Italy has been very good to us Horror/Exploitation fans over the years. Perhaps more than any other country. If you want cheese, they got plenty, if you want gore, no problem. If you're in the mood for a genuinely scary masterpiece, there's more than enough to go around. This country offers a bottomless pit of Giallos, Women In Prison flicks, Zombie epics, and all sorts of cool, supernatural Horrors with tons of atmosphere. However, there's one sub genre that sticks out among the rest. The cannibal films, or jungle atrocities. Whatever you want to call them.

A type of film started by Umberto Lenzi, with 1972's The Man From Deep River. However, the film that really put these things on the map was Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust, which is widely known as the most extreme of the bunch. But is it really the cream of the crop? Most seem to think so, but not everyone. Most people who don't, favor Lenzi's Cannibal Ferox more often than not. Both are great in different ways. Both undisputedly take up the number one and two spots. But there can be only one Coca-Cola. In my humble opinion, that would be Ferox.



Before going into why I favor this movie over the other one, let's talk about the story. first. We begin in New York City, witnessing an innocent man losing his life at the hands of gangsters. A senseless casualty, but far from the last. The gangsters were looking for the guy's dealer friend, who owes them a lot of money, but is currently M.I.A. We already get the idea that Mike is trouble. And we haven't even met him yet. Meanwhile, Gloria, her brother, Rudy, and their slutty friend, Pat, head out to the rainforest. Gloria is an Anthropologist who is writing a thesis on Cannibalism within ancient tribes. An attempt at disproving the theory. After several inconveniences and setbacks deep within the jungle, the trio run into Mike and his partner in crime, Joe, who have been hunting for Emeralds. Mike quickly reveals himself as a cokehead and a dick, while Joe happens to be badly wounded. Already, this doesn't look like it's going to end well.

Mike feeds them some story about how they were with a Portuguese guide who, for some reason, got on the bad side of a local tribe, and was tortured, castrated and killed right in front of them, while they somehow managed to get away by the skin of their teeth. Later on, Joe, in his last moments of life, reveals what really happened. Joe, being the sadistic, coke headed rascal that he is, went ape shit on their guide and did all the things he had pinned on the cannibals. Mike is a bad guy. The cannibals know this because they were forced to witness Mike's meltdown. And anyone they see with their enemy is of course guilty by association.

As Mike pushes it by murdering a young girl, the tribe is angered even further, and eventually captures Mike and his new "friends". I suppose trying to explain that they aren't actually with him is out of the question. Explanations won't do them any good out here. These primitives know nothing of trials, lawyers or fairness. But there is one thing they have an understanding of. That'd be Revenge! Guilty or not, everybody's fucked, now! Especially Mike. Rudy runs off and gets himself killed. Mike, castrated. He and the ladies are held captive to await their inevitable demise.



Oh, and some animals get slaughtered for absolutely no reason. This being something that almost every Cannibal atrocity includes. Why, I don't know. I've heard it was meant to be senseless entertainment. They got the senseless part right. I've never lost any sleep over it like some seem to, but I think we can all agree that was shitty.

Also known as Make Them Die Slowly, Cannibal Ferox was released the very next year after Cannibal Holocaust, gaining an equal amount of notoriety, and most likely offending an equal amount of movie goers. I do love both these films, but as I said, I tend to favor this one. Sure, it's not quite as disturbing, the score isn't quite as nice, and neither is the location. But that's all I'm seeing that Holocaust has over Ferox.

But what does Ferox really have over Holocaust? Well, for starters, it's more fun. I think it's more of a typically cheesy Italian Exploitation than it's counterpart. The dialogue is pretty stupid at times, which is good for a few laughs. We get to know the characters a little better. Characters who are far more likable. There's also this sense of dread which Holocaust fails to offer. Mike and the gang are held against their will for some time, forced to live the rest of their short lives in terror, picturing their own deaths over and over until it finally happens in a way more gruesome and painful than they could have imagined. In Cannibal Holocaust, it's just a bunch of assholes killing for no reason and eventually paying for it. Cannibal Ferox is certainly the less gruesome of the two movies, but all things considered, it still has my vote as the superior brand. 7/10