Man from Deep River (1972)
In which Italian hack director Umberto Lenzi attempted to rip off
A Man Called Horse (1970) using Ivan Rassimov instead of Richard Harris, and Thai jungle tribes instead of native American Indians and inadvertently created the cannibal horror film.
Overloaded with animal violence - the slaying of the alligator is particularly nasty as they slice open it's stomach as it flails about, although my dog Milli loved the mongoose / snake fight, absolutely glued to the screen she was -
Man From Deep River isn't actually that interesting exploitation wise, The cannibal action is limited to a single scene and isn't at the forefront of Lenzi's ambition. The film is largely about Rassimov - a white man from the city - his induction into a primitive jungle tribe and his subsequent love affair with tribes girl Me Me Lai. (If ever a name came from a Frankie Howerd sketch it's Me Me Lai).
Whilst nowhere near the best work of either Rassimov, Lenzi or the seemingly stoned throughout Lai,
Man From Deep River has more going for it than the majority of Italian cannibal films.
The Shriek Show dvd positively sparkles, so good is it's picture quality, so i can only imagine how good the truncated Blu-Ray from 88 will look.