the gold in a cave. Three officers survive. Thirty-six years later, Rex Larson (Purdom) is hunting for the lost fortune. He recruits one of the surviving officers and has his financial backer help arrange for an expedition. The lead guide is Mark Forrest (Whitman) who helps arrange for assistance in the Philippines. Once in the wilderness, the group must contend with the elements, treachery, and murder. Billed as a cannibal film at my local video store, it does not qualify as such. It is definitely inspired by the Indiana Jones flicks, but is much more conventional. The film had many of the elements necessary for success including a strong cast. Woody Strode is a welcome presence, but is largely wasted. I came away with the impression that the filmmakers were simply manufacturing a movie for a quick release rather than making a genuine effort to entertain. While it likely wouldn't have become a blockbuster or anything akin to a classic, it could have been far better with only minimal script changes and perhaps a more firm directorial hand. Or not.

ho-hum adventure

[floyd-27 · 5/10 · 29 October 1999]

Yes this started out with a promise of being a rather good adventure outing. With in the first 5 minutes a head hunting tribe against Japanese Army showdown begins resulting in a lot of gore and bloodshed.

Then it just degenerates further and further into large plot holes, bad acting and terrible editing for effects shots.

This movie was enjoyable as a novelty for the first 2/3, then became a chore there after till the convoluted and "you guessed right" ending.

Begins as a cannibal holocaust, then turns dull

[horrorbargainbin · 9 September 2002]

While there is no actual flesh eating, the slaughter at the beginning resembles the Italian jungle horror films of the previous five years ('Cannibal Holocaust', 'Make them Die Slowly' etc..). We get decapitations, heads on spears, and a spike pit. Cut to some years later and all the movie offers from that point on is a tacky adventure tale. Sure there is a hari kari scene and Laura Gemser's full frontal nude dip in a pond, but everything else is garbage. The end arrives abruptly, yet without any shocking twist.

I'd like to add that the one dollar copy of this video I found is titled 'Invaders of the Lost Gold', written in a 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' script.

Unbelievable bad film

[d_m_maier · 1/10 · 5 July 2003]

If you love to see a group of people tenting in the director's garden and walking from the east end of it to the south end, whilst the voice-over mumbles about myriads of mosquitos, the green hell and the sultriness of the jungle; if you generally love to hear the action instead of seeing it; if you like totally senseless dialogue, the worst acting you can imagine (and, yes, I've seen a lot of them Stuart Whitman and Edmund Purdom films), alligators in the Philippines, minute-long table dance scenes without any relation to the story, a gory beginning and slow-motion falls into the "abyss" (ca. 2,50 metres): THIS IS YOUR FILM. Oh, and yes, Laura Gemser is getting undressed. (That's what I gave the point for).

What A Waste Of Talent, But Watch It Anyway.

[mikecanmaybee · 3/10 · 13 November 2020]

Schlock producer Dick Randall almost had a solid "B" movie with Invaders of the Lost Gold. The first third of the film was excellent with a particularly fun bar fight seen augmented by very beautiful lady's gracefully dancing for our enjoyment. Once the premise is set and the whole gang is in the Jungle on a River Boat determined to retrieve the gold which as you can guess is hidden in a Jungle Cave, things really go haywire. If you have ever worked with haywire you will understand the reference. Lovely Laura Gemser (Maria) dies for know apparent reason during a skinny dipping scene, Someone releases a snake into the jungle guides tent for no reason, Harold Sakata (Tobachi) and the great Woody Strode's (Cal) fight to the death scene ends up in a Bro-hug for no reason, On and on we go. The acting is good with the very hot Glynis Barber (Janice) and her father David De Martyn (Douglas) quite believable. Stewart Whitman as leading man (Mark Forest) was also O.K. A special shout out to Harrold Sakata, in his last film, who keeps a sense of humor while everybody else on the boat is either forlorned or angry. The great veteran of many Filipino movies Mike Cohen as the scruffy boat Captain is also notable. I understand that director Alan Birkinshaw has done good work in other endeavors but he really bit the big one with Invaders. Wow, really bad directing and it seemed that he just ran out of any sort of screenplay with thirty minutes remaining in the film. The scene where Woody Strode meets his end would have received a (D-) from any respectable Junior College film class. I am however going to give Invaders of the Lost Gold a recommendation for the talent on screen, and even with the numerous flaws it was still entertaining. With a little more story and better directing Producer Dicky Randall would have had a clear winner.

