In the Land of the Cannibals

Ripping off big budget American films was a common practice for Italian filmmakers in the seventies and eighties with the likes of The Exorcist, Dirty Harry and Jaws being 'reinvented' several times by a host of names, which often included Bruno Mattei. By 2003, cheap exploitation cinema had become less popular in Italy; but Bruno Mattei was still making movies and apparently he didn't see any reason to stop this often practiced tradition of ripping off American movies, and saw fit to reinvent John McTiernan's Predator and splice it together with another popular American export, the cannibal movie, and what we have as the result is this film. Land of Death takes place, as you would expect, in the Amazon jungle and as was the case with Predator; we focus on a group of soldiers that have to go into the jungle on a rescue mission. They have to rescue a general's daughter who has been kidnapped by a cannibal tribe who, fascinated by her blonde hair, believe her to be some sort of goddess.

Most of the Italian rip-offs released during the seventies and eighties were a bit more subtle than this film. The order of the day was usually to rip a film off thematically and basically spin a new story around the idea used in the successful American film. But Mattei apparently couldn't be bothered to go through the time consuming process of thinking up an idea and writing a script; so what we get instead is just a re-run of Predator. And I mean that literally; whole lines of dialogue are taken, scenes are stolen almost frame for frame, the characters are the same etc. In fact if it wasn't for the fact that there is no alien, this could be a frame for frame remake of Predator (although it's more along the same lines as the fan made version of Indiana Jones quality-wise than Gus Van Sant's Psycho!). Basically, if you've seen Predator, you will know exactly what to expect here and to be honest there's not much point watching unless you're only there to see just how badly McTiernan's film has been stolen from. Mattei does at least give us some gore...but to be honest, this is shameful stuff.

This user-comment stands as my last personal homage to director Bruno Mattei, who sadly passed away just a few weeks ago. Even though certainly wasn't the world's best horror director (he's often even referred to as the Italian Ed Wood), but his movies never failed to entertain me, and you could always tell he had great intentions. "Hell of the Living Dead" and "Rats: Nights of Terror", for example, are both terrible, yet they form essential viewing for fans of Italian horror cinema. Mattei supposedly died from a brain tumor, but after seeing "Cannibal Ferox 3", I'm beginning to suspect Arnold Swcharzenegger and John McTiernan killed him for exaggeratedly imitating their masterwork "Predator". I've seen a lot of (Italian) rip-offs of cinematic milestones, but there never was any film that shamelessly borrowed so many key-elements from one movie and repeated them blatantly. Every single memorable sequence from "Predator" is copied here (from the skinned corpses hanging upside down from trees to the mistaken killing of a wild boar instead of the enemy) and even most of the dialogs are literally re-used. (" ain't got time to bleed"). Actually, all Bruno Mattei did was replace the intergalactic hunter with a tribe of native Cannibals, and that's it! A team of heavily trained soldiers is sent into the jungle to locate and rescue a Western girl who's supposedly captured by a cannibalistic tribe. The tribe considers her to be some sort of Goddess, so even if the squad can get her out of there, the cannibals aren't likely to give up without a fight. The script also steals elements from a handful of other movies ("Aliens", "Cannibal Holocaust" …) but if you've seen "Predator", you're always several steps ahead of the screenplay. The action sequences are poorly done and there's only a disappointingly small amount of gory make-up effects to enjoy. Acting performances are weak and the total lack of sleaze is unforgivable. Cindy Jelic Matic stripped off all her clothes in "Mondo Cannibale" (which was shot back-to-back with this one), so the least she could do was show some ravishing flesh here as well. Oh well, at least these recent cannibal-exploitation movies don't feature any gratuitous animal killings, I suppose. Unfortunately, I can't give any praise to Bruno Mattei regarding this film, as it really sucks, but at least he kept the Italian horror industry running till the day he died. He directed no less than fifteen movies since the new millennium and I think all his fans should see them! Call it some kind of paying your last respects

This was a film I'm not entirely sure how I got turned on to. My only guess was that after I watched Cannibal Holocaust and added its sequels to my Netflix list, I sought out a couple more cannibal films as well. I did find it interesting now that my knowledge of the genre is deeper to see that Bruno Mattei made this film under one of his pseudonyms.

Synopsis: commandos head deep into the Amazon jungle to rescue a general's daughter who has been kidnapped by a cannibal tribe.

To kick this one off, we see natives eating something around a fire and from the title of the film, it is people. We then shift to a group of soldiers as they land in Brazil. The leader of this unit is Lt. Wilson (Lou Randall). He meets with a military man from the country. They are informed they will be going into the jungle with the best guide to try to find the missing people, the most important one being Sara Armstrong (Cindy Jelic Matic).

The guide who takes them in is Romero (Claudio Morales) and his assistant. Romero tells the commandos, which include Vasquez (Ydalia Suarez), Sgt. Cameron (Silvio Jimenez) and Kruger (Sanit Larrauri), about the local customs and tribes of the Amazon they'll more than likely meet. It isn't safe and there are dangerous animals along the way. They happen upon an old campsite where Romero believes the group, they're looking for set up. The tribe they're searching for, no one has ever seen. If they have, they've never been able to tell the tale.

