A doctor, journalist and two adventurers form a makeshift expedition to the Amazon to find a missing professor, reportedly with a lost tribe in an area rumoured to be rich in gold. The journey proves to be a complicated one. First they have to steal back their plane and fuel it for the journey, so they agree to hunt monkeys for live sales, until they are kidnapped and tortured using spiders and ants by natives who depend on the monkeys for survival. This is just the beginning of a series of dangerous obstacles which they need to overcome before finally running fowl of ruthless killers determined to get their hands on the gold. Along the way they fight anacondas, save children from being kidnapped and sold for their organs, get bitten by a deadly snake, get captured and escape from villains aplenty, and help tribesmen fight against violent gold hunters...

Evidently, there’s much going on here. The characters are likeable but bland. The journalist girl spends all her time trying to look sultry – to the point it starts to annoy. Of course, it’s a lot about nothing, but it’s a strangely compelling lot about nothing. The real star here is the location. The visuals are stunning. The new 2K restoration by 88 Films in the UK is obviously a big factor in the price of this film. A mediocre dub from Italian to English and sub-standard acting pale into insignificance compared with the environment of the Amazon and its 1001 wonders (no matter where it was filmed). We see crocodiles, anacondas, monkeys, racing frogs, ants, spiders, a leopard, and loads more. The film kind of succeeds on this aspect; it’s worth the viewing time for the spectacle alone.

This is a sequel of sorts to Ruggero Deodato’s notorious Cannibal Holocaust, but ten years later… and nothing like the original. Director Antonio Climati instead takes another stance. In this one, rather than the expected cannibals we get nature itself (including remote tribes) being the force to be reckoned with. It can be dangerous or benign (even helpful) depending on the person’s attitude towards it.

The main extra here is Scenes From Banned Alive (interviews with cannibal film directors Ruggero Deodato, Umberto Lenzi and Sergio Martino).

5

Ty Power