
Cannibal World aka White Cannibal Queen (1980): The immortal Jess Franco delivers again with this haunting tale of cannibalism and atrocious dubbing. Couple with young daughter go sailing near cannibals, who have Mom for dinner, eat Dad’s arm but allow him to escape, and worship the daughter. Dad returns with a search party of nitwits. Hilarity sort of ensues. Cannibals look like they were working at Auto Zone last week. Topless daughter/goddess who grew up very fast. In-stream Kung Fu. Gratuitous snakes, crocodiles and tops of trees. Confusing and short, with funky cannibal music. Outstanding. Three coils.


Cannibal Terror (1981): Shot at the same time and place as “Cannibal World,” with many of the same extras. Also some of the same shots of monkeys, dancing cannibals and the kind of gloppy detritus one comes to expect at cannibal settlements. Stupid criminals kidnap rich guy’s daughter, flee into jungle and become lunch. We’re talking barf city. Efficient butchering. Auto Zone cannibals. Fleeting nekkidity. Enthusiastic yet uncoordinated dancing. Idiotic rescue attempt. Way too much plot getting in the way of the story. Two coils.


Massacre in Dinosaur Valley (1985): Our survey of cannibal movies continues with this specimen, featuring the Stupidest People to Ever Go in the Jungle. Paleontology trip to the Amazon goes awry when the plane crashes. The stupid people manage to die in various stupid ways until it’s just Kevin and the two girls, who have to deal with a) the cannibals and b) the illegal miners who have slaves. Nekkidity. Snakes. Glop. Lesbitation. Spear chucking. Indigenous religious ceremony rudely interrupted by Kevin. Dinosaur footprints but no dinosaurs. A solid example of how to stretch a film to the breaking point ie. 90 minutes. Three coils.


Primitives (1978): An Indonesian entry, featuring three stupid people plus a stupid guide who go to the jungle to study the natives. The first gang isn’t primitive enough, so they pay the guide extra to go deeper into the jungle where they find a tribe of cannibals who look like a grubbier version of Three Dog Night and communicate entirely in grunts. Gratuitous fish eye lens. Gratuitous animal vs. animal footage lifted from somewhere else. Gratuitous and puzzling 70s lounge music. Afterbirth licking. Depenising (implied). Turns out jungle fu has the same main rule as regular kung fu: Only one guy may attack at a time. No nekkidity. Tough sledding, frankly. One coil.


Slave of the Cannibal God (1978): Two of the stupid people in the jungle here are recognizable, or at least they were in 1978: Ursula Andress and Stacy Keach. Everything else is pretty much the same. Ursula’s looking for her missing anthropologist husband deep in the jungles of New Guinea. The usual hijinks occur. Lots of snakes in this one. Funky ceremonies. Nekkidity in the form of cannibals and Ursula’s personal chest. Lizard eating, which may or may not follow lizard butchering. Ursula in a goddess costume, attached to a tower of sticks, in a cave. Depenising (strongly implied). Dwarf cannibal. Somewhat higher production values than the standard cannibal flick. Groovy music. Highly offensive in every way. Four coils.