That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the character. I am keeping it rather short because to be honest, there isn't much depth. I don't mind that as with a film like this, I'm trying to see things go off the rails. I didn't realize the father was a general, just that he was an official of sorts. I found it funny that this is from Italy and the key actors are as well. They're pretending to be from the United States. It makes sense with the films that this is inspired by.

There was a much bigger issue I have though. It does feel like a combination of Cannibal Holocaust and Predator. I will admit that I probably wouldn't have thought of the latter if I hadn't seen the title screen when this starts up. With this second watch, I also noticed that it uses elements from Aliens and I'm guessing the other more successful cannibal movies. Examples here would be something like a pig being slaughtered on screen and the plot points to keep these characters going along their path from Cannibal Holocaust. Predator has these commandos just destroying this village to save the person they are going for. Vasquez is a character name from Aliens and there are lines of dialogue taken as well. This is a classic Mattei move.

Stemming from this is that it was boring. I understand from the cannibal films I've seen they normally need to be pretty graphic in nature to what we see or have a deeper allegory they're conveying. This doesn't do either, which is an issue. Part of this is hurt by coming out in the mid-2000s when the genre was created 30 years prior. The effects we get are tame and it doesn't bring the emotional value, since we don't flesh out the characters enough. I never connected with them and the stakes aren't there. The ending I thought was fine, but it just doesn't pull the weight needed.

There is an issue of realism it is lacking. This will take me to filmmaking. This was filmed in the Philippines. That is fine and I'm guessing it was for monetary reasons. Also, it was available. A nitpick is that the natives look Asian, not South American. I'll still credit them for going to jungles to film so there is that. The cinematography was fine. The framing as well. They go for this gag repeatedly where something will be stabbed or shot off-screen, then we get a close up of characters where the blood splatters them in the face. It was fine the first couple times and then was over the top. There are decent things with the effects here with seeing the aftereffects of things. We just needed more and it fell short. The only other thing would be the soundtrack. It was cheesy and made me laugh. It doesn't necessarily work though as it is generic. It did work at poking fun with the over the top 'patriotic music'. It made me laugh.

All that is left then is acting which was subpar as well. I wonder how much of that is the writing and having paper thin characters as well. Morales was fitting for his role, but I think it is a weird move to have them almost treating this like a documentary film where he is just narrating the facts of the jungle and the tribes they encounter. That felt borrowed from Cannibal Holocaust. Randall was meh. It is funny that he's supposed to be from Indiana and a West Point graduate. He is using backstory from Aliens with the leader of that operation. It feels ham-fisted there. Matic doesn't show up until late and she isn't given much to work with. We do see her mostly nude which seems to be the only reason she is here. The rest of the commandos are generic. The only ones I'll give credit to are the tribes of natives we have. They got into their roles and I appreciated that.

In conclusion, this film wasn't good. I'll credit Mattei for getting a film made and there are things that work. Using the jungle, even if it isn't the Amazon, is something that I appreciate. There isn't a lot for this one to hang its hat on as it borrows from better films to do what it is here and doesn't stand out. This isn't one that I can recommend unless you are into low budget films or a fan of Mattei.

My Rating: 2.5 out of 10.

A small commando squad ventures into the heart of the Amazon to retrieve Sara Armstrong (Cindy Jelic Matic). The hottie daughter of a senator, she was kidnapped by a cannibal tribe. The soldiers are led by a guide named Romero (Claudio Morales), a man who knows the score when it comes to the local tribes and their customs.

Ad copy refers to this as a cross between "Cannibal Holocaust" and "Predator", which pretty much sums up the whole silly affair. In fact, director Bruno Mattei ("Hell of the Living Dead", "Rats: Night of Terror") and his co-writer, Giovanni Paolucci, spend so much time shamelessly aping "Predator", and "Aliens" as well, that you just have to shake your head and laugh at their nerve.

On location shooting in the Philippines is effectively atmospheric (and supplemented by some stock footage), and there's a pleasingly high body count. The gore devised by Giuseppe Ferranti is actually quite good. The characters are all patently ridiculous, and receive appropriately cheese ball performances. Ydalia Suarez is the most amusing as Vasquez, an oh so obvious nod to the gung ho marine played by Jenette Goldstein in "Aliens".

"In the Land of the Cannibals" is plenty stupid, but it's not pretending to be anything other than a routine ripoff film and continuation of that cannibal genre popularized by the Italians in the 1970s and 1980s. While this viewer would readily admit that it's hardly "good" stuff, it's actually pretty entertaining, provided one isn't annoyed by the lack of imagination in the script.

Six out of 10.

I saw about 50 different Cannibal films. Italians cannibal films are definitely the best. And it seems like the returning of cannibals genre, really. Bruno Mattei made some really cool thrash films. And their colaboration in Dominican Republic with Aristide Massachessi was also great. With lack of money they did interesting films and found a lot of smart decisions in film-making . I really loved the special effects in this film, they show the real Italian gore old school. The story is classic, I can say! The group of call guys with arms in Amazon jungles fighting against different cannibal armies. The actors remind of Strike Commando days. So this is the last I could find from late 21st century Mattei. Great director he still managed to all the filmings in Philippines. I decided to find all the works by Mattei recently. www.myspace.com/neizvest