A film with a great cast and lots of potential but fails to deliver the goods!

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 9 February 2005]

Invaders of the Lost Gold (I think the IMDb is wrong stating that's it's called Horror Safari) begins by informing us via an on screen caption that we are in the 'JAPANESE OCCUPIED PHILIPPINES 1945, a consignment of gold is being escorted to the coast by a small platoon of Japanese soldiers...'. The platoon of soldiers are making their way through the dense jungle. They are attacked by hostile natives, they hide the gold deep in a cave. Only three men survive and escape. The film than fast forwards to 'Tokyo 36 years later'. Rex Larson (Edmund Purdom) has found out about the stash of hidden gold from a friend in American intelligence. He tries to contact the three survivors, after unfortunately short lived meetings with two he tracks down the third named Tobachi (Harold Sakata) who agrees to go along and lead him to the gold in exchange for 25%. Larson then contacts Douglas Jefferson (David De Martyn) for financing as the expedition will cost a lot of money and the gold needs to be smuggled out of the Philippines and turned into cold hard cash, Larson believes Jefferson has the right contacts. Also along for the trip is boozy jungle 'expert' Mark Forest (Stuart Whitman), Janice Jefferson (Glynis Barber) who is the daughter of Douglas Jefferson, Cal (Woody Strode) who happens to be Jefferson's body guard type guy and two guides who are friends of Marks, Fernando (Junix Nocain) & Maria (Laura Gemser). They hire a boat to take them deep into the jungle, once there they set up camp. In fact these guys don't have just ordinary tents they bring along a marquis! As they get nearer the gold the expedition members start having mysterious 'accidents' that always end up being fatal. As their number starts to decrease at an alarming rate the survivors must watch their own backs and trust no one as one of the group wants more than their fair share of the gold and will commit murder to get it! This Italian financed production was directed by an Englishman, has an international cast and was shot in the Philippines so it comes as no real surprise that this is a complete mess of a film. Co-written and directed by Alan Birkinshaw this film is far to slow and devoid of any meaningful action. The script by Birkinshaw and Bill James gets the viewer hooked with a terrific opening sequence that unfortunately is as good as the film gets. The rest of it is really dull, first we get 30 odd minutes of Larson setting the expedition up which is frankly as exciting as watching paint dry. When the film finally switches to the jungle most of the time is spent watching our expedition travel down a river in a boat, dull. Things pick up a little, but not much, towards the end as people start to die in extremely boring ways and the surviving cast members finally find the gold and put both us and themselves out of our misery as this thankfully signals the end of the film. Apart from the opening scene there is no gore whatsoever, the nudity is provided by Laura Gemser and lots of lovely strippers in one of the haunts Whitman's character hangs out in getting drunk, a totally gratuitous sequence there only to show some naked female flesh. The cast is great but criminally wasted, Stuart Whitman, Edmund Purdom, Glynis Barber and Harold 'Oddjob from Goldfinger (1964)' Sakata who has the market cornered in short funny looking steel-rimmed bowler hat wearing villains, it's just a shame that not many films call for them! It's also a shame they didn't have a better film to appear in together. Basically it's awful, simple as that. It had great potential but in the hands of amateur filmmakers like these it fails to deliver anything that even approaches entertainment. One to avoid.

Death and Bad Acting

[thill-26 · 3/10 · 17 September 2008]

Man these people deal with death so well. People are dropping like flies and they just move on to the next site. It is truly an amazingly terrible picture! The fight scenes were awful. Also, like the other comment, if you like hearing the horrible deaths, then you will love it. I am truly disappointed in this film. How it is considered a horror pic is amazing enough. One Porter gets killed by a Crocodile, but I am so sure the crocodile is very small just with a close up camera shot. A lady dies while swimming with no reason given. Its one mistake after another. It started with like 30 people on the expedition, only two make it. Can someone please tell me what happened to all the other people. The editing is so bad people are apparating(harry potter) all over the place....lol

A slog through the jungle.

[lost-in-limbo · 2/10 · 21 February 2019]

While going through my DVDs I stumbled across a copy of "INVADERS OF THE LOST GOLD". Scratching my head, I couldn't remember anything of it, other than simply going by the two out of ten star rating I previously gave it. I started watching and it came flooding back. They weren't great memories either. After the opening slaughter by jungle natives of some Japanese soldiers (with laughable dubbing/accents) escorting gold during WWII, you can't help but be drawn in. Thinking that you might be onto something fun with this jungle adventure exploitation. Come on, we get decapitated heads on spears and Japanese soldiers slicing off limbs in their escape. Alas, all that comes to a thud, once it heads to present day.

