After finishing this film, I initially felt that it had nothing to offer aside from the stock shock horror one could expect from exploitation film. I found most of the film rather dull and that the moments of cinematic beauty were far and few in between. The cannibal story is, of course, sensationalized and obviously would not accurately portray what cannibalism in the Philippines looks like, but at the same time, while I was expecting offense, I was not expecting boredom, which Jungle Holocaust aka Last Cannibal World had in droves. The blood and gore itself wasn’t too much more interesting than the footage of animals trying to eat one another and there’s just too much empty space between story beats. I can understand a story trying to say that in times of survival the “more civilized” may turn to savagery, but that just raises more complicated and annoying conversation about who gets to determine savagery and civility and how that intersects with colonialism as a whole.

Interestingly enough, partway through this I realized I had already seen it before. It just left so little of an impression on me that I did not recognize it by title alone.

After finishing this film, I initially felt that it had nothing to offer aside from the stock shock horror one could expect from exploitation film. I found most of the film rather dull and that the moments of cinematic beauty were far and few in between. The cannibal story is, of course, sensationalized and obviously would not accurately portray what cannibalism in the Philippines looks like, but at the same time, while I was expecting offense, I was not expecting boredom, which Jungle Holocaust aka Last Cannibal World had in droves. The blood and gore itself wasn’t too much more interesting than the footage of animals trying to eat one another and there’s just too much empty space between story beats. I can understand a story trying to say that in times of survival the “more civilized” may turn to savagery, but that just raises more complicated and annoying conversation about who gets to determine savagery and civility and how that intersects with colonialism as a whole.

Interestingly enough, partway through this I realized I had already seen it before. It just left so little of an impression on me that I did not recognize it by title alone.