MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY Review On "Violent Maniac's Cage"

MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY

ALSO KNOWN AS: Cannibal Ferox.

(1984, Italy)

DIRECTED BY: Umberto Lenzi.

Said to be banned in 14 countries (bullshit, publicity over here please!) Umberto Lenzi's rip off of the earlier cannibal masterpiece Cannibal Holocaust by cannibal godfather Ruggero Deodato. This one you can tell trys to replace quality and atmosphere with gruesome gore and torture. As the story goes at the beginning we have a guy going into a drug dealers apartment and getting killed. The fellows who killed the guy say that the dealer owes them money but he's not around.

Later some police arrive including a detective played by regular cannibal film star Robert Kermen. An investigation takes place that goes nowhere and is a boring waste of film. We are then brought to the South American jungle where we are introduced to three young folks. One is played by Lorraine De Selle as an anthropologist trying to prove that cannibalism doesn't exist (stupid I think, yes very). Another guy who is related to De Selle goes along and some other missus for an extra kill scene. They get the information they need in a nearby village and then go into the jungle. The blond missus is a whore I think, she sleeps with a stinky law man to get a shower.

The crew only get so far in their jeep and then must go it on foot the rest of the ways. The first native they come across is eating these big fat juicy plump worms. After an evening they have an animal which is crushed by a snake (unpleasant scene here). They come across two dead native bodies and then Italian horror veteran film star John Morghen who is dragging a wounded buddy with him. Morghen tells some bullshit story about being captured by cannibals and having one of their men castrated by them and horriably mutilated.

Morghen says that they escaped with the help of two natives which were killed. After awhile all of them see that Morghen is a cruel sonvabitch slashing a pig, shooting a native etc. The blond missus falls in with the cocaine induced Morghen. Before Morghens accomplice dies he tells the true story. Himself and Morghen met a native who said he would take them to a fortune of uncut Rubys. Morghen called the guy porteguese because he could speak a bit of it. When Morghen got to the village he strung up the native on a stake.

Morghen was strung out on cocaine and went nuts, he castrated the poor guy and poked his eyes out with a knife (eye poking is shown). Morghens accomplice was wounded so they both fled and took a couple of hostages which were killed. Morghens buddy dies and is eaten by the cannibals in full gut munching glory. The once quiet cannibals now strike back. They first get De Selle's relation, Rudy who is half eaten by piranha's then struck with a blow pipe dart.

The cannibals put Morghen on a stake which is briefly and very fakely shown. They causterize the wound and take him down. Lots of boring stuff happens in between this, the two ladies get thrown into a pit. The rescue team go looking for the lost explorers. Morghen eventually has his hand hacked off. His girl has a couple of hooks (one is shown being poked through) placed in her tits. She is then strung up and at a gruesome camera side angle she dies. The coolest death has Morghen's head placed in a head holder. He gets the top of his head sliced clean off(best gore moment in the film as well) so the cannibals can eat his brains(what a delicacy!).

De Selle awaits her excecution but a sympathetic native tries to save her. He ends up running into a nasty jungle trap and oh well. The rescue team get De Selle and thats it. Back in the city De Selle is given an award ceremony which during she seems deeply disturbed with what she has witnessed. I guess she now knows that cannibalism does exist. This was very tiresome throughout and the gore was only good in certain spots. Lots of animal killing and a direct copied animal kill of a turtle which was shown in Holocaust. Holocaust was made before this in 1979 and is really the only cannibal film you need to see.

Rating: 2 Skulls

Review by: Richard J. Taylor

Email: rtaylor@roadrunner.nf.net

MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY

ALSO KNOWN AS: Cannibal Ferox.

(1984, Italy)

DIRECTED BY: Umberto Lenzi.

I recall writing the review of Cannibal Holocaust thinking that it was the most vile of the Spaghetti Cannibal Films of the 70's. Make Them Die Slowly would become one of the most infamous of the genre and next to Cannibal Holocaust may well be one of the most brutal of the Cannibal sub-genre. A group of graduate students set out to investigate the stories of cannibalism in South America and hope to disprove them as wild rumors. They befriend a cruel drug dealer and in the course of the expedition he ends up raping and killing a local villager. The tribe then captures the outsiders and kills all except for one woman. The tribe then proceeds to cook and eat the team members as revenge for the cruelty the drug dealer inflicted on them. The surviving women does make it back to civilization and receives her diploma, all the while keeping the horrible incident to herself. The film is best noted for the a brutal impalement scene involving a woman who is hung by her breasts in a scene reminiscent of A Man Called Horse. Like Cannibal Holocaust this films obvious racism is masked by the brutality of white men on their culture but they seem to focus more on the brutal savage behavior of the locals and downplay the violence of the white explorers. As with all Cannibal films of this period what you got was plenty of savage behavior, a lot of bloodshed and little mercy given to the explorers. How many times have we been told not to tease the Cannibals!

Review by: Losman

Email: losman@express-news.net

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