As the screaming faded on the freeze frame final image of Lucio Fulci's splendid City of the Living Dead (1980-also reviewed) I decided to double bill it,by watching a Jess Franco flick from the year. Finding one of the titles that I've heard about for ages by him, but have yet to see,I got set to join Jess on the hunt.
View on the film:
Revealed in Stephen Thrower's terrific book Flowers Of Perversion:The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco, that Amando de Ossorio originally planned to make the film, until the producers cut the budget so low, that he quit before filming began.
Never in his life running away from a budget no matter how low it could go, co- writer/( Julian Esteban)composer/ directing auteur Jess Franco is joined by his regular cinematographer of the period Juan Soler to roar in the jungle, with Uncle Jess scanning the tribal jungle from his trademark button-bashing zoom-in trombone playing landing on the soft-focus glory of damsel in distress Crawford (played with eye-catching sleazy glamour by Playboy October 1979 Playmate of the Month Ursula Buchfellner) screaming at the chumping at the bit cannibals.
Whilst the main cannibal has a wonderfully unsettling bulging enlarged blood red eyes appearance, the screenplay by Esteban & Uncle Jess blocks the jungle Adventure from swinging into action,by taking a collage approach,via the head-on fight between rescuer Weston and Crawford's kidnappers being scattered across the disconnected, rough edges of the cannibal antics of the islanders.
Getting into the cannibal mind-set with blurred first-person tracking shots, Uncle Jess brings the jungle to life with a delightfully strange score,thanks to Jess overcoming the low budget of the film,with a layered,multi-track soundtrack of chirps from exotic birds, bellowing Jazz and ghostly screams calling out to the devil hunter.
View on the film:
Revealed in Stephen Thrower's terrific book Flowers Of Perversion:The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco, that Amando de Ossorio originally planned to make the film, until the producers cut the budget so low, that he quit before filming began.
Never in his life running away from a budget no matter how low it could go, co- writer/( Julian Esteban)composer/ directing auteur Jess Franco is joined by his regular cinematographer of the period Juan Soler to roar in the jungle, with Uncle Jess scanning the tribal jungle from his trademark button-bashing zoom-in trombone playing landing on the soft-focus glory of damsel in distress Crawford (played with eye-catching sleazy glamour by Playboy October 1979 Playmate of the Month Ursula Buchfellner) screaming at the chumping at the bit cannibals.
Whilst the main cannibal has a wonderfully unsettling bulging enlarged blood red eyes appearance, the screenplay by Esteban & Uncle Jess blocks the jungle Adventure from swinging into action,by taking a collage approach,via the head-on fight between rescuer Weston and Crawford's kidnappers being scattered across the disconnected, rough edges of the cannibal antics of the islanders.
Getting into the cannibal mind-set with blurred first-person tracking shots, Uncle Jess brings the jungle to life with a delightfully strange score,thanks to Jess overcoming the low budget of the film,with a layered,multi-track soundtrack of chirps from exotic birds, bellowing Jazz and ghostly screams calling out to the devil hunter.