MONDO CANNIBALE (Bruno Mattei, Philippines/Italy 2004)

DVD / English dub / open matte fullscreen / uncut / no subs / USA

Director: Bruno Mattei (as Vincent Dawn)

English distribution title: Cannibal World
Japanese English title (vhs/dvd): Cannibal Holocaust The Beginning
USA title (dvd): Mondo Cannibal
Title on bootleg dvd from Thomas Weisser's webshop: Cannibal Holocaust 2

Bogus/incorrect info on IMDb: 
"Japan (English title) (DVD box title):  Cannibal Holocaust 2"

 – Obviously, someone couldn't tell the difference between Thomas Weisser's bootleg-dvd and the official Japanese dvd!!!
In fact IMDb lists TWO English titles for the Japanese dvd – needless to say the same dvd doesn't have two different English language titles. Doesn't anybody check their info at the IMDb!?!?!?)


MATTEI REMAKES DEODATO

In 2004 Bruno Mattei remade Ruggero Deodato's CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST from 1980 and called it MONDO CANNIBALE. He shot the film back to back with NELLA TERRA DEI CANNIBALI (aka Land of Death/In the Land of the Cannibals) in the Philippines with an internationally unknown cast (I haven't been able to find ANY info about the actors apart from the two American expats). The two American expat Filipino actors are Mike Monty and Jim Moss. For some reason they´re both uncredited. Both passed away a couple of years later. Andrew Leavold quoted Nick Nicholson's comments about Jim Moss' passing here.

The American DVD from Intervision is retitled Mondo Cannibal but I'll refer to the film under the film company's international title, CANNIBAL WORLD (why do American labels always have to retitle films to make everything more confusing???)

DVD / English dub / 16:9 widescreen / uncut / japanese subs / unknown origin
(Bootleg off official Japanese dvd)

As I said, CANNIBAL WORLD is a remake of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. I should point out this isn't just me going, "Hmm, I think that scenes resembles this other scene a bit". No, we're talking frame by frame remake here. Done exactly the same way. Just, uh, worse (haha). A film crew goes into the jungle to find natives to do a documentary film about them – exploitation style. After a while the crew goes into taking extreme measures to exploit the locals. If you've seen CH you know what I'm talking about; set village on fire, cut head off young man, rape his girlfriend, stage various scenes, etc.

If you didn't like the original film because there's a turtle being killed I would advise you to stay clear of this as well; there's no turtle killings but a big lizard is being gutted alive.

Mattei also finds time to, once again, reuse cannibal footage from Akira Ide's NUOVA GUINEA: L'ISOLA DEI CANNIBALI (1974). He also did this in his HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD in 1980. 

CANNIBAL WORLD is on a completely different level than CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. While CH is a masterpiece CW is a SOV crap-piece with "actors" who overact like 12 year old kids from theatre class. There are a couple of scenes of women being infuriated and I was cracking up laughing. One of them slapped a curtain out of anger. A curtain!

But apart from this the film also contains a ton of good splatter scenes. And nudity. And cannibals sporting spiffy modern haircuts. Actually, all the cannibals have modern haircuts.

VHS / English dub / uncut / Japanese burnt-in subs / Japan

Now, if you're thinking this is probably a crappy film I fully understand where you're coming from. But you'd be wrong. CANNIBAL WORLD is highly entertaining! No, it's not a "good" movie in the classical sense of the word, but to me a good movie is one that entertains me. A crappy movie is a movie that bores me. One that leaves me feeling I've wasted my time. I was fully entertained by CANNIBAL WORLD and I want to watch it again. Overacting, gore, nudity, Filipino cannibals, what more do you want! – that's a rhetorical question, you don't have to answer it (your answer would most likely be "a better movie").

Finally, a comment about the Intervision NTSC DVD that I've just bought; The picture quality is really good for a DVD (there are no blu-ray releases). However, the label decided to present the film open matte! The Japanese DVD is 16:9 widescreen and by (a quick) comparison I must admit the widescreen framing looks better. But it's a minor gripe and I'm just happy this film (and its companion, Land of Death) is available on DVD. The Intervision release has a trailer for the film in the extras – and that's it!


Japanese trailer (in the wrong format but still)