There begins the expedition, as wealthy businessmen set-up their team for the Philippines to find the hidden gold. Sadly even with the stalwart likes of Stuart Whitman, Woody Strode, Harold "Oddjob" Sakata and Laura Gemser along for the journey; you're left with a cheap, uninspired and boring jungle trek. Leaving you dazed and confused, despite a little blood and nudity along the way. The dangers of the jungle (e.g. crocodiles, snakes, rope bridges, booby traps and greedy men) come to fruition, but those bloodthirsty natives from the opening sequence are M.I.A. Talk about being a party pooper.

However the real talking point is the unknown death of a character suddenly panicking and dropping dead while skinning dipping. It's a real head scratcher. This could be contributed to its terrible editing, which really does show in numerous hacked-up sequences. Like the out-of-nowhere fight between Strode and Sakata. After one calls the other a killer, repeatedly, they continue their trek then suddenly the next scene shows the two scuffling to only laugh it off like something out of a gag reel. Although one of them does get the last laugh. I couldn't help but be disappointed by "INVADERS OF THE LOST GOLD", after liking the director's previous film; "KILLER'S MOON" (1978).

Jungle junk.

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 11 March 2009]

After an enjoyably trashy opening sequence, in which a group of WWII Japanese soldiers are forced to hide their shipment of gold in a cave when attacked by blood-thirsty head-hunting natives, this jungle-bound adventure movie from prolific producer Dick Randall rapidly turns into a very tedious trek through extremely familiar territory, as a team of modern-day treasure seekers set out to recover the long-lost horde.

Despite a promising premise and an excellent cast of exploitation regulars—including Edmund Purdom (Pieces, Nightmare City), Laura Gemser (the Emanuelle series), Stuart Whitman (Welcome to Arrow Beach, Eaten Alive), and Harold 'Oddjob' Sakata—Invaders of the Lost Gold is instantly forgettable low budget junk that becomes more and more painful with every passing minute.

The story lacks excitement, with much of the film's running time devoted to bickering between characters and unlikely romance rather than on action and adventure, and the whole damn mess just simply isn't exploitative enough: Gemser strips off (I'd have been more surprised if she hadn't), but tasty TV blonde Glynis Barber keeps her clothes on (and I so wanted to see Makepeace nekkid!); there's almost no gore after the opening scene; and the ending totally wimps out, with not a savage native in sight.

There's no Horror Daktari

[insomniac_rod · 2/10 · 3 August 2005]

What's the first thing that comes into your mind after hearing the title from an early 80's movie called "Horror Safari"? You bet it's an slasher flick that involves animals or cannibals after the craze from the 70's involving sharks, apes, cannibals, etc. Well "Horror Safari" is a mix of semi-exploitation scenes (involving decaps, impales, etc.), and the typical but cheap adventure scenes.

"Horror Safari" doesn't deserves a chance to be watched. It's a cheap, mediocre, slow flick that shouldn't be even aired on late night cable. Though there's some gore that doesn't makes up for the rest of the movie that is truly painful to watch.

If the movie tried to copy the spectacular "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" it failed miserably on every aspect.

Please avoid this safari because it's not fun, you don't learn, and worst of all, it's not even a decent horror b-movie.

A 'B-movie' cast up the creek without a paddle...

[gavcrimson · 14 June 2003]

SPOILERS INCLUDED

Invaders of the Lost Gold is an exploitation film that really does throw in everything but the kitchen sink. It was helmed by British director Alan Birkinshaw, a former TV cameraman who was well versed in sex and horror cinema having previously directed Confessions of a Sex Maniac and Killer's Moon. The former was one of the tread-barest of Britain's careerist sex comedies and features a pretentious architect feeling up various glamour girls under the guise of wanting to design a breast shaped building. While the latter is largely considered the British horror film's most distasteful and unintentionally funny hour, due to lines like 'if we ever get out of this alive maybe we'll both live to be wives and mothers', the casting of a three-legged dog and a John Lindsay-type fixation for passing off secondary starlets as schoolgirls. Unlike many of his contemporaries who either retired (Pete Walker, Stanley Long) or struggled on in the declining British film industry (Derek Ford, Norman J. Warren), Birkinshaw spent much of the 1980's in Europe working for globe trotting producers like Harry Alan Towers and Dick Randall.

