Land of Death

Land of Death

Original title: Nella terra dei cannibali

Directed by: Bruno Mattei (as Martin Miller)

Italy, 2003

Horror/Cannibals, 93min

God damn it, I love Bruno Mattei’s films. No genre was too far fetched for him to take on and regurgitate his own low budget variants of. Renown for ripping off others, lifting stock footage and sometimes clips from other films, and at times even ripping off himself. But one can’t really aim criticism towards it, as it’s actually something I see as an important Bruno Mattei trait. Production value and anything to make it a better movie, that’s what I see Mattei’s plagiarism, theft and recycling to be. Dedicated filmmaker at his best, and if there’s ever one word that sums up Mattei, it is enthusiasm.

Also released as Cannibal Holocaust 3: Cannibal vs. Commando, Cannibal Ferox 3, Cannibal of Death, Land of Death is no masterpiece in any way, but it’s full of that classic Mattei enthusiasm, and where everyone else was desperately seeking new areas of genre, Mattei stuck to what he knew best, cheap low budget exploitation. I can’t believe that I still write something along the lines of that in each and every one of the pieces I write on Mattei cinema post 1990, but there’s something fascinating about that fact and his dedication to the cheap movies that made him the master of exploitation that he rightfully was.

This time around its jungle adventure with classic cannibal genre ingredients – complete with animal slaughters, punishment of “unfaithful Mrs cannibal”, gut munching, dismemberment, and nihilistic climax.  Not forgetting stock footage of helicopters and jungle wildlife. (It wouldn’t be a Mattei film without slightly out of focus faulty cropped wildlife stock footage would it?)      

Taken deep into the green inferno by cool as fuck, pipe smoking guide Romero [Claudio Morales], a bunch of hard ass soldiers - lead by humorously clumsy rookie Lt. Wilson [Lou Randall] - are on a mission to find the daughter of Colonel Armstrong as she went missing on a previous expedition. (Sound familiar?) As you already guessed it’s only a matter of minutes before they stumble upon the worm-infested remains of the previous expeditions guide, and from out of nowhere, natives’ blow poisonous darts at them. Romero shows his diabolic character when he instead of assisting the soldier shot by a poisonous dart, calmly shoots him in the head – spattering the rest of the soldiers with his brain substance – whist delivering the cold line that there’s no cure for the poison, he merely put the soldier out of his misery.

Upon reaching the village they start spotting items of modern civilization upon the natives, which indicates that they are getting close to their destination, as these items are belongings of the former expedition. A peculiarity familiar trading of modern technology for further directions deeper into the jungle takes place. It’s amazing how much one can get in return for a flick knife these days.

The closer they get, the more carnage they find – one pretty neat skinned corpses hanging from the trees makes it all worth while – Gianni Paolucchi (who worked with Mattei in various positions since the eighties, and more importantly produced, and sometimes co-wrote almost all of Mattei’s films during Mattei’s last active decade.)… Anyway, Paolucchi and Mattei wind it up effectively as the group get closer to their destination. Appalled by the native ways, but also solving the struggle between the native tribe and their nemesis tribe who kidnap and rape their women, they slowly gain the trust of the tribe….

Exposition is always delivered by Romero who amusingly enough always seems to know everything about the natives rituals and habits, and get’s the chance to explain what the hell is going on at every encounter with them. It’s also quite funny that the more the commandos learn about the natives, the more they become infuriated with them, wanting to mount up and blast them away. Luckily they are told by Romero to calm down and lower the guns they have aimed at the cannibals. Yeah, seriously it happens a dozen times and even after they have gained the tribes trust and find Colonel Armstrong’s daughter. If the Philippine actors are stereotypical Italian Cannibals, the soldiers are a scary reflection of US army stereotypes. Gun crazy, trigger-happy stereotypes.

Long time teammate Luigi Ciccarese’s cinematography gets the job done, and the actors do what they can with what one only can imagine be minimal direction from Mattei, Most of the actors from these later films only ever did one or two films before slipping back off the radar. But who’s to complain, as this more or less gave a few lucky actors the chance to star in a “real” movie. (If you still haven’t seen Best Worst Movie 2009, about the legacy of former Mattei collaborator Claudio Fragasso’s Troll2 1990, you should stop everything right now and check it out. It’s a brilliant documentary)

I mentioned enthusiasm earlier on, and I seriously think that anyone watching these films and not picking up on the enthusiasm – after all Mattei and production company La Perla Nera crossed paths on many occasions during the last decade of his career indicating that Mattei eagerly wanted to make these films – are missing the ever so important ingredient that separates Mattei from many others. How many times have you checked out favourite genre filmmakers latest flick (or later productions) only to find it running on fumes with no passion at all. If not for the look of the direct to video productions, I honestly don’t see much difference in the late and early films of Bruno Mattei. No matter if it looks cheesy and cheap or rough and raw, I have the feeling that it was all film to him, and his level of engagement was constant throughout his creative lifetime. Just watch stuff like Snuff killer – La morte in diretta 2003,  L’isola dei morti viventi 2006, Zombi: la creazione 2007, and then compare them to Virus – l’inferno dei morti viventi 1980, Notte di terrore 1984 or even L’altro inferno 1981 and you will note that the only thing that really separates them is the quality of filming technology. Story and content wise they are all Bruno Mattei.

