Trap Them And Kill Them

I was feeling a bit peckish last night so I decided to take another bite at a DVD that previously I'd only nibbled upon. Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977) (aka 'Trap Them And Kill Them').

So what is it all about then? The title provides a big clue! Directed by Joe D'Amato, Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals is an old Italian exploitation flick, designed to cash in on the international success of soft porn hit Emmanuelle and the trend at the time for savage jungle movies. Aiming at attracting fans of sex, adventure and horror films, it probably offended more people than it entertained.

Beautiful reporter Emanuelle, played by Laura Gemser, seeks out the last existing Cannibal tribe. What we get as the viewer is a fairly slow moving hour and a half that features sex, nob lopping, disembowelments, intestine munching and a chimpanzee smoking a cigarette! Sounds good right? Well not quite. The sex is pretty boring, the acting is wooden and the English dubbing is bad. On the plus side however the Cannibals are pretty convincing; full credit to the Amazon Indian locals who seemed happy to chew on animal guts (pig intestines?) for what must have been little pay. The outrageous gore effects aren't bad either. Today most of them look obviously fake but they might still shock the uninitiated or casual horror viewer. Back in the 80's the extreme grue and violence earned the film 'video nasty' status in the UK. It was all new then and on the grainy bootleg VHS tapes that circulated amongst horror fans it must have looked sickeningly realistic. Even now the UK version of the DVD has 1 minute 58 seconds cut for scenes of violence against women. Apparently it's OK to castrate and gut men in movies. I wonder if the Chimpanzee is still allowed to smoke?

So there you have it. Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals is a sleazefest for the curious. As Cannibal movies go it doesn't reach the (dubious) standards of Jungle Holocaust or Cannibal Holocaust.

In 1977 Joe D'Amato also made the vile Emanuelle In America. The storyline is similar with intrepid reporter Emanuelle going in search of Snuff film makers. It really is a sick piece of work that has no redeeming features at all. I wouldn't recommend Emanuelle In America to anyone unless they really want to be put off their food.