Scott LeBrun A small commando squad ventures into the heart of the Amazon to retrieve Sara Armstrong (Cindy Jelic Matic). The hottie daughter of a senator, she was kidnapped by a cannibal tribe. The soldiers are led by a guide named Romero (Claudio Morales), a man who knows the score when it comes to the local tribes and their customs.Ad copy refers to this as a cross between "Cannibal Holocaust" and "Predator", which pretty much sums up the whole silly affair. In fact, director Bruno Mattei ("Hell of the Living Dead", "Rats: Night of Terror") and his co-writer, Giovanni Paolucci, spend so much time shamelessly aping "Predator", and "Aliens" as well, that you just have to shake your head and laugh at their nerve.On location shooting in the Philippines is effectively atmospheric (and supplemented by some stock footage), and there's a pleasingly high body count. The gore devised by Giuseppe Ferranti is actually quite good. The characters are all patently ridiculous, and receive appropriately cheese ball performances. Ydalia Suarez is the most amusing as Vasquez, an oh so obvious nod to the gung ho marine played by Jenette Goldstein in "Aliens"."In the Land of the Cannibals" is plenty stupid, but it's not pretending to be anything other than a routine ripoff film and continuation of that cannibal genre popularized by the Italians in the 1970s and 1980s. While this viewer would readily admit that it's hardly "good" stuff, it's actually pretty entertaining, provided one isn't annoyed by the lack of imagination in the script.Six out of 10.

Sandy Petersen Bruno Mattei is one of my favorite directors. Not because he's great, but because he is always entertainingly terrible. Who can forget such amazing films as "Women's Prison Massacre" or "Zombie 3". He was unique."Land of Death" is often touted as Predator meets Cannibal Holocaust, but really it's not. Yeah, he steals scenes from Predator (in fact, he steals the same scene THREE TIMES in typical Bruno ham-handed manner), but really it's only because he has soldiers in the jungle, so why not? The plot does not otherwise mirror Predator. There is not even a giant boss-fight in the end, though with supernal brilliance, he actually foreshadows such a boss-fight in the dialogue and scenes. Then doesn't deliver. Et tu, Bruno? Two acts of on-camera animal violence, and it is probable that the murdered piglet is a prop - seems kind of prop-like during the death scene. I'm pretty sure they killed that snake though - jerks.The aspect that bugged me the most was how quickly Bruno's "crack soldiers" lusted for insane vengeance on the not-really-cannibals, after one (1) of their guys was killed. Particularly because we see the soldiers kill dozens to hundreds of the indians in retaliation, including burning down their village. Yet I think we are supposed to root for the soldiers.My favorite guy was Kruger, the "Irishman". In fairness he did have a mock-Irish accent.Really my problem with Land of Death is that it wasn't batshit stupid enough to stand with Bruno Mattei's greatest moments. On the other hand, because it was a disappointing Bruno Mattei film, that kind of makes it the perfect Bruno Mattei film.If you are a Mattei fan, check it out. If you are not yet a Mattei fan, go watch The Other Hell, The Tomb, Island of the Living Dead, Women's Prison Massacre, SS Girls, or Hell of the Living Dead first. Those will amaze you with Bruno's chutzpah.

The_Void Ripping off big budget American films was a common practice for Italian filmmakers in the seventies and eighties with the likes of The Exorcist, Dirty Harry and Jaws being 'reinvented' several times by a host of names, which often included Bruno Mattei. By 2003, cheap exploitation cinema had become less popular in Italy; but Bruno Mattei was still making movies and apparently he didn't see any reason to stop this often practiced tradition of ripping off American movies, and saw fit to reinvent John McTiernan's Predator and splice it together with another popular American export, the cannibal movie, and what we have as the result is this film. Land of Death takes place, as you would expect, in the Amazon jungle and as was the case with Predator; we focus on a group of soldiers that have to go into the jungle on a rescue mission. They have to rescue a general's daughter who has been kidnapped by a cannibal tribe who, fascinated by her blonde hair, believe her to be some sort of goddess.Most of the Italian rip-offs released during the seventies and eighties were a bit more subtle than this film. The order of the day was usually to rip a film off thematically and basically spin a new story around the idea used in the successful American film. But Mattei apparently couldn't be bothered to go through the time consuming process of thinking up an idea and writing a script; so what we get instead is just a re-run of Predator. And I mean that literally; whole lines of dialogue are taken, scenes are stolen almost frame for frame, the characters are the same etc. In fact if it wasn't for the fact that there is no alien, this could be a frame for frame remake of Predator (although it's more along the same lines as the fan made version of Indiana Jones quality-wise than Gus Van Sant's Psycho!). Basically, if you've seen Predator, you will know exactly what to expect here and to be honest there's not much point watching unless you're only there to see just how badly McTiernan's film has been stolen from. Mattei does at least give us some gore...but to be honest, this is shameful stuff.

Coventry This user-comment stands as my last personal homage to director Bruno Mattei, who sadly passed away just a few weeks ago. Even though certainly wasn't the world's best horror director (he's often even referred to as the Italian Ed Wood), but his movies never failed to entertain me, and you could always tell he had great intentions. "Hell of the Living Dead" and "Rats: Nights of Terror", for example, are both terrible, yet they form essential viewing for fans of Italian horror cinema. Mattei supposedly died from a brain tumor, but after seeing "Cannibal Ferox 3", I'm beginning to suspect Arnold Swcharzenegger and John McTiernan killed him for exaggeratedly imitating their masterwork "Predator". I've seen a lot of (Italian) rip-offs of cinematic milestones, but there never was any film that shamelessly borrowed so many key-elements from one movie and repeated them blatantly. Every single memorable sequence from "Predator" is copied here (from the skinned corpses hanging upside down from trees to the mistaken killing of a wild boar instead of the enemy) and even most of the dialogs are literally re-used. (" ain't got time to bleed"). Actually, all Bruno Mattei did was replace the intergalactic hunter with a tribe of native Cannibals, and that's it! A team of heavily trained soldiers is sent into the jungle to locate and rescue a Western girl who's supposedly captured by a cannibalistic tribe. The tribe considers her to be some sort of Goddess, so even if the squad can get her out of there, the cannibals aren't likely to give up without a fight. The script also steals elements from a handful of other movies ("Aliens", "Cannibal Holocaust" …) but if you've seen "Predator", you're always several steps ahead of the screenplay. The action sequences are poorly done and there's only a disappointingly small amount of gory make-up effects to enjoy. Acting performances are weak and the total lack of sleaze is unforgivable. Cindy Jelic Matic stripped off all her clothes in "Mondo Cannibale" (which was shot back-to-back with this one), so the least she could do was show some ravishing flesh here as well. Oh well, at least these recent cannibal-exploitation movies don't feature any gratuitous animal killings, I suppose. Unfortunately, I can't give any praise to Bruno Mattei regarding this film, as it really sucks, but at least he kept the Italian horror industry running till the day he died. He directed no less than fifteen movies since the new millennium and I think all his fans should see them! Call it some kind of paying your last respects