Mountain of the Cannibal God

By: themovielord
Date: Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Susan Stevenson (Ursula Andress) hires Professor Edward Foster (Stacy Keach) to help locate her missing husband in the Guinea wild, unbeknownst to her he as ulterior motives, then again so does she.

When I was working in the retail business I saw Mountain of the Cannibal God in the discount rack. The film was dirt cheap but never that cheap for me to buy it. I knew the film had a Bond girl in it (Ursula Andress) but nothing more. Instantly, one can see that the DVD transfer is incredible and better than most films of this genre. So hearing about the DVD release I decided to pick it and give it a chance.

The film begins like a scary episode of ‘Animal Planet’. There are a lot of moments where animals are killing other animals. Not only do these animal moments begin the film but they are also cut away moments throughout the film. A monkey trying to break free from a Boa Constrictor maybe the most unsettling thing about this film (it is also one of the most popular according to the interview with the director, Sergio Martino, on the DVD).

There is an unsettling realness about the film when it comes to our non-English speaking characters. Obviously they are all real natives and their realism helps to bring about the story at hand. Ursula Andress starts off as your typical girl in the jungle screaming wearing a concealing outfit. Then she moves into a skimpy white t-shirt and asks the young doctor to come with her, figuratively speaking of course. She says she is trying to find her husband and will brave the elements to do so. She does brave elements for “love” and eventually hears the words, “You don’t forget the taste of human flesh!” Not one of the best written films of all time but Ursula Andress is better than Bo Dereck in ‘Tarzan, the Ape Man’; then again so is this whole movie, which isn’t really saying much.

I couldn’t turn it off though and was captivated by the bizarre ‘Animal Planet’/ horror film that was ‘Mountain of the Cannibal God’. Grindhouse film comes to mind and has become the new term for these old movie oddities. Movies where blood has a color like rusty paint and a plot that bounces back in fourth between a horror film and ‘National Geographic’ show.

Stacy Keach is a tormented man with an ulterior motive. It’s nice that there is some depth to his character because he is the best actor in the film. Andress is alright but she is clearly here because she is the cheesecake in this eventual bloodbath. Claudio Cassinelli plays a young scientist/ adventurer called Manolo. Manolo is the only true good guy in the film but he must suffer the wrath of the ‘Mountain of the Cannibal God’. It is a shame that this young actor never got a chance to be in many big budget films. His part reveals a great actor was in there but his career was cut short by an untimely accident.

The film is one big quest, get to this point, find a clue and so fourth. The budget looked good enough until I saw that at one point they are supposed to be moving down some rough rapids but in actuality they aren’t even moving. A rough day maybe or perhaps they didn’t think anyone would notice. This little hiccup was fine until a main character dies by the hands of another with little rhyme or reason and then upon their death a happy montage ensues. What? So I was taken back and the film lost some of its momentum and fun.

Then the film got really strange, a naked Ursula Andress has mud rubbed on her in her full splendor. Any fans of ‘Dr. No’ will appreciate that moment for itself. After that begins another montage of crazy masturbation, cannibalism, sex, and animal molestation. If the director wanted to take us to a far away place we have never been before, well mission accomplished. Then he tops it with an attempted rape and a castration.

This then leads to a silent escape which isn’t very thrilling. Bringing about the question why our hero would save Ursula after she double crossed him to begin with? Maybe it says something about humanity and decency? For me I would have left her there.

‘Mountain of the Cannibal God’ was different. It was gory (for 1979) and shocking (even by today’s standards) the naked Ursula Andress was clearly the lure here originally but the craziness gory jungle oddities are what you should really be looking for. ‘Mountain of the Cannibal God’ maybe the best of the all the “Grindhouse” films from that era; it promises sex, violence, a movie star, and plenty of blood, which it does delivers.