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Mondo Cannibale
Cannibal Holocaust: The Beginning
Cannibal Holocaust 2 / Cannibal World
Italy 2003
produced by Giovanni Paolucci for Perla Nera, Film Export Group
directed by Bruno Mattei (as Vincent Dawn)
starring Helena Wagner, Claudio Morales, Cindy Jelic Matic, Antoine Reboul, Kevin Maxwell, Brad Santana, Michael Garland, Foster Howard, Eniko Bodnar, Zsilvia Chernel, Chan Lee, Domiziano Arcangeli, Mike Monty
written by Bruno Mattei, Giovanni Paolucci, music by Stefano Cannone, Andrea Fasola, Francesco Infarinato
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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The ratings for Grace's (Helena Wagner) newsshow are plummetting, so,
to give the ratings a much-needed boost, she does what every level-headed
newsmaker would do - she heads to the Amazon jungle and joins an
expedition to go in search for the last cannibals ... and if she can't
find any real cannibals, she fabricates some. The leader of the
expedition, scientist and documantary filmmaker Bob (Claudio Morales), is
at first repelled by her (scare) tactics, but all too soon he and his team
join in the fun and start killing natives just to get enough gruesome
footage - while always acting shocked as can be in front of the camera. Thing
is, eventually our little expedition stumbles upon real cannibals, who
soon enough kill their native guide - but that doesn't keep our heroes
from soon afterwards raping a girl of the cannibal tribe (the only time
cold-as-ice Grace loses her cool, it seems killing nativews is ok but
raping them isn't) before gruesomely impaling her and selling it of as
native savagery. Then though, the cannibals attack in force, tear Grace's
little expedition limb from limb and make a good use of the intruders as
afternoon snack. The suits at the television network Grace is working
for are repelled by the material of course - but decide to transmit it
anyhow (albeit in cut form) with a tagged on happy ending. What
can I say ? This is Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal
Holocaust from 1980 all over again (so much so that it actually
repeats some of the earlier film's setpieces and dialogue), but where Deodato's film
proved to be an unexpected (and extremely gorey) satire of the media's
fascination with violence, Bruno Mattei's picture is pure exploitation, a
collection of scenes of gratuitous violence forced into a story stolen
from elsewhere but stripped of its intelligence as well as its heart,
while Deodato's raw, handheld aesthetics are replaced by the soulless
cinematography of the video-age. and as usual, Mattei cares little about
characters, let alone character development, or even half-decent
storytelling, as long as his images are savage enough - turning him into
something of a mirror image of this movie's antiheroes. Not a good film
by any rate, not even so-bad-it's-good - but trashfilm-collectors will
want to own this one anyhow I guess.
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