Jungle Holocaust (1978)
Jul 15th, 2009 by cm2
The plot of this film is exceedingly easily summarized. 4 people, Robert, Rolf, Charlie and Swan have a problem during their landing at a secluded airstrip out in southeast asian jungles, and have to stay there over night. It becomes readily apparent that the natives aren’t so friendly, as Swan disappears in the middle of the night. They go look for her and there are various mishaps until Robert is eventually captured and helf prisoner by the cannibal tribe. The rest of the film is just his attempt to find the plane again, and leave.
As far as Italian stuff goes, this is very competently made. The acting is definitely a few cuts above what you’d usually see in this sort of film. Still, it’s not as good as what you’re gonna see in a major Hollywood production, of course, but it’s more than good enough. The two main protagonists, Rolf and Robert, are quite likable. They don’t have much depth, but they do engender quite a bit of sympathy simply for all the crap they go through. (Particularly Robert) The dialogue is generally minimal and quite pefunctory, but I don’t recall ever laughing at it, so it’s more than sufficient. The film is generally competently shot, though generally not with too much flare. (Other than some disorienting, wildly panning and flipping shots used occasionally, which work pretty well.) Sadly, the camera tends to leer at the gore effects a bit too much, an always lame tactic, made worse and more jarring by the generally professional camerawork throughout the rest of the film.
The film doesn’t really get going until Robert is captured, but it’s all sufficiently interesting, and the film is really strangely compelling from that point on. Why this is interesting I don’t know, as not a whole helluva lot is going on at this point: The native throw stuff on him, fly him around from a rope, trap him in a crevasse, grope him and so on, and he watches them do whatever they do. This section of the film seems to go on for 35-40 minutes, and there is virtually no dialogue, but it never gets boring, for some reason. I’m not sure if it would hold up under repeated viewings, but it worked the first time.
The escape is actually slightly less compelling than the captivity, but it still works, and it, of course, contains most of the cannibal action. The film really isn’t all that gory, particularly if you don’t count the animal stuff, but the major gore scenes are quite well done, particularly for 1977. The major death scene, with decapitation and disembowelment is quite well done. Still, this film isn’t a true gorefest, so if that’s all your looking for you may be disappointed. Conversely, there is a ton of nudity in this movie, as much male as female, so if any of you ladies are into the `filthy savage’ look this film is for you.(Though it’s not all savages. Robert spends about half the film naked, and a quarter of the time just in a loin cloth, though most of the time it’s shot in a way that you can’t see anything. Most of the time.)
It does have a few problems. Most notably, the animal death scenes are problematic. I don’t really care about them from a moral standpoint, they just tend to be jarring and pointless, and rather boring. The crocodile gutting scene is pretty gross, I’ll admit, but the rest of it is just tedious. Also, the music can be inappropriate at times, particularly the theme they play during the gutting scene, which is all schmaltzy and romantic, for some reason.
Download Jungle Holocaust 1978 part 1:
http://rapidshare.com/files/255773824/kanna10_DM_Jungle_Holocaust.part01.rar
Download Jungle Holocaust 1978 part 2:
http://rapidshare.com/files/255773820/kanna10_DM_Jungle_Holocaust.part02.rar
Download Jungle Holocaust 1978 part 3:
http://rapidshare.com/files/255774815/kanna10_DM_Jungle_Holocaust.part03.rar
Download Jungle Holocaust 1978 part 4:
http://rapidshare.com/files/255774857/kanna10_DM_Jungle_Holocaust.part04.rar
Download Jungle Holocaust 1978 part 5:
http://rapidshare.com/files/255774622/kanna10_DM_Jungle_Holocaust.part05.rar
Download Jungle Holocaust 1978 part 6:
http://rapidshare.com/files/255774705/kanna10_DM_Jungle_Holocaust.part06.rar
Download Jungle Holocaust 1978 part 7:
http://rapidshare.com/files/255774006/kanna10_DM_Jungle_Holocaust.part07.rar
Download Jungle Holocaust 1978 part 8:
http://rapidshare.com/files/255774004/kanna10_DM_Jungle_Holocaust.part08.rar
Download Jungle Holocaust 1978 part 9:
http://rapidshare.com/files/255774656/kanna10_DM_Jungle_Holocaust.part09.rar
