REVIEW – Last Cannibal World

Christian Sellers — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:33:55 +0000

It seemed that with the Italian cannibal movies of the 1970s and ’80s, filmmakers were constantly trying to up the game from their predecessor. When Umberto Lenzi directed Il paese del sesso selvaggio (Deep River Savages), Ruggero Deodato followed it with Ultimo mondo cannibale (Last Cannibal World). When Deodato topped himself with Cannibal Holocaust, Lenzi had to take it to the extreme with Cannibal Ferox. And whilst Last Cannibal World lacks the graphic violence of many of those that followed, its take on the subject was far more brutal than Deep River Savages, which had been devised as more of an action flick than a horror movie. But soon filmmakers found a more controversial influence, taking lessons from the notorious mondo cycle that begin in the early 1960s with Mondo Cane and continued to cause controversy for the following decade. Last Cannibal World would lack whatever it was that made Cannibal Holocaust so disturbing but would prove to be the stepping stone in which the genre would change into something far sicker and confrontational.

Arriving on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, American oil-prospector Robert Harper (Massimo Foschi) and his crew discover that the campsite of his colleagues is deserted and half-devoured corpses are found nearby. Realising that they had been attacked and eaten by the natives of the island, Harper and his geologist Rolf (Ivan Rassimov) take shelter in their helicopter until morning. Exploring the jungle, they come across a group of natives feasting on the body of a young woman and in the panic become lost and separated from each other. Harper is eventually captured by the tribe and taken back to their village, when they strip him and keep him locked in a cave whilst they decide his fate. Watching their bizarre rituals and concluding that they will eventually kill him, Harper realises that his only chance of survival is to escape.

Last Cannibal World owes a huge debt to Deep River Savages, which also featured a ‘civilized’ man being abducted by natives and imprisoned, where he tries to understand their way of life whilst fearing for his own. Yet Last Cannibal World would approach the material from a much darker angle and, unlike Deep River Savages, there is little chance that the protagonist would eventually become part of the tribe. The violence on display is far more brutal and there is ample more blood and guts, and whilst Deep River Savages boasted some nudity this became commonplace during the middle act of Last Cannibal World. Having been captured, the natives remove his clothes and begin to inspect his body, poking his penis and then comparing it to their own. This scene shows how the tribe see that he is just like them, although Deodato does this with explicit close-ups.

Foschi gives an impressive performance as the well-to-do businessman who is forced to bring out his animal side in order to survive, being forced to beat one of them to death in order to save himself. His transition from respectable man to primate recalls Charlton Heston’s similar journey in Planet of the Apes, although he lacks his screen presence and charisma. Much like with Deep River Savages, the hero becomes intrigued by one of the tribeswomen, although this time he does not fall in love and embrace their customs. Harper even fights a bird for scraps of food in an effort to keep his strength up. Having to spend a large portion of the movie naked, the role could not have been an easy one for an actor to play but Foschi manages to pull through adequately.

It is impossible to watch Last Cannibal World without comparing it to Deodato’s more successful entry in the cycle, Cannibal Holocaust. Whereas the latter is a deeply uncomfortable piece of filmmaking that somehow manages to become more than just schlock (as Lenzi’s unnecessarily sleazy Cannibal Ferox would be), Last Cannibal World fails to be quite so shocking. Had he not followed this up with such a unique classic, then perhaps this would be worthy of more praise but when comparing the two then Last Cannibal World certainly falls short. Despite this, it is certainly one of the more effective entries in the genre that, although it is more curious than scary, is efficient enough to be a morbid curiosity.

Knowing that non-stop carnage eventually desensitizes an audience, Deodato wisely avoids throwing too much gore at the screen. What is on display (thanks to Paolo Ricci, who would provide similar duties on La montagna del dio cannibale/Mountain of the Cannibal God the following year) is realistic enough to make the gut-munching scenes relatively convincing. Cannibal Holocaust’s real strength was in having the action played back to the audience on recently discovered footage, almost adding a ’snuff’ quality to it. This allows the viewer to fully embrace the action and makes the events all the more shocking. Without this device, Last Cannibal World is an above-average shocker that boasts an interesting-if-derivative script (co-written by Lucio Fulci regular Gianfranco Clerici) and a few interesting set pieces, but ultimately fails to work as a genuinely disturbing movie.

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REVIEW – Last Cannibal World