Saturday, July 9

Extremely Damaged, Extremely Rare CANNIBAL FEROX VHS...

.
Like I previously detailed in this Blood Sprayer article, Of Gambling and Horror on VHS, many times you just gotta roll the dice when the chance to snag a potentially awesome tape found online comes your way. One of those chances arrived late last Saturday night when I spied an interesting new listing for a copy of Cannibal Ferox on Amazon for thirteen bucks.

"NTSC Canadian release in French. Some wear to box and Le Club International Video label. Plays in US."

The boom was lowered by the time I read the last word and the order was placed with the speed of a cougar with its ass ablaze. Magnetic copies of Umberto Lenzi's fruit roll-up of Italian cannibal delights are a hot commodity that sell like flapjacks after Sunday church. That and I had never heard of a French-Canadian release of Cannibal Ferox before and still can't any mention online of one. And yes, before anyone charges that I'm merely buying out of rarity, I do love the grotty little flick to death, possibly more than the "serious" Deodato classic it parasitically latches onto.

The only question now was the condition the tape would eventually arrive in. "Some wear" unfortunately arrived today in the form of a myriad of damage. Pretty much every example of a harm that can be inflicted upon a defenseless VHS box. It's cut up, unevenly sun faded, water damaged, the pieces glued inside a plastic clamshell, and sports obtrusive rental stickers on its spine. The only company on the box is Compagnie France Film Inc. based in Montreal and a sticker on the cover from Le Club International Video Film (might have been a rental joint?).

But still, I have never heard of a French-Canadian release of Cannibal Ferox before and still can't dig up any mention online before now. Thankfully, the cassette is in very nice shape and plays perfectly. It's dubbed in French, uncut, and runs at 1:32:39 NTSC. The aspect ratio is a dead center full screen crop with some of the French opening credits trimmed off the sides of the screen. Print damage runs wild over you like Hulkamania.

There are no studio screens at the tape's start, just color bars, an unauthorized copying warning in French, and then straight to the opening credits. As stated, it's in French, but strangely the riverside policeman and natives on the boat trip in the beginning speak completely unsubtitled Spanish. The song Gloria and Pat sing while in the pit is in unsubbed English. The often censor sliced animal, penis, and boobie cruelty is intact. The end credits are comprised of simply FIN. Below are a few photos of the tape in action, NSFW naturally! 


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Love it!

...do you dare tread upon the staircase?

Basement of Ghoulish Decadence, Basement of Ghoulish Archive, and all original material Copyright © 2009-present by Jayson Kennedy. All rights reserved.