Slave Of The Cannibal God
- Css Darth-Sheol
- May 1, 2015
- 3 min read
Slave (or “Mountain” or “Prisoner” depending on your version) of the Cannibal God is a horror of the jungle adventure flick – perhaps there's enough of these to designate it as part of a “cannibal” subgenre. From the sounds of it I think it was intended to be an Italian shocksploitation, though depending on the version you see you may come away feeling like it's little more than a standard B horror.
Susan (Ursula Andress) arrives with her brother in New Guinea searching for her lost husband. Prof. Foster (Stacy Keach) is the only one that knows much about what work Susan's husband was doing out in the jungle so she convinces him to take a party out on a search and rescue mission. The dangers of the jungle start hitting them immediately, but none of it compares to the cannibal tribe that wants to have them over for dinner. They are soon captured, tortured, and served as a hot meal.
Most of the movie is the group's trek through the jungle. A few people die and disappear here and there to keep the danger alive, but the cannibals don't come out in full force until closer to the end. Once in their camp the disturbing scenes go into overdrive.
Some of the jungle scenes are drawn out, but if there's one thing I'll say about this movie is that it isn't boring. You may not like what you see, but there's little danger of falling asleep, at least not when it gets into full swing.
Great acting isn't going to be one of the things that pulls you in, though. Keach is the only one that's really any good, but even he has a couple of scenes that he doesn't pull off all that well. Andress is OK, but she's there more to look good than add a strong dramatic element. Nobody else is really worth mentioning.
Even though this is an Italian movie it appears to have been shot in English so at least you don't have to put up with bad dubbing. Ursula's thick accent can make her a little difficult to understand at times. Her brother also has a thick accent, but he doesn't talk enough to make that any kind of issue.
MORALITY:
Depending on which version you see (there are several different edits listed) you may get more or less of the most graphic scenes. Cannibal movies are often known for being more extreme than most, and this one in its unedited form sounds like it holds true to that (perhaps even more so in the extended version). In one edit or another it includes a graphic castration, a fairly explicit female masturbation, bestiality, and gruesome gore.
The version I saw was the most heavily edited version available (under an hour and a half meaning something like 15 minutes including the most graphic of the content has been removed) and is more typical rated R fare - far less shocking if still distasteful to most viewers.
While what I saw is far tamer than what I've read of the materials that were cut, this version still has graphic violence, messy corpses, and cannibalistic suggestions. The infamous castration scene is cut down to a mere suggestion, and Ursula's nudity, which gets mentioned every time I see the movie discussed, is absent. The animal violence is still here. This is wildlife footage such as a lingering shot of a python eating a monkey and a lizard being graphically mutilated.
A sexual scene includes a little nudity, a female cannibal shows a little of her body (for no reason other than to have some nudity I think), and a few other fleeting shots show barely dressed natives in the backgrounds of various scenes. The more disturbing remaining moment is a quick full frontal shot of a guy that has become the cannibals' supper.
The strong language is infrequent.
SPIRITUALITY:
The cannibals live a savage life that seems to be completely devoid of any love or compassion. Their rituals are disturbing to the point of being inhuman. The film conveys the horrors of this kind of society but with more of an eye of morbid fascination and a desire to entertain audience with shock than anything socially redeeming.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Most people are going to hate this film in every way. The graphic and disturbing content is going to be enough to drive away most viewers, but even without that consideration there is nothing special in the story, acting, cinematography, or anything else. You've got to want to see extreme shock-value cinema to have any real appreciation of it.
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