SLAVE OF THE CANNIBAL GOD
Italy, 1978, 99 minutes, Colour.
Claudio Casinelli, Stacy Keach, Ursula Andress.
Directed by Sergio Martino.
One of the "spaghetti horror" of the late seventies. The Italians in the sixties and seventies took over so many of the American genres and made them their own especially "spaghetti" westerns and "spaghetti" police films. The Italians highlight the conventions of the genre and present the characters and situations in somewhat melodramatic and even operatic tone. The treatment is also gory and violent - and many censors have considered it excessive. This was the case with this film with its presentation of New Guinea cannibals. There are also some earlier gory deaths in the film. Examples of the genre include Contamination, Zombie Flesh Eaters and a film by the present director Sergio Martino, Island Of The Fish Men. The "spaghetti" horror also uses an international cast and this film features Stacy Keach and Ursula Andress. However. the hero is played by Claudio Casinelli, the hero of Island Of The Fish Men. The material of this film is conventional exploration horror. There is a mission in New Guinea and a group go out into the jungle, meet all kinds of difficulties and dangers and eventually confront cannibals. The climactic sequence has escape as well as a twist about exploitation of natural resources. For those not keen on excessive gore and horror, the film will not be of interest. For those interested in Italian developments of horror genres, of some interest.
1. The quality of this kind of adventure horror? Entertainment, censors cutting or banning such films?
2. The impact of horror: nightmare, monsters, death and suffering? Audiences being entertained by looking into horror and nightmare?
3. Colour photography, jungle locations in New Guinea, Panavision? The Italianate musical score? The use of international casts? Stacy Keach and his prestige, Ursula Andress and her sensuality and glamour? How were these used in the film?
4. The atmosphere of horror ? the threat of the jungle, tribes, animals, natural dangers, the cannibals and ritual and torture? How excessive the visual presentation of horror?
5. The contemporary setting? The atmosphere of Port Moresby, officialdom, explorations and disappearances of scientists, the conventions of the group going searching, the hero guide, the brother and sister searching, etc.? The wife looking for her husband? How well were these used? How plausible an atmosphere of realism? how long did this continue into the film?
6. The presentation of New Guinea - the flight, the jungles, animals and threats, the risks of death, the violent deaths within the group, even of the guide? Natural beauty, natural menace?
7. The background of the peoples of New Guinea, the priest and his mission, the natives and the violence, the atmosphere of ritual and superstition? The build-up to the cannibals and their violence and ritual?
8. The sketching in of the characters - how conventional, the interactions, violence, sensuality? Capture, betrayal? The truth about the purpose of the mission? Greed? The violence consequent on greed? The final rescue?
9. The climax on the island after the difficulties in getting there, the natural eruptions, the cannibals and their rituals, the final fight and rescue - matinee material designed for science fiction horror?
10. How satisfying an entertainment? A use of adventure genres for fable purposes (with gore!)?
