White Cannibal Queen (1980) User Reviews

Jess Franco chomps on the cannibal genre

[udar55 · 4/10 · 30 August 2009]

Prof. Taylor (Al Cliver) and his family are attacked on their boat by a group of cannibals. Taylor is taken back to the village and barely survives, losing his young daughter and left arm (!) in the process. He spends the next decade or so manic and recovering in New York City with the help of his nurse Ana (Lina Romay). When he finally comes to his senses, Taylor - with aid from his rich benefactors - mounts another journey into the jungle to rescue his daughter. Problem is that she is now married to the head of the tribe and, most likely, hates her one- armed daddy.

Always down for a little exploitation, director Jess Franco got his cannibal groove on in the late 70s/early 80s and shot this one in the south of Spain. The cannibals are laughable (one is spotted wearing a wedding band) and look like they were grabbed in a Lowes parking lot (not far off actually as Franco says they hired gypsies). Plus, they wear goofy make up that makes them look like they are members of the baseball gang in THE WARRIORS. Sabrina Siani, memorably nude in Fulci's CONQUEST, shows where she got her start as the grown up daughter-turned- cannibal-queen. Franco calls her the "most stupid" person he has ever worked with in the Blue Underground disc's documentary. He then stops himself short and says that he has worked with many dumb leading ladies and that she is up there in the top. He also has kind words for Cliver, saying he was professional and sober which "for a Latin person is a miracle." While the film isn't even close to the genre's best offerings, it moves along fast enough, features some skin and delivers some gory goods (yeah, I'm easy to please tonight). One thing is for sure though, you will be singing the "Oh, oh, oooooooh" cannibal theme over and over by the time the film is done.

Beyond Awful Franco Take on the Cannibal Genre

[Witchfinder-General-666 · 2/10 · 22 October 2010]

Being a great fan of the prolific Spanish Exploitation deity Jess Franco, I always believe negative feedback to a Franco flick I haven't seen to be exaggerated. It is undeniable that the man's impressive repertoire of about 200 directed movies includes masterpieces as well as big-time stinkers (and everything in-between). However, I do tend to enjoy even those Franco films that most people find awful. This is not the case with this film, however. "Mondo Cannibale" (aka. "Barbarian Goddess"/"White Cannibal Queen"/"Cannibals"/"Mondo Cannibale 3") is Franco's attempt at the Cannibal sub-genre which, with its gruesome and uncompromising films, was very successful in Italy at the time. Right after the abysmal French "Terreur Cannibale" (in which Franco was also involved), "Mondo Cannibale" is the second-to-worst Cannibal film I have ever seen and it has replaced "Sadomania" in its rank as the worst Franco-flick I've seen. "Mondo Cannibale" is, by the way, not to be confused with Umberto Lenzi's "Il Paese Del Sesso Selvaggio" (1972) and Ruggero Deodato's "Ultimo Mondo Cannibale" (1979), two classic Italian Cannibal films which are titled "Mondo Cannibale I&II" in many countries. This abysmal Franco flick is therefore often referred to as "Mondo Cannibale 3".

For whatever reason, a scientist (Al Cliver) brings his wife and young daughter with him on an expedition deep in a jungle filled with hungry cannibals. His wife gets eaten, and he escapes without his daughter (!), after his hand has been chopped off. Years later, the scientist comes back for his daughter, along with a couple of bored rich people who don't believe in his story and are just there to have fun. The cannibals are in the meanwhile, worshiping the daughter (who has blossomed into a beautiful bare-bosomed blonde)as a 'white goddess'...

There is so much wrong with this film that I hardly know where to begin: The jungle is not a jungle. It is a very neat assembly of palm-trees, probably somewhere in Spain or Southern France. It is so neat that the expedition is capable of going there in cars. Sometimes, one can even see Western buildings in the background. The 'savages'are entirely white guys. Some of them sport mustaches, sideburns and hip hair-cuts. Other wear watches or gold rings. Even though they clearly hate 'whites' (which is odd since they are white themselves), the cannibals declare the white girl their goddess on sight. The child, by the way, has brown hair, which magically becomes blond when she grows up. The main hero is apparently cowardly enough to leave his child daughter behind with a bunch of cannibals, but insanely brave enough to go back there after years, with two other men and three women to face the entire cannibal tribe... I could go on and on about the film's inconsistencies; however, the incredible logical errors are actually the most fun factor of the film. Sadly, all the rest is very boring. The seemingly never-ending monotonous drum banging is annoying as hell.

