-from the godfather of gore, Herschell Gordon Lewis, comes from the most eagerly awaited sequel in the annals of splatter cinema! The cannibal caterer is back with a new recipe for gross-out, comedic carnage that literally blows chunks across the silver screen! From the groundbreaking production team of H.G. Lewis and David Friedman. MAN FROM DEEP RIVER -follow a photographer as he journeys through the treacherous jungles of South East Asia. Attacked and captured by a tribe of jungle dwelling savages, he attempts an escape, and commits a barbaric act that strangely earns him the respect of the natives. As a sign of acceptance, the tribe attempts to assimilate him into their fold, initiating him through a series of brutal and sadistic rites! Can he survive!
Shriek Show has released another one of its DVD collections based on a common theme. As you might guess from the title, "Cannibal Lunch Box," the theme is cannibalism, but the collection is far from a feast for horror fans.
Warlock Moon (1.5 stars): "Warlock Moon," a 1973 independent release directed by Bill Herbert, boasts two talented leads at the beginning of their careers, but little else. Laurie Walters (of TV's "Eight is Enough") and Joe Spano (most recently Mark Harmon's FBI buddy on "NCIS") are a pair of college age youngsters who wind up spending considerable time at a rundown spa in the middle of nowhere that closed 40 years earlier. Eventually, the two get themselves in big trouble. The two leads are decent actors, as evidenced by their later careers, and they bring a semblance of quality to the production. Walters plays the scenes in which she is terrorized well, and Spano gets to chew the scenery in a bizarre courtship scene in an abandoned swimming pool. The rest of the cast leaves much to be desired, with a quality level about what you'd expect from the local community theaters from which they probably came. In addition, the screenplay of "Warlock Moon" is filled with gaping plot holes, and the film's production values are virtually nonexistent. Horror fans should also note that, although several murders occur in the film, unlike the shocking gore level of most independent films of that time, almost nothing is shown. Instead, the film features some rather inept cuts while the killings occur offscreen.
"Warlock Moon" does feature a witty DVD commentary, as well as a brief introduction to the film, both provided by so-called "drive-in critic" Joe Bob Briggs, who provided commentaries for a number of low rent horror film DVDs a few years back. Considering the rather complete lack of actual horror, intelligence, or production values in the movie, viewers will be far better advised to skip the traditional version of the film and, instead, just listen to Briggs's commentary.
The Man from Deep River (1.5 stars): Umberto Lenzi's "Man from Deep River" was the first cannibalism film to get widespread attention, and, although its 30-second flesh-eating scene was undoubtedly shocking to audiences in 1972, in comparison with the work of Eli Roth and other modern goremeisters, the sequence comes off as ludicrous today. Unfortunately, so does the rest of the film. "Deep River" is the story of a British photographer (Italian actor Ivan Rassimov) on assignment to shoot scenery in the remote upriver reaches of Thailand. Rassimov is captured by natives and initially tortured, but he eventually becomes accepted into the tribe, even marrying a beautiful tribe member. The cannibalism scene occurs when a rival tribe attacks and captures and eats one of the women from Rassimov's tribe.
"Deep River" is a bad movie: poorly acted, poorly written, poorly photographed and edited for the most part, and exploiting the needless torture and butchering of various animals for the alleged entertainment of the audience (there are scenes of crocodiles being gutted and a monkey's brains being eaten). Although the animal butchery is often disgusting, the cannibalism scene, in which a native pretends to eat what's obviously a prop foot, is extremely silly. One animal scene, a fight between a mongoose and a cobra, is actually fascinating to watch, since it features an extremely rare film depiction of the animals acting naturally. That scene, plus a ten-minute interview (in subtitled Italian) with director Lenzi, who talks about the making of the film, are the only worthwhile features of the film.
Blood Feast 2 (3.5 stars): Herschel Gordon Lewis has a well-deserved reputation in cult/schlock film circles as a pioneering trailblazer. Throughout the 1960s, the movies he directed pushed the envelope with a series of virtually zero budget films that had substantial amounts of gore and nudity for that era and minimal amounts of quality acting and production values. Lewis retired from the film industry in the early 1970s to pursue a career in the ordinary business world, but, to the delight of his legions of fans, returned in 2002 with "Blood Feast 2," a sequel to one of his earliest gorefests. The plot features an insane caterer in a small town whose various recipes contain human body parts, largely obtained from beautiful women whom he kills.
By conventional movie standards, "Blood Feast 2" is a disaster: amateurishly acted, with a silly plot line and virtually nonexistent production values. In addition, many people will find it completely disgusting. However, Lewis is perfectly aware both of the limitations of his production and the expectations of his target audience and has delivered a campy, perfectly self aware delight. The film also features another cult legend, John Waters, in a cameo as a local minister. Lewis mastered the formula for sick camp shlock fun in the 1960s and he has seamlessly updated his formula for the 21st century. What makes the film enjoyable is its wicked sense of humor. The screenplay doesn't try to hide the stupid plot and production limitations; instead, it plays on them and exaggerates them for comic effect.
Ultimately, the movie gets somewhat repetitious (there's only so many times you can have people discover an eye or a finger in their food and be completely oblivious to what they've found). "Blood Feast 2" probably won't hold up as well on repeat viewings as cult classics like "Rocky Horror" do (I personally have no desire to see it again), but, overall, it's a tasty morsel of a depraved movie.
Unfortunately, the movie has been released in a number of versions, and this collection contains the R-rated version. The violence and gore here are fairly tame (well below the level of gore displayed in Eli Roth films or the "Saw" movies). This version does have a good bit of nudity, since most of the female characters are gorgeous and quick to disrobe on several occasions.
Overall, "Cannibal Lunch Box" features two bad movies whose only real positive features aren't actually in the movies themselves but, to the contrary, are bonus interviews and commentary. The third feature, "Blood Feast 2," is a lot of campy fun, but the box set features the relatively tame R-rated version, even though there are several unrated versions of the film still in print. I normally give the benefit of the doubt to a box set of any type due to the added extra value that comes from combining multiple features in one set. However, "Cannibal Lunch Box" only has one film worth seeing, and the set contains an inferior version of that film. Viewers who appreciate this type of movie would be better off skipping the box set and getting an unrated version of "Blood Feast 2" instead.
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