The Firelight Shocks DVD Review Section

Mountain Of The Cannibal God Distributor: EC Entertainment Region: 0 NTSC Ratio: 2:35:1 Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0

EC dig out yet another sleazy cannibal epic for the viewing pleasure(?) of fans of Italian horror cinema. This one centres around a certain Professor Stevenson who goes missing in the jungles of Amazonia in an area reputedly rich in Uranium. Enter Stevenson's wife (Ursula Andress) and brother, who set off to find him. They enlist the assistance of Foster (Stacey Keach) to guide them through the jungles in search of Stevenson. Once there it becomes apparent that their main goal was to find the untapped uranium and to dump their guide, thus keeping the find exclusively to themselves. But things go awry when the titular cannibals appear and take them captive. Once in captivity Professor Stevenson is revealed to be dead, but his geiger counter is mistakenly taken to be his constantly beating heart and so the cannibals have deified his rotting remains believing him to be a god. Eventually, through providence, they are able to escape their captors. Sergio Martino's offering is less nasty than Deodato's Holocaust and Lenzi's Ferox but still has plenty of shocks in store. Though overall the film plays like Indiana Jones on acid it still has some nastiness in the mix. There is the unecessary animal cruelty, a nasty castration scene, gut-munching and tribal brutality. But these are pretty restrained compared to the films that followed in its wake. If you're looking for a gentle(?) introduction to the cannibal genre then this would be a good place to start. EC's disc is a modest effort and seems to have been taken from a rather worn print, it therefore suffers from a fair amount of scratchiness in places. The image is sharp and clean however, and the sound is reasonably clear and crisp. At present this is the best this film will look and sound, however, Anchor Bay have this listed as a forthcoming release so you may wish to wait for that one, but it's not out until 2002 so you could do worse than pick this one up in the meantime. And it is fully uncut unlike the US Diamond DVD release which loses the castration scene.

EXTRAS: Extras are a little thin on the ground on this disc. There are subtitling options, a picture gallery and trailers for A Blade in the Dark and House on the Edge of the Park as well as one for the main feature. But that's your lot. Not a bad effort from EC, but in view of how good the Region 1 discs from such distributors as Anchor Bay and Image are becoming they have a long way to go to beat the competition. The only advantage that EC seem to have over their US rivals is the fact that they get them out into the marketplace ahead of everyone else. Having said all that, Mountain of the Cannibal God is a perfectly respectable DVD from EC and a nice addition to my horror collection at any rate. Chris Otter