Abandon all hope, ye who
enter here. Exploitive, grotesque, profane, and racist, The Mountain of the Cannibal God is among the most extreme movies
featuring internationally famous actors, so it’s morbidly fascinating in the
manner of, say, Caligula (1979),
though it pales next to that infamous film’s excesses. Still, it’s impossible
to classify The Mountain of the Cannibal
God as restrained, seeing as how the picture includes shots of real
animals getting slaughtered, as well as abundant over-the-top gore, a simulated
scene of bestiality, and, for no particular reason, an unsimulated scene of a
young woman—well, let’s just say she looks as if she’s enjoying herself. While
it’s not a great shock to see Ursula Andress mixed up in a production like this
one, since she spent much of the ’70s adding brazen sex appeal to dubious
European productions, it’s jaw-dropping to watch Stacy Keach give a credible
performance in between gory kills and nauseating shots of animal carnage.
Yet
perhaps the most surprising thing about The
Mountain of the Cannibal God—released in the U.S. as Slave of the Cannibal God—is that it’s entertaining. Telling a
simple story in a propulsive way, The
Mountain of the Cannibal God is lean and suspenseful, and the score by
Guido De Angelis and Maurizio De Angelis is imaginatively terrifying. If the
goal of pulpy cinema is to evoke visceral reactions, then The Mountain of the Cannibal God succeeds, shamelessly.
The narrative
is simple, a throwback to xenophobic jungle adventures of the 1930s. When her
husband goes missing somewhere in the primitive wilds of New Guinea, Susan Stevenson
(Andress) and her brother, Arthur (Antonio Marsina), hire scientist Professor
Edward Foster (Keach) to lead a rescue expedition. Edward warns that the area
where Susan’s husband disappeared is home to a tribe of cannibals, but Susan
dismisses the admonition as silly superstition. Venturing into the jungle with
native bearers, the searchers soon learn Edward was right, as cannibals kill
the bearers one by one, often absconding with all or part of the bodies. Along
the way, the searchers see horrific things, like a python devouring a cute
little monkey or natives gutting a monitor lizard while it’s still alive. These
scenes are real, and the camera lingers on every disgusting detail. Once the
searchers reach the cannibals’ lair, the filmmakers crank up the cinematic volume,
bombarding viewers with startling images of ritual sex and violence. Andress
getting stripped naked and slathered with body paint is the least alarming of
these visuals.
On the most primal level, The
Mountain of the Cannibal God is exciting, because it’s loaded with action
sequences and sensationalistic visions, and the film’s technical polish is
fairly impressive. On every other level, The
Mountain of the Cannibal God is vile. Every nonwhite character in the movie
is either a childlike idiot or a vicious monster, and seeing a white woman drives the entire cannibal
tribe wild. In the picture’s wildest scene, cannibals mutilate and devour a
dude, then celebrate with an orgy. Virtually every racist fear of indigenous
peoples finds its way into the storyline, and the kicker is that we’re asked to
root for a central character even after it is revealed that the character
personifies the worst aspects of white entitlement. An entire Ph.D. thesis
could be written about this film’s messaging related to gender and race, but
for now, one word shall suffice. Odious.
The Mountain of the Cannibal God: FREAKY