The Cannibal genre has many great Italian films to offer for anyone interested. The genre's only true masterpiece is Ruggero Deodato's "Cannibal Holocaust" (1980), but there are many other gruesome and disturbing ones to watch, most notably Deodato's "Ultimo Mondo Cannibale" and all of Umberto Lenzi's Cannibal films. Jess Frano's take on the genre is a disaster. The budget was obviously tiny, but that's hardly an excuse, as Franco has proved on many occasions that he is perfectly capable of making great films on a tiny budget. The man has to be saluted for dabbling in about any Exploitation/Horror sub-genre imaginable. This film is still awful and hard to sit through. Not even Franco's muse and real-life wife Lina Romay can save this. One to be avoided, unless you are writing a book on Jess Franco.

Indigestible Franco-crap

[Coventry · 2/10 · 15 August 2007]

This great world is full of mysteries… One of the biggest of all, however, is why the hell some horror movie buffs – myself included – are still showing respect & admiration for Jess Franco, even though he brought us nearly nothing but boring crap and senseless exploitation. Take this rubbish for example! "White Cannibal Queen" is a hopelessly incompetent and agonizing excuse for a motion picture, and Franco clearly just made it to quickly cash in on the huge success his fellow Euro-cult directors were having with movies like "Cannibal Holocaust", "Mountain of the Cannibal God" and "Jungle Holocaust". But those were captivating and eventful films, whereas Franco's movie is extremely dull and stupid from start to finish. Dull because there's almost no storyline and not even a remotely interesting character drawing and stupid because the sequences involving cannibalism and/or savage tribes are hilarious instead of grueling! The supposedly relentless cannibals hop around with painted faces that make them look like clowns and most of them don't even look like South American natives. They're white! Franco's cannibals are the least menacing ones I've ever seen and the lack of budget & inspiration even prevents them from eating many people. Whenever the cannibals attack someone, the screen swifts into a slow-motion compilation of dark and blurry images and it's nearly impossible to make out what's happening. It looks as if the same pieces of flesh are repeatedly ripped from a female's stomach, and this goes on for entire minutes! The plot is a giant rip-off as well, as you've seen it all before … and better. An adventurous young couple and their 8-year-old daughter travel down the Amazonian river when they get attacked by a tribe of funnily face-painted savages. The wife gets eaten and the young girl abducted, but the father (Fulci regular Al Cliver) manages to escape with only the loss of one arm. Years of intense psychiatric help later, he mobilizes an expedition team and re-enters the jungle to rescue his daughter. The girl turned into an incredible hot teenager and – to get things even more complicated – she's considered a sacred goddess by the cannibal tribe, so it won't be easy to get her out of the jungle. Does she even want to get out? "White Cannibal Queen" is slow-paced, dull and poorly made. The acting performances are lousy and the use of music is often completely inappropriate. There's too little gore and sleaze, so even the most tolerant Franco fans are likely to consider this as one of his lousiest accomplishments. Avoid "White Cannibal Queen" at all costs and re-watch "Cannibal Holocaust" for the umpteenth time.

Loathing , grim and unsettling Jesus Franco picture with plenty of blood , gore and guts

[ma-cortes · 3/10 · 14 June 2022]

This Spain/Italy/France co-production results to be a scary movie about cruel indigenous cannibalistic tribes , it is filled with some genuine fright , horror and doom . A man (Al Cliver) who lost an arm and his family -his wife and daughter- , while cruising through the jungle when their boat was attacked by a tribe of mangler cannibals . Later on , he organizes an expedition with some unfortunate travelers (Lina Romay , Olivier Mathot , Pamela Stanford, Antonio Mayans) and he goes back ten years later to bring back his teenager daughter who was held captive by the heinous tribe , only to find that she grew up into a beautiful blonde woman (Sabrina Siani) who became the cannibals' queen . Where the natives are pleased to Meat you! Kidnapped by cannibals! Raised to eat human flesh! .She grew up to be her queen !. Now her father is looking for her !.

