The Encyclopedia of Cannibal Movies

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JENNIFER'S BODY

Karyn Kusama, Diablo Cody, 20th Century Fox 2009

Crazy ex-stripper turned screenwriter Diablo Cody wrote this screenplay about a teenage cannibal during the shooting of Juno, the movie made from her Academy Award winning screenplay. Scrumptious Megan Fox is a posessed cheerleader that turns into a demonic cannibal and eats all of her boyfriends. Nobody notices until she starts eating her bestfirend Amanda Seyfried's boyfriends, too, and then the hot nerdy girlfriend turns into an avenging angel.. Maybe all three! Megan Fox usually makes my hungry. So does Amanda Seyfried, for that matter.

 

JOHNNY THE GIANT KILLER

Jean Image, Lippert Pictures 1950 (France)

A French animated feature released originally in 1950, it was shown on American television in the 1960s and has been recently re-released on DVD. Johnny and his scout friends investigate the castle of the giant who eats people by shrinking them and putting them into a sandwich. The boys are quickly captured and put through an elaborate shrinking machine and held in a cage. Johnny escapes and meets a hive of bees who help him save his friends just as the giant is preparing lunch.

 

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH

George Miller, Hallmark Entertainment 1999

This is what a corporate production of a classic science fiction tale looks like. AT&T Presents a Hallmark Entertainment production for USA Pictures (originally broadcast on the USA Network cable channel) starring Treat Williams (Hair) as a scientist who follows the trail of another scientist who is following Arne Saknussen's trail into the Center of the Earth. Financing the expedition and coming along for the ride is the missing scientist's wife. Their journey is interrupted by Maori cannibals who are angry at having a woman break their taboo of seeing a woman before a battle. The only way to make the curse right, is to eat the woman. Treat Williams offers to let the cheif eat him instead but the cheif is not interested. "Man not so tasty," he says, so Treat challenges the cheif to a game for the woman's freedom. Treat wins, just as the army attacks and everyone escapes. They go on to encounter dinosaurs, cavemen and dinosaur people. A bit silly, actually.

 

Do cannibals inhabit Jungle Blue?

JUNGLE BLUE

Troy Benny (Carlos Tobalina), Diamond Films 1978

A 1970s jungle themed porn. Basically an X-rated Tarzan spoof, it has many of the usual jungle cliches: jungle girls, giant gorillas, an ape man, and natives. Are the natives cannibals? Possibly, but finding a copy of this ancient piece of porno history may make it difficult to prove.

 

Grindhouse poster for Jungle Drums

 

JUNGLE DRUMS

Russell Deane, Black Rose Productions/Cantoon Island Pictures 1994

A shot-on-video short made as a demo for the "Cookbook for Cannibals" project, this attempts to be a sexy send-up of the cannibal comedy cliche as presented in the adventure serials and cartoons of the past. Two girls whose plane crash lands in the jungle get captured by cannibals who take them back to their village. They get stripped down by the female witch doctor during a sexy dance, and then get spiced up and cooked in the pot. Recently re-released as a short subject in a gritty "Grind House" style that works well for this video without sacrificing the humor or sexiness. Currently available for download at the Pulptoon.com website.

 

Soup's on in Jungle Drums

 

JUNGLE GENTS

Edward Bernds, Allied Artists Pictures 1954

A film in the "Bowery Boys" series starring Huntz Hall and Leo Gorcey takes on the standard comic jungle cliche. Exotic beauty Laurette Luez plays a female Tarzan and rescues the boys from a tribe of cannibals. Like "Africa Screams" the boys are looking for diamonds. This is one of the most uncharacteristic of the "Bowery Boys" movies and probably the least respected.

 

JUNGLE MAN-EATERS

Lee Sholem, Sam Katzman Productions 1954

"It's Jungle Jim to the rescue, as cannibal fires roar!" proclaim the posters for this Johnny Wiesmuller "Jungle Jim" movie. A female doctor helps the good natives while a bad white hunter conspires with the bad natives to drive the good natives off their land, which is full of diamonds. Jungle Jim (Weismuller, of course) and Tamba the chimp see to it that the bad guys get their just desserts. Cannibal fires DO NOT roar. They don't even smolder, and the word "cannibal" is not even spoken throughout the film.