Mountain of the Cannibal God

Mountain of the Cannibal God title

AKA: La Montagna del dio Cannible, Prisoner of the Cannibal God, Slave of the Cannibal God, White Queen of Cannibals, Jagten pa bjergets Hemmelighed, Der Weisse Gottin der Kanninbalen

Mountain of the Cannibal God box When I first came across this film during my write-up of the "Video Nasties" section, I was extremely surprised to see that 70's stars Ursula Andress and Stacey Keach had appeared in a cannibal movie. So much so, I just couldn't resist getting hold of a copy and posting a full review.

Set in the Jungles of New Guinea, Susan Stevenson (Ursula Andress) is trying to find her missing anthropologist husband Henry. So she and her brother Arthur enlist the services of a Professor Edward Foster (Stacey Keach), who thinks her husband might have headed for a mountain named Ra Ra Me, which is located just off the coast on the island of Roka.

The locals believe that the mountain is cursed, and the authorities won't allow expeditions there. So they surreptitiously head on into the jungle to see if that's where he went. They eventually make it to the island, and after a few few run-ins against some unfriendly anaconda's, alligators and tarantula's, they meet another jungle explorer named Manola (played by regular Italian B-movie star Claudio Cassinelli) who's been staying at a nearby mission camp, and agrees to join them in their expedition.

Matters become complicated however, when it then turns out that each of them has their own private reasons for coming to the island, and finding Susan's husband wasn't part of any of them. Susan and Arthur have secretly been looking for uranium deposits, and then Foster reveals that he has only come there because he had been on the island a few years previously and was taken captive by a tribe of primitive cannibals. So has only returned to see if they still exist, and wipe them out.

Upon arriving at the mountain, they are immediately captured by the natives that Foster described and taken to their camp. There they find the primitives worshipping the remains of Susan's husband as they can hear his Geiger counter ticking, and believe it to be his heart still working. Susan is subsequently tied up, stripped naked and smeared with mud (which Andress fans will undoubtedly enjoy) and poor old Manola is tied up and tortured, whilst the others are turned into the dish-of-the-day.

On the whole is a thoroughly enjoyable jungle adventure. However the uncut European print, being a cannibal film, unfortunately suffers from showing scene's of gratuitous animal violence. This includes an Iguana being split open and gutted, and a monkey being devoured by an anaconda, although these pail in comparison to the likes of Ferox and Holocaust, and director Sergio Martino admits he only tacked these on at the distributors insistence.

Perhaps the most distracting part of the movie was the fact Stacey Keach's character looked exactly like that of Richard Chamberlin's from the Indiana Jones spoof "King Soloman's Mines".

Overall Marks :	7/10 for the UK version
	4/10 for the uncut version (An otherwise highly enjoyable film, but loses marks due to the animal killings).

Other Information.

Former Bond girl Ursula Andress has appeared in over 40 films and TV movies during her very long career , which has spanned over 4 decades. She has mostly appeared in European films but is always instantly recognisable to movie fans, from her role as Honey Ryder in the first James Bond film "Dr No."
Stacey Keach has been acting in movies since 1962. His first major role was the lead character in "Doc Holliday" in 1971, although he is probably best known for his role as detective Mike Hammer from the 80's TV series. He has most recently appeared in "American History X" and "Escape from LA".
The late Claudio Cassinelli was a regular actor in Italian B-movies and also starred in Sergio Martino's "Big River Alligator" and "Screamers".
An edited version of this film, which removed the scene's of animal cruelty and more graphic violence, was passed by the BBFC with an "X" certificate (the old equivalent of an 18 certificate) in 1978. This played UK cinema's under 2 different titles, "Mountain of the Cannibal God" and "Prisoner of the Cannibal God".
The film was available on video in the UK in the early 80's, prior to the introduction of the "Video Recordings Act" under it's retitled name "Prisoner of the Cannibal God. However, the film was subsequently listed on the governments "Video Nasties" hitlist, although it was later dropped and not prosecuted. The uncut version was submitted for classification in 2001 and passed with only the scenes of animal cruelty removed.
The film has been released uncut on Dutch video by "Video for Pleasure" and "E.C. Entertainment", who also produce an uncut DVD. Other uncut releases can be found in Japan (Tokuma), Sweden (Hem Video), and Denmark (MDC) and on a special extended version US DVD by Anchor Bay. But beware of a heavily censored R-rated US video by Wizzard under the "Slave of.." title. There is also a US DVD under this title by Diamond which is almost uncut, but misses out the close-up of the castration scene.
The Anchor Bay DVD, bearing the "Mountain of.." title is not only uncut, but contains additional scenes that were taken from the directors personal collection and were not part of the original movie. When you examine these it is easy to see why, as these extra scenes comprise of the natives indulging in a mass orgy, which includes a shot showing one of the females "pleasuring herself", along with a scene showing one of the cannibals indulging in beastiality with a wild boar. These totally change your perspective of the film, and looking at the directors comments about this originally supposed to being an adventure film, combined with the fact they were taken from his "personal" collection makes me wonder why he really filmed them and why they have not come to light in previous releases.