Cannibal Ferox - Maybe I watched the wrong version?

I recently watched Cannibal Holocaust and, in some strange way, actually enjoyed it. I'd heard that Cannibal Ferox was similar, so I thought I'd give that one a go too.

Ferox has the tagline `banned in 31 countries' on the front and all I can say is that, now it appears to have got a mainstream release, they must have taken a lot of it out. The version I saw ran at about 83 minutes and was not just bad, but pretty tame.

The plot centres around a budding scientist, dragging her brother and her friend to the Amazon in order to prove that cannibalism doesn't exist. Once they get there, they meet the most psychotic drug dealer there is and decide it would be a good idea to team up with him. Unfortunately, said dealer has slaughtered half a tribe of natives around here in pursuit of some emeralds. And, guess what, the natives want their revenge.

I couldn't really see why some people seem to enjoy this. Even if it had its full compliment of gore, it was pretty awful. The acting was bad (okay, so horror films never normally have Oscar-worthy performances in, but this went even lower than normal); it was almost as if they were trying to be over-the-top and bring a parody edge to it (not that I can find any actual evidence to back this up - it just seemed this way).

The `heroes' are too stupid to like (and that's just the most likeable ones!), the drug dealers are the type you want to see eaten alive.

And, while these hapless souls are trudging through muddy swamps in the Amazon, there's a subplot about the police in New York trying to track down one of the dealers. This wasn't necessary, as, by now, you're probably gagging for whatever `pay-off' is going to come at the end of the film. When it does come, it's over before it gets going.

Like I say, I could be being unfair on Ferox, as I've clearly only watched a heavily edited version. However (and I never thought I'd say this), if you only want to watch one gut-wrenching sick cannibal film about people eating each other, stick with Cannibal Holocaust.

5/10 a hard trek, a bit like unicycling to Mordor and back