After having killed a man in a bar fight, photographer John Bradley takes off on a Thai river and is abducted by natives.
Umberto Lenzi's Man from Deep River from 1972 is the film that started the cannibal craze and is of course therefore considered a classic. But just because it started the trend which spawned many fantastic cannibal films doesn't mean that it's any good. While it's not a bad movie per say it's not a cannibal flick like Ferox, Holocaust and such films at all. No, Man from Deep River practically has no cannibals in it, just a few and for a very short (and unsatisfying) period of time and if you want brutal savages, blood and torture, this should not be your first choise.
 
What it has to offer though is a pretty good story about a man named John Bradley (Ivan Rassimov) who kills another man in a bar fight in Bangkok and shortly after hires a guide and hits the river to get away from the heat. After floating around for some time Bradley wakes up to find his guide floating dead in the water. He's soon captured by a tribe and brought to their village. The natives believe he's a fish-man the cheif's daughter Maraya (Me Me Lai) says he's just a normal man and should be put to work. When later trying to escape the village, Bradley kills one of the tribal folks, is captured and taken back to the village where he's put through some torture to become part of the tribe. He falls for Maraya and the whole thing turns into a dramatic love story that's spiked with a lot of animal cruelty all the way through.
Again, it's not a bad film but it isn't a cannibal film as we know them either. It's somewhat slow and focuses on story and character development, which it does well but where the heck is there gore? It's just not that type of film, simple as that. Still, I do recommend this to fans of 70's films and Italian cannibal films because it is what started it all and might therefore be worth taking a look at. Just don't expect much violence, blood or gore. On the other hand there's a helluva lot of animal cruelty; a monkey getting the top of his head cut off and such disgusting things, and also you get to see a lot of tribal women naked, (which is actually not that great at all).
Not a horror movie, low on blood and very little cannibalism. It does have things to offer like a decent story but if that's what you're after, I dunno.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Il Paese del sesso selvaggio, Deep River Savages, Sacrifice!
MOVIE YEAR: 1972
DIRECTOR: Umberto Lenzi
WRITING CREDITS: Francesco Barilli, Massimo D'Avak
GENRE: Adventure, Drama, Horror
CAST: Ivan Rassimov, Me Me Lai, Pratitsak Singhara
COUNTRY: Italy
RUNTIME: 92 min
RATING: 5/10
Man from Deep River Website/IMDB Click here
Man from Deep River Trailer Click here
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