ManfromDeepRiver

Man from Deep River (1972)

When a photographer named John Bradley is taken captive by a native tribe, after they have killed his guide, he is at first abused. But after a while he becomes tolerated and then even accepted into the tribe. He even ends up marrying one of the tribe’s women and starts to teach her English. But along the way he angers the tribe’s witch doctor, who curses his wife and makes her ill. After unsuccessfully trying to escape to get his wife medical help she dies while giving birth, but not before they all have to fight off a marauding tribe of cannibals!

This is supposed to be the first of the cannibal movies. Now as many of you loyal readers know I’m not a fan of cannibal movies. I acknowledge that they are well made and effective, but the animal deaths aren’t something that I can enjoy or want to watch. Though I have made myself sit down and watch them all. It was with some trepidation that I sat down to watch this movie. Honestly after watching this one I’m not sure why anyone made another cannibal movie ever! The story is terrible and makes very little sense. No motivations are given for any of the character’s actions, except that Bradley isn’t killed because one of the maidens is sweet on him. There isn’t a single good performance in the cast. Now I can’t be certain if this is due to a lack of talent on the cast, a terrible script, or if director Umberto Lenzi is just an awful filmmaker. I can make a pretty good guess though. The movie has a definite goofy feeling that robs it of any chance of having the visceral impact of a Cannibal Holocaust, which honestly doesn’t leave it with much.

Technically this movie is technically sound. The gore is more than adequate and includes on particularly gruesome sequence where cannibals use and then consume a native girl. Unfortunately this movie also started the trend of including real animal deaths to push the gore factor higher. We are treated to forced fights between a cobra and a mongoose (actually sort of interesting), as well as some good old cockfighting. There is also a questionable scene where they bring in a monkey and chop off the top of it’s head to eat it’s brains. Either real brains look awfully fake or this is a well-done effects shot. I’m not quite sure. It is also pretty noticeable that the natives are wearing western makeup (eyeliner and blush!) as well as manufactured clothing that is made to look primitive.

This is a strange review for me to write. If this movie went more for the jugular and was less goofy then I would of disliked watching it more than I did, but would of respected it as a piece of filmmaking more than I do. I suppose in other words if you are going to make a cannibal movie then make one and don’t hold back. This is simply not that good of an effort and I can’t recommend it.

1 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer