Mountain of the Cannibal God (1978)
Film Information
Director: Sergio Martino
Producer: Luciano Martino
Writer: Cesare Frugoni, Sergio Martino
Date Released: 1978
Cast:
Ursula Andress as Susan Stevenson
Stacy Keach as Edward Foster
Claudio Cassinelli as Manolo
Antonio Marsing as Arthur Weisser
Franco Fantasia as Father Moses
Dudley Wanaguru as Government officer
Rating = 2/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
Susan Stevenson is trying to find her husband, Henry who has been missing for three months. Henry was said to have gone on an expedition into the Marabata Jungle and towards a sacred mountain called Ra Ra Me located off the Roka Island. She and her brother, Arthur along with expeditioner, Edward Foster, begin to go through the jungle in order to look for Henry. But, in reality, Foster wants to kill the last of the cannibalistic tribal members because he was held captive by them long ago. Susan and Arthur also have their own little secrets and use Henry as an excuse to retrieve the Uranium deposits from the mountain. While on their journey, the group is met by another traveler, Manolo, who accompanies the remaining group members to the mountain. But as they get closer, the group becomes captured by the tribe. only to be tortured. They must find a way to escape before they get killed.
Gore Factor
DISCLAIMER: In one scene, there is an iguana sacrifice in which it is dissected and eaten raw. The scene is quite brutal. In another scene, a monkeys head gets caught in a snake’s mouth and killed which lasts for a solid 2 minutes. There are also many other scenes that display animals fighting each other ending in one animal’s death. For animal lovers, this film may not be for you. In other regards, there is also the typical nudity and cannibalistic rituals that one would expect in a film such as this. There are multiple scenes which are rather grotesque and gory.
The Grave Review
The 1970s was a time for exploitation and violence. Mountain of the Cannibal God was one of those films that met my expectations…which were rather low. The film’s runtime was just about an hour and forty minutes. For a film that was almost two hours long, this film had quite a bit of time to cover. Unfortunately, there were multiple unnecessary scenes that took away from the real storyline. There was no engagement in the story or the characters.
Considering that there were relatively big names in this film, the performances of the cast did not carry this film in any way. Actor, Stacy Keach (Edward Foster) was wiped out of the film rather quickly. Although Keach has had an excellent cinematic career, this film did not serve him justice. Actress, Ursula Andress (Susan Stevenson) who is probably best known for playing aside Sean Connery in the bond film, Dr. No, was also unfortunately not able to keep this film interesting. With that said, her beauty and presence makes her scenes enjoyable to watch.
What the film lacked in substance, it flourished in beautiful forestry and atmospheric environments. The film was almost worth it just to see the pretty waterfalls and caves. But, the scenes involving the sacrifice or cannibalism of animals and the animals killing each other were distasteful to say least. Those scenes were simply unnecessary and only emphasized to create a sense of discomfort and shock value. Other critics have also criticized the way the film depicts tribal and native people. Although it is true that the film does not tastefully display these people in the best light, it is the nature of the film as is with other cannibalistic films. Truthfully, all the cannibalism films are politically offensive, at least from today’s standpoint.
Overall, this film is nothing special but if you like cannibal films, you may like this one. If for nothing else, you may want to watch the film to see the beautiful Ursula Andress.
For the foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives Mountain of the Cannibal God (1978) two graves out of five graves.
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