Man from Deep River (1973)

Though not particularly well versed, I'd consider myself to currently be a big fan of Italian horror, and "Sacrifice!" is officially the first cannibal title I've seen, and let me say this wasn't 100% what I was expecting.The plot is simple enough, a British photographer while exploring the Thai/Burmese jungle gets captured by a native tribe and slowly starts to become absorbed into it. Now I say native tribe because it is not a cannibal tribe, and the actual cannibals in the movie only account for less than five minutes of screen time, so this technically isn't a movie about cannibals, but kind of an examination of an "undeveloped," (shall I say) tribe. First the positives. The sudo documentary opening is quite excellent. The rugged, dirty, and even rough Asian city contrasts nicely with the small village, and our lead's stories of London. Also, the story is quite effective. You get to know the characters, and grow to feel for them. This film was obviously concerned with telling a story with characters. And from what I've seen, the later cannibal films forgot about his aspect. And once again, Italian horror movies have to have an excellent score, and this is no exception. Everything fits the mood, and is another fine example of Italian horror scores. Now, the moderates. Though there is story and characters, this is still also an exploitation film. We're treated to many fine shots of naked Me Me Lai, and a few other girls, while basically minimizing the amount of male nudity. And as for the violence, while I would say the human element is fine. There aren't too many gory scenes, too which one is actually an effective cannibal scene, and all are quite effective, and even shocking even by toady's standards. And while there's also a bit of minor stuff, such as people getting shot with darts, both poisonous and non poisonous,I now have to address the main issue with this movie, which perpetuates the whole genre. The absolute negative aspect of this movie is the real animal killings. Though I fully acknowledge that these are all ways of tribal life, but watching animals die simply for shock value is unacceptable. It doesn't help that the animal abuse is a recurring thing through the movie. It just comes of as tasteless and sickening, especially when the footage could be cut and nothing would be lost."Sacrifice!" is only really notorious for starting the Italian cannibal boom. And despite the animal abuse, it is still a well executed film. This is only something for the strongest of the strong. No exceptions.

Deep River Savages is most famous for being the first of the Italian cannibal movies. This sub-genre is pretty notorious and a lot of the films made the video nasty list (films considered obscene by the British authorities in early the 80's). This movie was one of the ones that did and it's not really very surprising on account of several scenes of real animal slaughter and one showing cannibals rape and eat an unfortunate victim. But the cannibal tag is a little misleading in the case of Deep River Savages because the cannibals are fairly minor characters here. It seems though that their brief appearance was the idea that led to the cycle of cannibal movies that would appear in the late 70's / early 80's. More accurately, this film is an Italian version of A Man Called Horse, which had come out a couple of years beforehand. In that one a white man is captured by Native American Indians and has to go through various trials and rituals before finally assimilating into the tribe, Deep River Savages effectively does the same thing but with primitive South East Asian tribes. It also ramps up the exploitation angle.The story has a photographer working in Thailand who is forced to flee into the jungle after he kills a man in self-defence. He is soon captured by a primitive tribe who eventually take him in as one of their own after various trials and rituals. He falls in love with one of the young women of the tribe; meanwhile an enemy tribe of cannibals prowl menacingly in the periphery.This one was helmed by Umberto Lenzi who was one of the most prominent directors of the cannibal sub-genre, going on to make films such as Eaten Alive. The two main stars of that one appear in this earlier film too, namely Ivan Rassimov and Me Me Lai. They are pretty good and quite surprisingly their romantic sub-plot is quite extensively developed. This and the culture clash elements make up much more of the movie than the cannibal aspect. This might disappoint a few people who come into this expecting something akin to the likes of Cannibal Holocaust, as despite some legitimately disturbing moments this is far less intense than later entries in the sub-genre. It's not a bad film though and is one well worth checking out if you enjoy Italian exploitation movies. It's certainly one with a fair bit of historical importance for sure.

Umberto Lenzi's "Paese Del Sesso Selvaggio" (aka "Deep River Savages"/"The Man From Deep River") of 1972 is THE pioneering Italian Cannibal flick, and yet it is not necessarily a typical example for the sub-genre. While this may still be extremely violent for the average cinema fan, it is nowhere near as disturbing and outrageously gory as the Cannibal flicks from the early 80s, such as Ruggero Deodato's masterpiece "Cannibal Holocaust" (1980) or Lenzi's very own "Mangiati Vivi" (1980) and "Cannibal Ferox" (1981). The film is often compared to "Dances With The Wolves", and it is obvious why. "Deep River Savages" is built up more like a traditional adventure movie - with the difference that this one features Cannibals. Cannibalism is not the film's main focus however and the Cannibals actually play a very small role. This film mainly explores a Westerner's assimilation to a savage jungle tribe.On a trip through the unexplored jungle between Thailand and Burma, English photographer John Bradley (Ivan Rassimov) gets captured by a primitive tribe, who hold him prisoner for a while. After some time, however, Bradley falls in love with the tribe's beauty Maraya (the ravishing Me Me Lai), who is the daughter of the tribe's chief, and becomes assimilated to the tribe... The film features a lot of sleaze, but it is not nearly as shocking or nauseating as the Cannibal films to come. This is therefore probably the most recommendable Cannibal film for the sensitive when it comes to violence (allthough these people are probably best advised to stay away from the genre in general). Like most entries to the genre the film does feature real animal-killings, so Peta-activists and pals won't be fond of it either. I happen to love meat, however, and the scenes add a lot of authenticity to the atmosphere. The great late Ivan Rassimov (he died in 2003) was one of the greats in Italian exploitation cinema, especially in Cannibal Flicks. As always, Rassimov delivers an excellent performance. Me Me Lai is stunningly beautiful, and she fits extremely well in the female lead of Maraya, arguably the most lovable character ever in a Cannibal flick. THE beauty of the sub-genre, Me Me Lai appeared in this film, as well as "Cannibal Ferox" and Deodato's "Ultimo Mondo Cannibale". Apart from the Cannibal flicks, she sadly did not have many memorable roles before she left the film business in the 80s. "Il Paese Del Sesso Selvaggio" is THE pioneering Cannibal flick, and yet it is an adventure film and even a romance more than it is a Horror film about cannibals. While "Cannibal Holocaust" is the only true masterpiece of the sub-genre, this one is also a highly interesting film that no lover of Italian Exploitation-cinema should consider missing. Most of the Cannibal flicks have their own particular qualities, but this one is quite unique. In case you just want to watch two films of the sub-genre, I would personally recommend to make it "Cannibal Holocaust" and this one.

Although this film is often cited as the first of the Italian cannibal classics, in reality it is nothing more than a rather well-made rip-off of Elliot Silverstein's A Man Called Horse (1970) with only a small amount of cannibalism thrown in at the end to spice things up. However, it does feature several elements that would become staple to the cannibal genre: graphic blood 'n' guts, some nudity and rape, and a whole load of nasty violence perpetrated on poor innocent animals.Ivan Rassimov plays John Bradley, a photographer who travels up-river to the border of Thailand and Burma, only to be captured by a primitive tribe. He is forced to be a slave, but eventually earns the villagers' respect, becomes a warrior and gets to have it away repeatedly with the chief's daughter (the beautifully exotic Me Me Lai).Director Umberto Lenzi, who would later bring us the infamous Cannibal Ferox and Eaten Alive (also starring Rassimov and Lai), delivers quite a restrained movie considering the excesses of some of his later work: the film moves at a leisurely pace, taking its time to develop the characters and story, only stopping occasionally to fling in a spot of rumpy-pumpy or a brutal animal slaying! If you're at all interested cannibal genre, then the movie is recommended; it is interesting as a point of reference for later films but is also pretty entertaining in itself (particularly if you like very cute nekkid native chicks!).I give it 6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb. That's on about a par with Mountain of the Cannibal God and Cannibal Ferox, slightly better than Eaten Alive, but nowhere near as good as Cannibal Holocaust or Cannibal Apocalypse.