Horror Movie Review: The Mountain of the Cannibal God (1978)

Like many of the video nasty horrors, it’s hard to see just why The Mountain of the Cannibal God was ever banned. That is until you see the European print version that includes extreme animal violence. As well as an up close view of a native girl masturbating & native man simulating sex with a pig.

Remove these moments, these minor & pointless scenes & The Mountain of the Cannibal God could barely be called a horror let alone a video nasty. Overly long, very boring & playing out like every cannibal movie ever, it’s hard to find much good to say about this movie.

The plot sees Susan Stevenson (Ursula Andress) trying to find her husband. He went missing in the jungles of New Guinea. Along with her ‘unusual’ brother, Arthur (Antonio Marsina) & Professor Edward Foster (Stacy Keach) they head off to the cursed mountain, Ra Ra Me.

Locals won’t go there & the authorities don’t allow expeditions but the group head off anyway.
Once there they meet an explorer called Manolo (Claudio Cassinelli) who agrees to accompany them on their trip.

Manolo is secret about his reasons for heading up the mountain but he is not alone. It is later revealed that Foster wants to wipe out the cannibal tribe that live on the mountain while Susan & Arthur are thinking more about the uranium deposits that could exist there. They all have reasons to be going to Ra Ra Me & none of them involve Susan’s husband.

Unsurprisingly when the group do arrive at the cannibal tribes home they aren’t exactly greeted warmly. They are captured, eaten & tortured with only Susan & Manolo escaping to tell their tale.

The Mountain of the Cannibal God is an unpleasant movie, one filled with a mix of absolutely nothing scenes & brutal animal slaughter. It’s portrayal of a culture it doesn’t understand makes for uncomfortable watching at times, it’s incredibly dated.

Most of the actors clearly didn’t want to be part of it. They are sleepwalking through their roles with a glazed look across their faces. Their characters are forgettable & by the end of the movie, extremely unlikable.

The most interesting part of the movie, the finale is ruined by the up-close lengthy scenes of masturbation & pig-sex, simulated or not, it’s just awful.

Ultimately, what anyone will remember about The Mountain of the Cannibal God is the final few minutes. The disgusting scenes of animal slaughter. Seeing a live lizard cut open & disembowelled is not entertainment. Having to watch a live monkey be slowly devoured by a python is not entertainment. Completely unnecessary.

At 99 minutes long, the movie feels twice as long. It drags & drags to a predictable & unsatisfying conclusion. Unless seeing Ursula Andress naked is what you’re after. A video nasty for all the wrong reasons.