Sazuma
Trading Company | Review
by Crites
Here's a seriously special
edition: a remastered "ultrabit"
anamorphic widescreen edition of the anthropophagic
cult classic CANNIBAL FEROX (aka MAKE THEM
DIE SLOWLY, WOMAN FROM DEEP RIVER). Packed
in a heavy metal silkscreened box, this
Region 2 DVD comes complete with a handsomely
packaged set of German postcard reproductions
from the release of Die Rache der Kannibalen.
I'd forgotten exactly how cruel and unusual
this picture was – and it all started
out so innocently... (WARNING: spoilers
ahead.)
Well, perhaps not so
innocently at first, as we find some junkie
stumbling out of the hospital and looking
for a fix from his buddy Mike. What he finds
instead are a couple of mob guys tossing
Mike's pad; when junkie-boy can't tell them
where his friend Mike went with their hundred
grand, the little weasel gets wasted.
Now on to the innocent
part; grad student Gloria Davis, her brother
Rudy, and their slutty blonde friend Pat
are tooling about the Amazon jungle in a
jeep, looking for material to support Gloria's
anthropology thesis that cannibalism is
just a myth perpetrated to justify the exploitation
of primitive cultures. Stopping at Turamazonas
"world famous" Monkey Island resort,
the group asks for directions to the village
of Manioca. After Pat screws the local police
sergeant for a shower the gang steers the
jeep onto a barge and sails down the Amazon
toward their destination. Along the way
Gloria expounds upon the theory behind her
PHD dissertation, and what she hopes to
learn from the Indio people of the village.
She's hardly prepared for the rigors of
jungle life however, as even the native
superstition of eating live butterflies
to avoid bad luck makes her sick to her
stomach.
Upon reaching shore
our intrepid heroes are quickly run off
the road by a jaywalking iguana. Taking
the opportunity for a whiskey break they
become slightly more acquainted with the
"poison paradise" in which they
find themselves, and quickly decide it's
best to be on the road again as soon as
possibly. And just as quickly they manage
to bog their vehicle down and blow the jeep's
engine. Forced to carry what they can and
hoof it through the jungle, they come across
one of many weird scenes that await them
in the green hell – a scarred native
devouring live palm grubs. As they pass
on the jungle behind them comes quietly
alive with natives, all silently watching
the Caucasians' progress.
The next morning their
bait tapir is taken by an anaconda in a
grisly scene that starts the day on an ominous
note. Awakened by this natural alarm the
group carries on through the jungle, only
to come across a pair of dead natives apparently
mauled by a primitive but very lethal booby
trap. As they stand staring in shock what
should come stumbling out of the jungle
but another pair of white men, one of whom
is badly wounded. The other one strongly
suggests they all get the hell out of there,
seeing as how they were just attacked by
cannibals.
Making their way to
a clearing by the river's edge one of the
new guys introduces himself as Mike Logan
and his injured buddy as Joe, "a born
loser." They've come to the Amazon
for emeralds and cocaine, but had been captured
by cannibals and forced to watch as their
Portuguese guide died a most horrible death.
Miraculously the two managed to make their
escape before winding up as supper guests
like their guide. That night Pat screws
Mike; after all, he's got cocaine.
In the morning it is
discovered that Gloria has wandered off.
The group splits up to look for her, and
in the process Rudy and Joe stumble upon
the village of Manioca. Despite Joe's warning's
Rudy is intent upon investigating, and the
pair find the village all but deserted.
Only a handful of old men remain - along
with the dead bodies of a couple natives
and the butchered body of the guide, still
tied to the pillar in the center of the
village and now rotting and crawling with
grubs. Meanwhile Mike and Pat come across
a leopard killing a monkey before finding
Gloria alive and unharmed at the bottom
of a tiger trap, caught there with a live
piglet. After dispatching the pig with a
little too much gusto Mike helps "Twat"
out of the pit and the group reconvenes
in the village.
By now Gloria has seen
enough, and the decision is made to wrap
up the party and head back home to civilization.
But as soon as they've made up their minds
Joe falls ill with fever, and the group
is now stuck in the village until he recuperates
or dies. Mike and Pat pass the time by screwing
and taking cocaine, and get so revved up
they kill a young Indio girl. Her brother,
however, manages to escape...