Here under the thumb of Dick Randall, Birkinshaw spins a tall tale whose opening documents a little known incident in WW2 in which the Japanese army faced off against a tribe of unkempt, head-hunters (or rather some blacked up extras wearing fright wigs) in the Filipino jungle. Despite their heavy firepower the Japanese come off noticeably worse and the cheerful head-hunters soon have a few severed heads to enthusiastically waive in the audiences faces. The only survivors are three Japanese soldiers who, forced to leave a large consignment of gold behind, vow to one day return. However '36 years later' ruthless businessman Rex Larson (welwyn garden city born actor Edmund Purdom) is up to no good and using less than democratic ways to separate the aged Japanese soldiers from a map of where the gold is hidden. One of the soldiers gets riddled with bullets when Larson shoots up a room full of Kung-Fu goons; another opts for an even more gruesome way out and commits hari-kari. With the map secured Larson's boss Douglas Jefferson, an upper-crust Englishman in a safari jacket then ensembles a motley crew of street fighters, mercenaries and unclassifiable toughs to journey back into the jungle for the gold. Much to Larson's annoyance his boss has also enlisted the services of Larson's nemesis, hard-living heavy drinking American Mark Forrest played by Stuart Whitman fresh from his Jim Jones gig in Guyana-Crime of the Century (1980).

Forrest and Larson have old scores to settle after Larson left his former friend Forrest to rot in a jail for five years; naturally Forrest has revenge on his mind. Once in the jungle it also becomes clear that someone is out to sabotage the expedition. And with members of the team gradually being bumped off one by one, by the time they reach the gold the number of people sharing it is unlikely to be in high figures. It has to be said though, that this bunch of would be adventurers behave in such a clumsy fashion that the mystery killer has little to do other than put his feet up and wait for them to fall from rope bridges or stumble cluelessly to their deaths in the jungle. No prizes for guessing that the instigator of the group's misfortune is Larson, who in the middle of the film fakes his own death only to make a 'surprise' return for the climatic shootout sporting a three day growth of beard.

Likely to disappoint anyone expecting 'part Cannibal Holocaust and part Raiders of the Lost Ark' (as the mondo crash DVD cheekily sells it as), Invaders of the Lost Gold is a standard but not unenjoyable jungle adventure. Birkinshaw throws in some unconvincing gore, a little nudity and fans of his Killer's Moon will be pleased to know that continuity is still not Birkinshaw's strong point (just try and figure out what fate is meant to befall secondary character 'Maria' during her ill-fated swim). Surprisingly though, while Birkinshaw's two British films ear-mark him as a man who could deliver a high amount of exploitation film goods on a micro budget (no doubt what brought him to Dick Randall's attention) here his direction seems pedestrian and at times the proceedings threaten to drag dangerously to a halt. The best thing about Invaders of the Lost Gold, and what keeps it watchable, is the eclectic 'all star' cast which as well as Messrs Purdom and Whitman also includes Woody Strode, Laura 'Black Emanuelle' Gemser in an atypical role despite her nude scenes, Harold Sakata making an odder job of playing a heavy than usual and looking hopelessly lost as Whitman's 20 years younger love interest Glynis 'Dempsey and Makepeace' Barber in a role she'd be forgiven for leaving off her CV these days.

Invaders of the Lost Gold is best viewed as a 'I'm an exploitation film celebrity get me out of here' with the cast suffering both for their art and the audience's enjoyment in believably hellish Filipino jungle locations. The print used for the DVD is in a very scratchy condition and the only extras are trailers for some dodgy 1970's Kung-Fu titles which look far worse than the main feature.

Green Hell

[unbrokenmetal · 4/10 · 9 December 2017]

In 1945, Japanese soldiers hid 2 heavy cases of gold in a cave before they had to leave the Philippines. 36 years later, Jefferson (David De Martyn) finances an expedition to find the gold. Tobachi (Harold Sakata, 'Goldfinger') is the only survivor from 1945 and is needed to show the hiding-place. Forrest (Stuart Whitman) and Larson (Edmund Purdom) shall lead the expedition together although they are deadly enemies – they simply can't resist the wages. Cal (Woody Strode), Forrest's girlfriend Maria (Laura Gemser) and Jefferson's daughter Janice (Glynis Barber) join the crew. The expedition seems to run as scheduled, but when they get deeper into the jungle, members of the expedition begin to disappear one by one when mysterious accidents happen...