A ruthless , barbaric , authentically disgusting flick packing inexplicable disturbing occurrences , shocks , thrills , suspense , chills , hair-rising events with horrible mangling and being extremely gory . It follows in the wake of the cannibalist films from Umbert Lenzi , and, especially , the really a brutal fake documentary : ¨Ruggiero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust¨ that resulted to be the mother of all cannibal films , the most savage , the most controversial movie ever made and the most horrific tale in modern history . Mondo cannibale (1980) is a below average yarn with too much chilling scenes , filled with sleaziness and non-sense of style . It is full of killings , nudism , sexual violence , disfigured people, grisly murders by means of slashing , ripping to death , killings in cold blood executed by ominous cannibals , loathsome and loads of blood and gore . A mysoginist movie with plenty of nudism , sadistic frames , graphic cannibalism , explicit scenes of violence and made in extremely scary style , no for squeamish . This Terror/Cannibal Movie displays lousy special effects with cutting , chopping , hacking , beheading , stomach ripped out and other cannibalistic frames .Stars a second-clas cass with B-Italian actor Al Cliver and the beautiful Sabrina Siani who wonderfully dresses in thong . And involving some familiar faces from Jesús Franco , such as : his real wife Lina Romay as Candy Coster , Shirley Knight , Olivier Mathot , Pamela Stanford Antonio Mayans and as usual , a cameo by Jess Frank himself as a swindler.

Mediocre cinematography by Juan Soler filmed on location in Serra de Sintra, Portugal ,where Franco shot several films ; however , being faded by the odd colouring of the old VHS, I would like to see this get remastered on blu-ray . It contains anticlimatic musical score composed by composer Roberto Pregadio . A disconcerting horror movie with no much interest and badly made by Jesús Franco. He often used a lot of pseudonyms , among the aliases he used, apart from the names Jess Franco or Franco Manera, were Jess Frank, Robert Zimmerman, Frank Hollman, Clifford Brown, David Khune , Toni Falt, James P. Johnson, Charlie Christian, David Tough , among others. In many of the more than 180 films he's directed he has also worked as composer, writer, cinematographer and editor. Jesús's influence has been notable all over Europe . Jess was a Stajanovist, restless writer, producer, director who played and realized over 200 pictures. His career spans over 50 years with a few successes and lots of flops, making all . From his huge body of work we can deduce that Jesús Franco is one of the most restless directors of Spanish cinema and often releasing several titles at the same time. Many of his films have had problems in getting released, and others have been made directly for video. More than once his staunchest supporters have found his "new" films to contain much footage from one or more of his older films. Jesús Franco is a survivor in a time when most of his colleagues tried to please the government administration. He broke up with all that and got the independence he was seeking and getting , at times great eye for composition. He was a hard-working filmmaker, directing a lot of ridiculous movies. However, making some acceptable films , such as : ¨We are 18 years old¨, ¨The awful Dr Orloff¨, ¨The Bloody Judge¨ , ¨Count Dracula¨, ¨99 women¨, ¨Parxismus, ¨The Blood of Fumanchu¨, ¨Faceless¨ and a few others. He always went upstream in an ephemeral industry that fed opportunists and curbed the activity of many professionals. But time doesn't pass in vain, and Jesus' production diminished since the 90s , but he went on working untin his death.

Spoilers follow ...

[parry_na · 5/10 · 8 June 2017]

It is my own fault, of course. Watching a film about cannibals, directed by Jess Franco, was always going to be a gross experience. And true to form, only a short time into the 90 minute running time, explorer Professor Taylor's wife Elizabeth has been eaten alive in uncomfortable close-up. The effects are far from sophisticated, the camera-work deliberately blurred, but this raw direction makes the gratuitous suggestions of innards being torn out and offal eaten wince-inducing and repulsive (the close-ups appear to be repeated later on in further attacks – which are mercifully few and far between). Jerry Taylor (Al Cliver) subsequently has his arm torn off, but otherwise manages to escape the cannibals who have invaded his would-expedition. Worse for his daughter, Lana. The cannibals have kidnapped her, calling her their White Goddess.

But not to worry – the wayward acting and truly atrocious dubbing numbs any effect of elongated revulsion. I am watching the French version of this, dubbed into American. As soon as a character speaks, we are relegated to the production levels of a porn flick (although there is no sex on display here, rare for a Franco film). Equally, guaranteed to break any intended atmospherics, the jazzy Daniel White music is typically inappropriate (other credited composers are Roberto Pregadio and Franco himself.

