"Cannibal Holocaust" really spawned a whole bunch of cannibal movies during the '80's. Of course all these type of movies are more or less the same but this movie doesn't even try to be original or hide that it was heavily inspired by "Cannibal Holocaust" and uses lots of elements from the successful "Cannibal Holocaust" but it doesn't really succeed with any of its elements as well as "Cannibal Holocaust" did.
The story, settings and atmosphere are all very uninvolved feeling. The movie features lots of random sequences, mostly which feature real animal killings. You're just waiting for the first killing to occur but it actually takes quite awhile for the cannibal themes of the movie kick in. The story wastes too much time on building up stuff that just isn't interesting. It develops its characters but what do we care, since we know that most of them are probably going to die soon anyway. Besides, they are not being played by very great actors, to put it mildly.
But once the cannibalism kicks in the movie becomes quite good. It becomes an entertaining movie, that of course also features lots of graphic sequences, though it never feels as anything too shocking, since the movie doesn't really feel involving in any way.
The movie also made an odd choice to feature also quite some sequences set in New York, at several points in the movie. It's really distracting for the movie and doesn't work well for the pace. The movie has too many slow points and its gore/horror is not quite enough to uplift the movie to great heights.
Yet it's also far from the worst genre movie I've seen. Even though the quality of the directing and such isn't always top-notch, it's a well enough put together movie that features ingredients to please the genre fans, even though they will also probably be disappointed by the fact that this movie wasn't trying to be a bit more original of its own.
Entertaining but not really pleasing enough.
5/10
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