'Invaders of the Lost Gold' aka 'Horror Safari', in my country 'Söldner Des Todes' ('Mercenaries of Death'), is a low budget adventure flick that has no outstanding qualities despite the good cast. Mostly filmed in a 'jungle' where the natives apparently use a lawnmower and plant palm trees neatly in rows to make it look like a park, poor action scenes, long dialogues in tents and clumsy editing do not result in a thrilling picture. The DVD distributor obviously didn't even bother to watch it before they created a tag line saying something about 'the green hell of Malaysia (!)'. Can we really blame them?

Watchable, but not particularly entertaining...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 13 April 2022]

As I sat down in 2022 to watch the 1982 movie "Horror Safari" (aka "Invaders of the Lost Gold"), I had never even heard about the movie before. I stumbled upon it by random chance, as I was perusing movies that had Laura Gemser on the cast list.

And as I came across "Invaders of the Lost Gold", naturally I opted to sit down and watch what writers Alan Birkinshaw, Bill James and Dick Randall had to offer with this particular movie.

The storyline was semi-adequate. It was fairly straight forward, I will say that much, but at the same time not enough of anything overly interesting really happened to make the movie keep a grip on my attention. So it was somewhat of a struggle to keep sitting through this movie.

The acting performances in the movie were adequate, taking into consideration the limitations imposed on the actors and actresses from a weak script and storyline.

While "Invaders of the Lost Gold" was watchable, it wasn't a particularly grand movie experience. So it turned out that I hadn't actually been missing out on anything great here. I managed to sit through the movie, but were only slightly entertained. This is not a movie that I will be returning to watch a second time, nor is it a movie that I would recommend you rush out to get to watch.

My rating of director Alan Birkinshaw's 1982 movie lands on a three out of ten stars.

SAVE ME

[kirbylee70-599-526179 · 3/10 · 23 November 2021]

I'm the type of movie fan who is willing to sit through just about any movie. I've seen some really bad movies, some great overlooked movies and some movies that are just so disgusting they were hard to stomach. I understand the struggles of low budget films and always try to respect the outcomes of those filmmakers who work through that to at least present something that can be watched and found entertaining. Sadly INVADERS OF THE LOST GOLD is not one of those movies.

During WWII a group of Japanese soldiers in the Philippines hides a cache of gold bars intending to come back after the war and retrieve them for themselves. They are attacked by native tribesmen who kill all but three who make it away safely.

Fast forward to the present, or at least 1982 when the movie was made. Adventurer and scoundrel Rex Larson (Edmund Perdom) is tracking down the map that provides the location of the treasure. Two of the three survivors don't cooperate and he kills both of them, taking the map from the second. But it needs to be read by someone who understand it so he talks the third survivor, Tobachi (Harold Sakata) into becoming a partner.

The expedition is being bankrolled by Douglas Jefferson (David de Martyn), whose daughter Janice (Glynis Barber) accompanies him on the trip. To take them down the river and into the jungle on this search is the only man said to qualify for the job, Mark Forest (Stuart Whitman). The problem is that Forest and Larson are sworn enemies due to something that happened in their past.

The expedition sails downriver and includes Forest friend Fernando (Junix Inocian) and his wife, Forest's ex-lover, Maria (Laura Gemser). Helping Jefferson is his longtime employee Cal (Woody Strode). In addition to these (the names in the film) are several porters who will soon be forgotten and fodder for anything from snakes to crocodiles.

So here is the thing. The movie runs 90 minutes and it isn't until around the 60 minute mark that they set out for the trip. Most of it is spent putting things in place. Trust me, when you make an adventure film and the biggest adventure is native attack in the first 10 minutes and a bar fight later on, you have a problem.

Shot in the Philippines on a miniscule budget the film looks it. The cinematography is much better than expected but the script is a disaster. It's as if they took all the different popular movie genres of the time, wrote them on pieces of paper, tossed them into a glad and pulled one out as they wrote the script. And I'm talking ridiculous things too. I mean the cannibal films were big at this time but I've never heard of tribal natives in the Philippines, have you?

The acting isn't too bad but for me it was sad seeing Stuart Whitman and Woody Strode relegated to being in a film like this. Both had solid careers in film for years. But this seems to be what Hollywood does when you get older, push you out the door and bring in the new young faces. Old actors either fade away of find work in films like this.

The extras here include two conversations with director Alan Birkinshaw whose career consisted of 15 directorial credits. Neither of them is very interesting and match his career. It's not many directors who can say they had Frank Stallone in not one but two lead roles in their films.

