Disc Reviews

When the ambassador husband of Lady Elena Hamilton (Anita Rinaldi) is kidnapped by pirates, and she receives no help from the authorities, she decides to rescue him herself. To this end, she recruits the roguish Captain Thomas Butler (Carlo De Palma), and together they put together an eccentric band of misfits for the mission.

If ever a film had an unfortunate retitling, this is it. Originally released in 1999 as “I predatori delle Antille” (“The Predators of the Antilles”), this film will, under its new monicker, lose a good chunk of its intended audience (who will no doubt assume it to be porn) and alienate whoever would be drawn by the new title (there are only a couple of brief nude scenes). What we have here is a fairly straightforward low-budget adventure film, one that makes the most of its handsome sets, and makes for a not-unpleasant but far-from-memorable 90 minutes. The only real point of interest as far as the plot is concerned lies in the fact that, while Lady Hamilton must promise herself to Butler in return for his help, she doesn't, in the end, have to uphold her end of the bargain, having managed to cement the relationship between Butler and the woman who adores him (Venere Torti).

Pierfancesco Campanella (who also wrote the film) stars as a university psych grad student working on his doctorate. He embarks on some radical research by shooting up, and the next thing we know, he's killing his mother by depriving her of drugs, poking a baby with a needle, and generally behaving rather badly. He winds up at a rich man's residence, hooks up with his spoiled daughter, and the two embark on a picaresque journey of debauchery and murder.

Warning: spoilers ahead (but trust me, the film isn't really interesting enough for you to care). At any rate, two thirds of the way through the film, it transpires that everything we've been seeing is a drug-induced hallucination, and we return to Campanella's ordinary life, one filled with disappointments and petty humiliations. Where will this lead? Exactly where you think it will. So the first two thirds of the film are too episodic and nonsensical to be engaging, and the last is too predictable. And though the most trivia-oriented of Italo-trash fans will find some interest in the past and future credits of some of the cast, that's hardly a recommendation. At best fitfully amusing, this is, for the most part, a film that gives transgression a bad name, and is a reminder that the European exploitation scene but out its share of dull efforts in the 80s.

Sigh. Another day, another misleading title. Let's get one thing straight right off the bat. This is NOT a sequel to Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust. It isn't even an imitator. It isn't even fiction (at least, it isn't meant to be). It's original title is “Nuova Guinea, l'isola dei cannibali” (“New Guinea: Island of Cannibals”), and it's a 1974 mondo movie, purporting to feature footage shot for the benefit of Queen Elizabeth on the occasion of her visit to the island, so she would have a better idea of the culture she was encountering. Whatever. In any event, this is a film made five years prior to the movie its title suggests it is following, and doesn't actually have any cannibals, as such, in it.

Which isn't to say it isn't exploitative. This is pure shockumentary, so fans of the mondo film will no doubt be pleased by the maggot-eating or the scene where mourners rub the oils from a thoroughly bloated corpse on their bodies. And surely any exploitation flick that opens with footage of the Queen and Prince Phillip is a fine example of... er... something.