Alain Deruelle

(In French, On Cable TV, January 2021) The early 1980s were a golden age for two detestable trends in horror movies: knife-wielding psycho slashers, and primitive-tribes cannibal movies. I despise both, but if forced to choose, I will usually prefer slashers: most of them are dull and unlikable, but cannibal movies could be repulsive to the point of unwatchability. Director Alain Deruelle’s Terreur cannibale distinguishes itself from most of the subgenre by first being a lone French effort in a mostly Italian sub-genre, but also by being a weird hybrid between a dull thriller and a disgusting cannibal horror film. The story does play on melodramatic elements by having two villains kidnap the young daughter of a rich man and head out into the jungle to hide her. But the horror elements quickly come back to the forefront with graphic cannibalism, rape and murder—don’t worry for the little girl (she escapes the film alive and untraumatized, which can’t be said about its audience), but the kidnapping rapist criminals are not fated to a happy ending once the rape victim aims the friendly neighbourhood cannibals at them. I am unfortunately jaded enough to say that Terreur cannibale feels like mere unpleasantness compared to the stomach-churning gore of Cannibal Holocaust. But that’s not a recommendation—it’s still an unpleasant film to watch, and a surprisingly forgettable one despite the hybridization of cannibal tropes with some thriller elements. Keep in mind that this assessment comes from an ultra-jaded viewer: anyone not used to the excesses of early-1980s cannibal movies will not find anything of value here.