Nailing safe beats every five-six minutes with gore, death or gut-munching, mid point comes with the reveal that the General Armstrong’s daughter Sara [Cindy Lelic Matic, who reunited with Mattei on his next jungle cannibal movie, Cannibal World 2004] is in fact the white queen of the cannibal tribe, and a feisty one to say the least, with no intention at all to return to the decadent civilization of mankind. Snatching her from the tribe, they unleash the wrath of the Cannibals and from her on out it’s all about staying one step ahead of the many tribes they have angered on their path through the jungle and the ipacha tribe who definitely want their White Queen back.

Showing his talent for ripping off other films, Mattei literally uses everything he can imagine and freely borrows a multitude moments that you undoubtedly will recognize from previous cannibal film of the eighties, Deodato, Martino, Lenzi, and why not Franco while he’s at it. But it’s all done in a classic Bruno Mattei fashion, and I wouldn’t want it in any other way. Anyone else and I’d probably have lost interest, but with Mattei it’s a vital trait and half the fun of his films.

All in all, Land of Death is a pretty straight forward action/cannibal flick that uses something of an action plot before turning into something of a testing plot if I where to apply Norman Friedman’s forms of Plot on the film – probably a first time application and mention together with a Bruno Mattei film. Put in other words, first they search and we follow them on their action filled problem solving then the run for their lives as we watch the strong characters is responsible for their own fate. We also learn that arrogance and hostility will never end with success – basically the theme of all cannibal flicks. Norman Friedman’s plot structures are obviously something that Mattei and Paolucchi never gave a single minute of though about, but something that almost all filmmakers subconsciously know and use in their films, even if its only a cheap piece of Cannibal Exploitation.

Snuff Trap

Snuff Trap

Original title: Snuff Killer – La morte in diretta

Directed by: Bruno Mattei (as Pierre La Blanc)

Italy, 2003

Exploitation/Thriller, 88min

Come on, You know that any intro to a Bruno Mattei review will be something that plays along on the lines of me saying he was the true master of cheap exploitation fare, and a misunderstood genius… well I still stand by that point, and it’s all true. Because as other masters of Italian genre cinema where making cheap TV movies, trying to rehash their old flicks or even worse doing nothing at all, Bruno Mattei boldly stuck to his crusade against the moral majority! You have to hail Mattei as the real entrepreneur of sleaze and cheap thrills, because he never stopped making these movies… Never! From 1970’s Armida, il drama di una sposa, to 2008’s Zombi: La Creazione (Zombies: the Beginning), Mattei just kept on delivering the goods, and who would have believed that there would have been such quality sleaze capturing the aura of all that wonderfully seedy period of Italian low budget filmmaking being made in 2003?

Michelle [Carla Solaro] is a wealthy woman living a happy life of shipping at day and fundraising galas at night. But when her daughter Lauren [Federica Garuti] goes missing form the discotheque she went to with friends, Michelle’s life takes a sudden turn for the worse. Where the police fail to locate her daughter, Michelle sets of on her own investigation, which rapidly leads her into a depraved world of sadomasochism, pornography and snuff films.

Snuff Trap starts off with a delightfully sleazy intro where an audience watches a hooded man slash the underwear of the women chained to beds and items on the stage. A second bloke videotapes the “show” as the hooded assassin produces a knife, which he stabs in to one of the women who sighs in an orgasmic death grunt. Where Jess Franco would have stayed in the moment, and shown us that we’d been watching a performance, Mattei does no such thing. He zooms in on the voyeuristic camera lens and sublimely tells us that this is no show, this is Snuff Trap!This initial attack definitely sets a tone for the movie, Seedy and Gritty, Sleazy and Violent. Yeah it’s a promise on which Mattei delivers multiple times. Snuff Trap is definitely not a movie for the weak. This is a movie that explores the legend of snuff movies, sado-masochism, violence, depravity, and shot by one of the greatest exploitation filmmakers of all time… well you just cant go wrong can you?

Mattei, responsible for this screenplay by himself, (along with producer Giovanni Paloucci, who's contribution I'd guess was something along the lines of, "Hey Bruno, do something like this movie…") and it’s an impressive movie in it’s own niche of sexploitation, low budget film, as Mattei brings some really interesting stuff to the scene in this movie. Where it’s more or less a direct reworking of Joel Schumacher’s 8mm 1999, and Paul Schrader’s Hardcore 1979, the use of a female protagonist is a stroke of genius. A man searching for his missing daughter in the seedy underbelly of the sex industry is now where near as threatening as a woman taking on the same risky venture… god knows all the perils she can encounter. Mattei really pushes his leading lady way beyond anything the previous movies did, and it’s a degenerative and stirring ride she takes.

