Cannibal Ferox, also known as Make Them Die Slowly and Woman from Deep River is a 1981 exploitation horror film directed by Umberto Lenzi.
From beginning to end, it's a watered-down rip-off of Cannibal Holocaust.
Three college kids, Gloria (Lorraine De Selle), Rudy (Danilo Mattei) and Pat (Zora Kerova), out to write a thesis that cannibalism no longer exists head to South America. Once there, they encounter a pair of drug dealers, Mike (Giovanni Lombardo Radice) and Joe (Walter Lucchini) who claim to be fleeing from a Cannibal Tribe that attacked them. Continuing on until they reach the tribe for some reason, they find the village deserted except for a few members lurking around the fringes. It seems Mike lied; he had actually been forcing the tribe to gather coca and mine for emeralds, and had killed one of them for his own sadistic amusement, prompting the attack. When he kills another one, the tribe decides there shall be no more and goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the dealers and kiddies. Gorn ensues.
No 70s/80s grindhouse Cannibal Film would be complete without some genuine animal killings; here a rodent is eaten by an anaconda, a monkey is eaten by a leopard, a boar is stabbed, a turtle is dismembered, and an alligator is sliced open. Also; the film's principal marketing point was that it had allegedly been banned in 31 countries. However, a complete list of the countries it was banned in has never been given, and many of the countries it was once banned in have now lifted the ban.
This film provides examples of:
- Asshole Victim: Mike, ooh boy Mike. An Ax-Crazy Sadist who likes nothing more than torturing, mutilating and killing natives to the point of provoking the natives to go after them in the first place and repeatedly leaves his partner to die, it's safe to say that he isn't missed.
- Ax-Crazy: Mike again.
- Big Bad: Mike Logan, the sadist whose torment of the tribe causes all the chaos.
- Cannibal Film: It's in the title. The film revolves around the tribe slowly torturing the protagonists and then eating them.
- Captured by Cannibals: The protagonists are captured by a tribe of man-eaters after one too many murders.
- Dirty Coward: Mike ends up leaving the rest of the party to die so they don't hinder his escape.
- Exploitation Film: One of a large spat of violent cannibal films in the 1970s to 80s.
- Eye Scream: Mike gouges one of the native's eyes out with his machete.
- Fan Disservice: Seeing men get castrated or women having hooks stuck through the bottom of their breasts so the ends stick through the tops just isn't pleasant at any speed.
- Foregone Conclusion: Come on people; just look at the poster above. And the title. And the fact that it's banned in 31 countries. And the fact that it starts out with the kids oh-so-assured that cannibalism no longer exists. Just what do you think is going to happen in it?
- Gorn: Errr, yeah.
- Gratuitous Latin: The word "ferox" in the title means "cruel" or "ferocious" in Latin.
- Groin Attack: Mike not only castrates one of the natives, he himself gets castrated in turn by the vengeful tribe, complete with a gruesome closeup.
- Heal It With Fire: A (groin) wound cauterized with a hot blade - ouch!
- Hollywood Silencer: Surprisingly averted here, as The Cinema Snob points out.
- Humans Are Bastards: Gloria appears to reach this conclusion by the end of the film.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Through the breasts with fish-hooks, egad! And you thought the clit-snip from Antichrist and the nipple-bite from Snakes on a Plane were horrid, ladies!
- Laser-Guided Karma: Mike chops off a tribesman's manhood, and he has the same done to him, later in the film.
- Large Ham: Mike, who no sooner shows up than is angrily barking out insults and demands at everyone in sight.
- Mercy Kill: A rare instance from the vengeful natives, where after Rudy gets himself savaged by piranhas, they simply opt to shoot him with an instant poison dart rather than drag him out to torture him some more.
- Ms. Fanservice: Pat.
- National Geographic Nudity: The natives tend to only be clothed in a loncloth, male and female.
- Piranha Problem: Rudy attempts to escape across a river, but his wounds attract a swarm of piranhas, which predictably savage him in seconds and leave him bleeding to death before the natives put him down with a poison blowdart.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The tribe goes on one after Mike mutilates one of the natives and kills another.
- Video Nasties: Much like its predecessor, this film was banned in Britain as a Video Nasty.