88 Films, out now

When a rescue team enter a hidden region of the Amazon jungle to find a missing professor, they discover some native warriors who may have a craving for human flesh.

88 Films’ The Italian Collection of Blu-Ray premieres continues with director Antonio Climati’s 1981 horror adventure, and the most shocking thing about it is that it’s not that awful. Of course, compared to most cannibal films, this is faint praise indeed, but at least the 91 minutes of nonsense here is not as vicious  as most flesh-munching fare. The 15 certificate gives you an idea that this isn’t going to be too extreme.

But before you get too carried away, be aware that this isn’t a great film by any measure. The first half hour feels like a travelogue for the Costa del Sol, with a sub-plot involving the three male leads stealing a plane. Unlike 88 Films’ other cannibal release this month, Cannibal Terror at least the locations look authentic and the natives look… native. There’s also a bizarre scene where the process of transforming decapitated heads into shrunken heads is explained – they can afford fake heads, the actors stick their heads through holes in a table!

Ignore the title, this is not a sequel to Ruggero Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust, and it’s not much of an inferno either, though the jungles are green. ‘Scenes from Banned Alive: The Rise and Fall of Italian Cannibal Movies’ is a subtitled, 30-minute documentary on the disc, interviewing the genre’s big players Umberto Lenzi, Ruggero Deodata and Sergio Martini. There’s also Italian Opening and Closing Credits and a trailer.

Most of the cast act as if they’re in a no-consequences lark, and even when they get abducted by the natives for stealing their food (live monkeys!) the punishment is being forced to eat a banana. Luckily these natives speak English (or Italian, if you’ve opted for that track) and they love being serenaded by one of the characters who likes nothing more than playing his trumpet to an audience of toothless, saggy-breasted crones.

Verdict: This isn’t really a cannibal film, with the most upsetting scene being a rubber anaconda getting attached to a man’s… ahem, trouser snake. Unintentionally hilarious, but it’s not mean-spirited, and won’t leave a nasty taste in your mouth. 6/10

Nick Joy