But this wouldn’t mean anything without the delicate characterization that Mattei gives Michelle. This woman is slowly presented to us, as a dedicated mother, a faithful wife and a good person. She has no hesitation to take matters into her own hands – because she has the funds, as she’s a wealthy woman – when the police offer no assistance to find her daughter. When the private detective she’s hired also pulls blanks, Michelle starts her own decent into the putrid world of pornography, violence and beyond guided by the sinister character Jean Louis, [Gabriele Gori] who she meets in a sex shop. But just like so many others in this film Jean Louis has a hidden agenda too.

Heading off on her own quest to save the fruit of her womb, builds a likeable character and the slow decent through escalating sex and violence keep’s it realistic. Michelle has to work for her victories and steps closer to whoever kidnapped her child. Pretty soon we find ourselves rooting for Michelle and want her to find her daughter, hopefully still alive and in the best case, kill the pornographers and snuff makers and make it back to the safety of their normal life…

Scratching the surface leads nowhere, but Michelle is challenged by smut peddler dwarf Karl [Valerino Alessandrini] to partake in an excruciating entrance ordeal, which gains her admittance into the darkest underbelly; the lair of Dr Hades [Anita Auer], known to fans as the Fellini of the Sadomasochists. Her sacrifice proves that there are no limits to what Michelle will do to find her child. Michele is a sympathetic character and through her sufferings the audience experiences with her. We feel the pain of her physical ordeal and absence of her daughter. This makes us feel empathy for her, and as soon as that bond is created there’s no where Michelle cant go without us rooting for her… and there are some dark and disturbing places she goes once she’s past the average sex shop with live show.

But it’s not all seedy sex and rough violence, there’s also some delirious Mattei-ish subplots concerning a masked figure who seems to be an external part in on the kidnapping and cash exchange – as Michelle lures Dr. Hades with a wad of two hundred thousand Euros to make a bestiality or orgy of blood film with the intention of finding Laruen – and the Interpol Detective Peter Laurence [Carlo Mucari] who Michelle meets in a bar, and shags not once, but twice before he reveals that he’s tracking down the snuff film makers too. We can’t be certain of his loyalty, is it for Michelle, or Dr. Hades and this creates a good tension for the piece.

There’s a brilliant moment when Michelle watches casting tapes of girls that could be part of her movie, none of them shown on the shoddy VHS copy is Lauren. When Dr Hades rewinds the tape past the first girl they watched, Lauren flashers by… but instead of having Michele react there, Mattei inserts some odd cutaways of Lauren in her prison instead… suggesting that there’s a paranormal connection between Mother and Daughter. Like many other Bruno Mattei films, it’s just one of those odd moments that just hands there… The kind of quirkiness that makes his movies stick out.

Metaphorically I can read this movie as a sexploitation adaptation of not only 8mm and Hardcore, but also of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, which tells of the author’s trip through hell and back, which is exactly what, Michelle’s venture is al about. Yes, fine Italian culture and the exploitative trash fest it inspired seven hundred years later, the circle is closed, and Mattei delivers the most interesting version of the poems ever. It’s all there if you just read the movie correctly. Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso. In Inferno Dante realizes that he’s getting in too deep and meets Virgil who guides him. Just as in Snuff Trap, Michelle gets in deep and meets Jean Luis, who guides her even deeper down into hell. Purgatorio, after the nine circles of hell, there’s the seven deadly sins, which is where Michelle finds herself when confronted with Dr. Hades, who offers any kind of perversion at a price. In the last chapter Paradiso they exit and Dante is aligned with god’s love, as he re finds his faith… when you see the movie you sill see how this is to be found in the last act of Snuff Trap, a movie by Bruno Mattei, I choose to see as a modern version of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy.

Production value! Mattei knew everything about production value, and there are a number of shots of Carla Solaro walking across famous locations all around Europe in her search for her daughter. Yeah, just walking through a familiar place in an exterior shot gives Mattei the opportunity to cut right back to the sleazy set, createing the illusion that the movie takes place all over Europe, and all most likely for the cost of a weekend round-trip through cities of Europe. I’ve never seen a movie where the leading character walks through, stops and has a little pose to signal a little think, before walking out of shot again in so many known places, but, it works and I’m writing it up as yet another sign of Mattei’s brilliance.

Snuff Trap is a grimey and fascinating movie, which Mattei scripted, directed and edited. Shot by Luigi Ciccasere who shot several of Mattei’s later movies including L’isola dei morti viventi (Island of the Living Dead) 2008. The movie even features stunts supervised by legendary Italian stuntman Ottaviano Dell’Acqua, who has a very small cameo in the movie. To think that Mattei was getting away with stuff like this without really getting any attention is an outrage. This is potent stuff, at times it even predates Srdjan Spasojevic’s Srpski Film (A Serbian Film) 2010 in its topics, themes investigation plot and shock twists. Snuff Trap is a movie you should be watching right now if you like the work of Bruno Mattei!