Rating: NR
Genre:
Horror
Theatrical Release: 04/24/1981(Italy)
Release Date: 10/31/2006
Dubbed: Italian/English
Sound: DD2
Run Time: 93 Minutes
Flags: Graphic Violence, Nudity, Not For Children, Gore
Distributor/Studio: Grindhouse
Primarily a showcase for the gory special-effects artistry of
Gianetto de Rossi, this revolting horror film stars
Giovanni Lombardo Radice (also known as "
John Morghen") as a drug-dealer who comes to the Amazon jungle from New York looking for a cache of stolen emeralds. He joins some American college students and soon introduces them to his special lifestyle, raping a native girl, then beating a young Indio senseless before gouging out his eyeball with a knife. Naturally, the local cannibals don't take too well to this treatment, so they cut off
Radice's penis with a machete, gouge out his eye, then scalp him and eat his brain. Deciding that his companions are also to blame, the natives hang a young woman by impaling her breasts on meat hooks while her sorrowful companion sings
"Red River Valley." Eventually, one woman gets back to New York, where she reads a dissertation on cannibalism to earn her PhD. Cult filmmaker
Umberto Lenzi really outdid himself with this bloody spectacle, which maintains a consistent air of cruelty with a non-stop procession of beatings, rapes, real-life animal slaughter, larva-chewing, genital-chopping, cannibalism and the infamous meathook scene. Definitely for acquired tastes only, this nauseatingly effective shocker features a brief appearance by adult-film star
Richard Bolla as a New York policeman.
~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide