Mountain of the Cannibal God (1978)
- Andrew Smith
- 58 minutes ago
- 5 min read
"Their cult was death...their lust was for blood!"
Plot
Susan Stevenson and her brother fly to New Guinea in search of her missing anthropologist husband who has missing in the jungles. She enlists the services of a professor them into the dense rainforests and hook up with a local guide who believes her husband has headed towards the remote mountain Ra Ra Me. Locals believe the area is cursed and authorities won't allow expeditions so Susan and her party set off covertly to begin the search. It isn't long before they realise that he was captured by a cannibal tribe and that the same fate awaits them.
Review
Ah the Italian exploitation cannibal sub-genre. Such a trashy, graphic and repulsive genre that it's even hard to want to call them films sometimes because they are so depraved and perverse - I mean who in their right mind comes up with these ideas? They went to lengths that no other films dared to go out of decency and, rightfully as was the case in a few extremes, were banned across the world, Cannibal Holocaust being the most infamous of the bunch. I mean I can tolerate all the extreme violence, the nudity and the gore because I know it’s all for the camera, but the actual animal cruelty was something I can do without. Unfortunately, it’s a sub-genre which cannibalises itself so much that once you’ve seen one of these tropical terrors, then you’ve seen them all. Mountain of the Cannibal God came out of the starting blocks early in 1978 and whilst it wasn’t recognised as the first entry into this awful cycle, it was the most influential from the early days and established many of the conventions later copied in the more extreme works of the 80s.
Mountain of the Cannibal God adheres to the basic cannibal story of a group of white explorers (and usually expendable guides to act as redshirts) head off into the remote jungle in pursuit of some MacGuffin where they have some minor run-ins with other natives before stumbling upon the cannibal tribe and, in rather unsporting fashion, decide to eat their guests. At times, it plays more like a deviant version of Romancing the Stone, such as the focus on the adventure. The film looks more polished than the rest, clearly has a bigger budget and isn’t nearly as nasty as its companions. Everything is done as tastefully as possible – if that is possible, knowing how brutal these films can get. The bad taste is kept to a minimum and the animal violence has been toned down – those who have seen the uncut version of Cannibal Holocaust will attest to the disgraceful and sickening acts of wildlife masochism on display. It is still present however and seems to be a token inclusion in this sub-genre, reflective of the no holds barred raw brutality of nature but more used for shock and horror tactics to disgust the viewer rather than send out any primal messages. It has nothing to do with what is happening on screen which is a travesty. The violence here is mainly animal on animal, which having seen the film, clearly wasn’t just stumbled upon by the camera crew and some of the sequences have clearly been set up (poor monkey!)
Though on the surface (outside of the animal cruelty) it seems less offensive and more mainstream than its counterparts, make no mistake about it, Mountain of the Cannibal God does boast plenty of expected cannibalistic carnage. Dwarf cannibals are punted over cliffs to have their heads smashed on rocks below. Bear traps crush and maim the legs of those unlucky enough to be caught in them. Would-be rapists are castrated for their indiscretions. Stomachs are ripped open and intestines fed to the tribe in some sort of horrific human buffet. The quality of the make-up effects ranges from the ridiculous to the sublime. The appeal with this type of film is the endurance test though. Audiences aren't watching for deep character development or a clever twist ending. They are watching to see how far the filmmakers are willing to push the boundaries of the taboo this time around. With this being an earlier example of the cannibal genre, it’s easy to say that things would get a lot worse as time went on and so the on-screen carnage is relatively tame compared to what would eventually come.
The big difference with this one is the relatively high star power on display. Making the sub-genre a bit more accessible by casting big names, Mountain of the Cannibal God boasts Ursula Andress and Stacy Keach in the lead roles, a decent coup for such a low budget, obscure Italian film. Andress, a major international sex symbol as the first Bond girl, seemed to need the role more by this point in her dwindling career, agreeing to doff her duds and go naked for an infamous scene in which she is smeared head-to-toe in honey and worshipped by the cannibals. It’s now such an iconic image of the sub-genre to see her tied up and covered with paint whilst leering cannibals prance around her that most of the publicity was around that one sequence. Stacy Keach was at a career low at this point (no kidding!) and seems more bored than anything but no doubt a free holiday helped to gloss over that issue.
Despite the moments of gore and the decent cast, Mountain of the Cannibal God rarely gets going at any sort of pace. It takes the characters too long to make any sort of progress into the jungle and despite odd moments of non-speaking guides being killed off by deadly fauna and flora, there’s not a great deal of stuff happening on-screen. Little more than a step-by-step link between set piece scenes, the narrative gears up towards a finale which never once looks like it will deliver anything short of a total dud. Despite all the cannibal carnage on screen, the film never gives off any sort of realism vibe. The entire currency of the Italian cannibal subgenre is the illusion of reality. It's the snuff illusion. The human brain knows it's watching a film, but when the footage is raw, shaky, unpolished, and features actors you've never seen before, it bypasses the logical brain and triggers a genuine threat response – Deodato had to prove his actors were still alive in Cannibal Holocaust, it was that realistic. You are supposed to feel like you've stumbled upon a forbidden found footage documentary. That gritty, chaotic, cheap aesthetic is precisely what makes the violence feel dangerous and transgressive. but Mountain of the Cannibal God completely short-circuits that primal reaction because it looks nice and because of the casting. You always know you are watching a heavily produced film and that one or both of Andress and Keach will retain their plot armour until the final credits.
Final Verdict
Mountain of the Cannibal God merely goes through the usual Italian cannibal exploitation film motions, only this time with the bonus of a famous cast. It is undoubtedly more professionally made than its peers, but because of that professionalism, it completely lacks the raw, nihilistic punch of its grimy counterparts. Mountain of the Cannibal God attempts to take a universally repulsive boundary-pushing genre and classes it up slightly. But ultimately, all it proves is that polishing garbage just leaves you with shiny garbage. It's still garbage, it just catches the studio lighting a little differently now.
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Mountain of the Cannibal God Also Known As: Slave of the Cannibal God Director(s): Sergio Martino Writer(s): Cesare Frugoni (screenplay), Sergio Martino (screenplay) Actor(s): Ursula Andress, Stacy Keach, Claudio Cassinelli, Antonio Marsina, Franco Fantasia, Lanfranco Spinola, Carlo Longhi Duration: 99 mins |  |
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