Years later, after being nursed back to semi-health by Lina Romay as Candy Coaster as Ana the nurse, Taylor vows to return to the 'jungle' (which looks like a palm tree park and is shown to be located on the edge of bustling civilisation) with a group of people led by a rich couple who don't believe his story anyway and think the whole thing will be a bit of fun. As luck would have it, by this time, his daughter is now a beautiful, blow-dried blonde (17 year-old Sabrina Siani, described somewhat uncharitably by Franco as the worst actress he had ever worked with). She is still the white goddess to the cannibals, however, most of which are moustachioed Caucasians with curiously hip haircuts. "Death to the white invaders," yells the cannibal chief at one point, presumably not noticing the majority of his tribe are white themselves.

Franco's disinterest in the cannibal genre is something he has never been shy about and it is possible these films were foisted upon him by producers at Eurociné. As such, much like his 'Oasis of the Zombies' a couple of years later, this is a perfunctory work – quite enjoyable and not without merit, but containing little that is compelling. The best thing is the acting from Romay/Coaster and Al Cliver, whose performance is head and shoulders above anything else here.

Lana as a child is played by 'Anouska', who also played the little girl Helena in the film Franco deserted, 'Zombie Lake (1981)', subsequently directed by Jean Rollin.

This project is also known as 'Die Blonde Gottin (The Blonde Goddess)', 'White Cannibal Queen', 'A Woman for the Cannibals' and 'Barbarian Goddess'.

TWO MOVIES IN ONE ????

[Phroggy · 2/10 · 15 February 2004]

I think this movie is the same as rhe 1979 Franco Prosperi listed in the "Mondo Cannibale" listing. It is indeed a Jesus Franco movie. And it is indeed badder-than-bad !!! If you get bored, count the screenplay inconcinstensies.

Eek! Caucasian cannibals in bikini briefs and clown makeup.

[capkronos · 2/10 · 22 September 2009]

Professor Jeremy Taylor (Al Cliver, of ZOMBI 2 fame), a specialist in tropical diseases, his wife Elisabeth (Pamela Stanford), their young daughter Lana (Anouchka) and some other guy are enjoying a relaxing trip on their yacht when they're attacked by a cannibal tribe. Mom is immediately killed and eaten (these cannibals apparently don't bother cooking their meat), the other guy is speared in the back and the good professor is clubbed unconscious, dragged back to the cannibal village and has his arm chopped off, but manages to escape into the jungle, is found by some hunters and rushed off to a hospital. As for little Lana, she's also located by the tribe and brought back to the village. Instead of eating her, they decide to start worshiping her. Why? I'm not really sure, but I'm presuming it's because of the luxurious bleach blonde hair the brown-haired child miraculously manages to sprout later on in the film.

Many years after the attack, Jeremy finally recovers from a long bout of temporary amnesia with help from his loyal nurse Ana (Lina Romay) and decides to organize a safari into the jungle to try to locate his now-grown daughter (Sabrina Siani). They, along with wealthy skeptic Charles Fenton (Olivier Mathot), pampered Barbara Shelton (Shirley Knight) and half a dozen other nondescript men and women, then venture into the jungle and end up getting picked off one by one. Though most of the cast are done away with by poison arrow or spear, there are three cannibalism scenes - all of them involving topless women and all of them going on for what seems like an eternity... in slow motion... with the same shots of cannibals pulling out and chewing on organs accompanied by moans and slurping noises being repeated over and over again...

Trying to come up with a list of all the areas where this fails would far exceed the word limit allowed here, but where it's most inadequate is in the believability department. Some of the best cannibal movies work because they were actually filmed in tropical locales and managed to establish a sense of complete isolation far removed from "civilized" man. Here, the "jungle" looks like some kind of country club where the native vegetation and surroundings are just all wrong. It's hard to believe a cannibal tribe could thrive when there are modern houses with paved sidewalks a hop, skip and a jump away. During one hilarious scene, a couple of cannibals are even seen running down what appears to be a paved road! Speaking of the cannibals, they aren't the least bit believable either. Most are white/European and Spanish actors that have their faces painted in unnaturally bright blue, red and yellow clown colors. The shyer members of the tribe have also somehow managed to acquire some bikini briefs to wear under their loincloths. Siani gets her own specially made thong loincloth, though. I guess they felt she was special since she's just one of two women shown to be in the tribe.

As far as cannibal movies go, this one sits at the very bottom of the list next to DEVIL HUNTER (1980; another Franco bomb) and CANNIBAL TERROR (1981). All three came from a hack production company called Eurociné, who were also responsible for two of the worst zombie movies ever made; OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES (1981; again by Franco... see a pattern here?) and ZOMBIE LAKE (1980).