That night as the Indio
butcher a giant tortoise alive, Joe comes
out of his jungle sickness just long enough
to tell Rudy and Gloria the truth about
their little expedition. It was he and Mike
who burned the drug dealers in New York,
and having fled to South America they hoped
to make the best of their situation by prospecting
for emeralds. But when their quest for the
stones bears no fruit the coked-up white
men begin torturing and murdering the natives
for the legendary emeralds. It was the body
of their guide that was found in the village,
but Mike was the one who carved him up.
When they come down a bit the crazy Americans
decided to beat it, and it was their hostage
and a pursuing warrior that our group found
in the jungle.
Knowing full well how
pissed the Indios must be, the impetus to
leave becomes all the stronger. Pat and
Mike are one step ahead however, having
already split with the group's cash, medicine
and equipment. Joe dies soon after that,
and as Rudy and Gloria head out to try their
luck on their own they're visited with the
curse of the rotting papaya (no kidding);
and with that the tribe's warriors return
to the village, and the Americans watch
in horror as Joe's body is promptly torn
apart and devoured. Attempting to run away
into the jungle Rudy and Gloria are promptly
captured and brought back to the village,
to be reunited with Mike and Pat who have
also been caught and held prisoner.
And now the fun begins.
All but Mike are submerged in a bamboo cage
and left for the leeches while Mike is tied
to the ceremonial pillar. Without much ceremony
at all Mike's trousers are pulled down and
he's viciously castrated, the presiding
warrior holding the tiny trophy aloft before
eating it raw. The wound is cauterized,
and the entire group is taken to another
settlement upriver. While trying to escape
Rudy is nearly devoured alive by piranhas,
and is put out of his misery with a curare
dart. The survivors are again imprisoned,
and again the natives feast on live jungle
critter (this time a caiman).
By morning Mike has
managed to dig his way out of his holding
pit. Killing a couple of Indios and leaving
Pat and Gloria to the mercy of the rest,
Mike runs off into the jungle. He's quickly
recaptured, even as search plane flies unseeing
overhead, chartered by his girlfriend who's
been interrogated by both the police and
the mob as to the whereabouts of her missing
lover. For his crimes Mike's hand is crudely
amputated, and for whatever reason Gloria
has a pair of giant fishhooks punched through
her breasts and is hung up to die. Mike's
demise takes a more colorful FACES OF DEATH/HANNIBAL-style
form: locked into a primitive tabletop bearing
a hole just large enough for the top of
his head, Mike's skullcap is hacked off
without ceremony and the natives dig into
his open brains as if his head were a candy
dish.
That night a young Indio
takes pity on Gloria, cutting her free and
leading her away from the village. Unfortunately
some distance into the jungle he's killed
by another mancatcher, leaving Gloria all
alone in the middle of the jungle.
Some time later, purely
by chance, a pair of American trappers hears
a woman's screams coming out of the jungle
as they sail down the river with a load
of howler monkeys. Following her cries they
find the urbane New Yorker completely transformed,
crawling half-naked through the mud, bloodied
and covered with sores.
Several months later
Gloria is back to civilization, quietly
accepting her doctorate for the study Cannibalism:
End of a Myth.
Top notch – 'nuff
said. And it's all delivered in a crisp,
clear, cinematic full-screen presentation
that spares the viewer no detail.
Speaking of which, aside from the brutality
of the storyline and the treatment of the
characters, one element of note here is
the degree of animal cruelty in the film.
Aside from the natives' regular practice
of butchering and eating live animals, and
the multiple documentary-style scenes of
other animals doing the same, even the group's
scapegoat tapir is shown being slung out
of the jeep and dragged along the ground
at one point. Not that this kind of fare
will ward away your hardened gorehound,
but needless to say liberals and vegetarians
need not apply. But as with other gruesome
jungle classics such as SLAVE OF THE CANNIBAL
GOD (which makes a most excellent double-feature
with CANNIBAL FEROX), this only makes for
a harsher and more cringe-worthy viewing
experience. It's truly heinous, atrocious
and cruel, and that's what makes it a gore
classic.
Special features include
German, Italian and American trailers ("The
following feature is one of the most violent
films ever made. There are at least two
dozen scenes of barbaric torture and sadistic
cruelty graphically shown. If the presentation
of disgusting and repulsive subject matter
upsets you, please do not view this film."),
an Umberto Lenzi filmography and trailers
for Sazuma offerings DIVIDED INTO ZERO and
SUBCONSCIOUS CRUELTY.