The big to do about this film is that it was produced by Dick Randall. Randall was a producer of low budget productions that seemed to make money. His movies as a producer include PIECES, SLAUGHTER HIGH, DON'T OPEN UNTIL CHRISTMAS and several Emmanuelle movies. Think of him as Roger Corman without the style or success. He has his fans and my guess is that those will be the ones most interested in picking this film up. As for everyone else don't waste your time or money.

Diverse actors trapped in a boring exploitation film

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 6 August 2016]

A disappointingly routine jungle romp, packaged as an exploitation movie but with little exploitation values to actually recommend it to the pulp crowd. Instead this is a cheap, cheap rush job, with little in the way of action, and some really boring, pedestrian direction by Alan Birkinshaw (who delivered the delightful KILLER'S MOON a few years previously to this). Even though the Italians financed this, don't expect a Lenzi movie. It's nothing like that and could probably be rated PG today. The story is lightweight and it seems most of the budget was spent on the admittedly enjoyable opening scene. It involves Japanese soldiers battling Filipino headhunters, involving lots of shooting, grenade explosions, and heads on sticks. There's even a guy who falls into a spike trap, great stuff. After this the film goes downhill as it reaches the present day.

The smarmy, always unlikable Edmund Purdom visits the ex-soldiers and asks them to come with him to find the gold. One is shot dead, another commits hari-kiri, and the third one agrees, mainly because he is Harold Sakata, aka Oddjob from GOLDFINGER, and he's one of this film's major draws. Then a huge group of old actors and cheap Filipino extras join in and off they all go in a boat. But not before has-been Stuart Whitman has decided to join in on the expedition, and that takes him about half an hour. From here on in, we get a series of uninteresting deaths by snake, falling off a rope bridge, crocodile etc. but there's no gore and each death is staged in a ridiculous slow-motion style that stops you seeing what happened; Birkinshaw is no Castellari, that's for sure.

Along with routine scripting and obvious double-crosses, this film really is a tease: offering you tons of gore and nudity throughout, and never providing them. There's a strip show in a filthy nightclub but the girls on view won't provoke much interest. So the only possible reason to watch this film? It's gotta be the great casting. Purdom chews the scenery with relish, and Whitman convinces us all too well with his portrayal of a washed-up drunk. Glynis Barber (BLAKE'S 7) is on hand as the appealing young blonde love interest but her acting isn't up to much. Then there's the aforementioned Harold Sakata. I like him here. He laughs a lot. I've got a feeling he was a charismatic guy, from the little we get to see of his screen presence. Laura Gemser also shows up to strip off, and her death scene is still the film's biggest puzzle (just what happened exactly?). And finally there's good old Woody Strode, as hard as ever, beating up a bunch of guys in a bar and looking muscular, but his death scene is a real disappointment and a real downer. So, there we have it, a diverse group of actors trapped in a boring film, not what I expected, but still pretty funny to watch.

This one should be lost in the jungle.

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 11 June 2023]

While there's some breathtaking scenery, the filming is so bad with shrill sound recording that even had it not been eyerollingly poorly written and hideously acted (including the three movie vets obviously desperate for work, or possibly just enjoying a paid vacation to an exotic shooting location), it still would have been highly unwatchable. What Edmund Purdom, Stuart Whitman and Woody Strode saw in this is a big mystery so they must have been enticed by the trip, unless they only had to venture in an overstuffed studio.

The story focuses on the search for gold left behind by Japanese soldiers in the Philippines during the war, chased out by cannibals. It's obvious that they found the portliest men possible to play the flesh eaters as the sight of them in loin cloths is completely unappealing. Hideously stereotypical Asian accents sound like something out of a badly dubbed martial arts film. Only a few exciting action sequences including the crossing of a rickety rope bridge. This isn't even worth seeing for camp elements.

Poor German effort

[dead_dudeINthehouse · 14 July 2003]

HORROR SAFARI is described in one word : lame. The movie fails in being scary, gory, or even watchable. A tragedy occurred years ago when some Japanesse troopers were on expedition... Many years later a new expedition is set to return to the place of the events. The members of the new expedition (one of them is a former survivor of the original events) find death when they find that they're not alone... Cannibalistic? No. Awful encounter with the wild nature. The film is terrible, it's a lame copy of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. German people please stay away from the genre.

"Welcome to Fright Night!...for real"

1/10-Burn it! Flush the ashes