Jungle Gore: Worst Cannibals Ever!

[Tromafreak · 5/10 · 25 August 2011]

The First rule, or what should be the first rule of the Jungle Gore genre is, if you're not Italian, butt out! Because chances are good you're only gonna embarrass yourself. Especially you, Jess Franco. Yet, I've never seen Lina Romay in one of these epics, so, maybe we should give ol' Franco a pass, this time. I mean, just look at her! And if you must know, White Cannibal Queen is not even the worst of the Jongle Gore epics. I mean, I'm pretty sure it was got for quite a while, but in case you didn't know, in 2003, Bruno Mattei would finally work up the nerve to try his hand at this, and the shot-on-video travesty called Cannibal Holocaust 2: The Beginning was born. And considering Mattei was Italian, well, that's just ridiculous! Just sayin'. Either way, if you didn't absolutely despise Cannibal Terror, then maybe you won't consider White Cannibal Queen as repulsive as most do. Me? I liked it! This movie is about a family who are out on the "Amazon river" are attacked by savages. The young daughter, kidnapped. The wife, eaten. years later, Dr. Taylor returns to this jungle, in hopes of finding his now-grown daughter. Unfortunately, things don't go quite as expected. But then again, when do things ever go smoothly when Cannibals are involved? But these guys shouldn't put up too much of a fight, being that they're the most fake-looking cannibals in Jungle Gore history. This is just sad. Some of them are even white! Just a pathetic movie, in general. However, considering Lina Romay & a rather groovy score, White Cannibal Queen is OK in my book! Yet, if you got any schlock-pride at all, you'll just go for something of quality like Cannibal Ferox, and call it a day. 6/10

Lots of teeth but no bite

[Chase_Witherspoon · 1/10 · 21 October 2011]

C-grade instalment in the ever popular cannibal catalogue, light years behind "Cannibal Holocaust" and not much closer to "Mangiati Vivi" or Cannibal Ferox". The indomitable Al Cliver takes centre stage, playing an explorer whose pre-adolescent daughter is abducted by cannibals while on a voyage down the Amazon river. Years later he returns with photo journalists in toe in an attempt to locate and retrieve her, and discovers she has ascended to local deity status.

At times incoherent, the rough editing, mediocre make-up and shoddy cinematography make a tough job even tougher, while trying to contend with the puerile dubbing and overly intense acting. There's the ubiquitous animal cruelty (a giant butterfly sandwich anyone?), severed limbs and other grotesque depictions that you'd expect, but it all seems more gratuitous than usual. Spanish horror maestro Jess Franco has apparently jumped on the cannibal franchise bandwagon, minus a cogent storyline, in pursuit of some quick pay dirt.

Lacking most of the fundamentals that make a professional film, it's barely credible as a movie a labour that may even bore the cannibal enthusiasts.

Movies don't get much worse than this, so why is it so watchable?

[squeezebox · 2/10 · 8 November 2007]

Jess Franco had to jump on the cannibal movie bandwagon sooner or later, and finally did it with this 1980 gut-muncher. It's terrible in pretty much every way, but for some reason it manages to hold your attention. I cannot quite put my finger on why.

A doctor (the gargantuanly awful Al Cliver, from Lucio Fulci's ZOMBIE), his wife and daughter are aboard a boat in the Amazon doing some sort of medical research. The boat is attacked by cannibals who eat the wife right there on the deck. They kidnap the doctor and chop off his arm. Meanwhile, the daughter jumps off the boat and washes up down river. Some passing cannibals believe she is the "white goddess." They take her back to the village where she becomes part of the tribe.

Ten or so years later, the doctor returns to the area to find her. She has turned into a vacant-eyed hottie with perfect blonde hair and a cute butt. Slowly she remembers who he is and they head back to civilization together, after the doctor has won a one-armed fight with the daughter's cannibal husband.

MONDO CANNIBALE (aka "CANNIBALS") looks like it was shot in someone's backyard, has some of the worst English dubbing I've ever heard and gore effects that consist of little more than hunks of meat soaked in fake blood being gnawed on by extras. The cannibals themselves look ridiculous in their loincloths and greasepaint and the score can best be described as "disco tribal" music.

Despite all this, however, the movie did hold my attention, if only to see just how awful it could get. Being directed by Jess Franco, there's an atmosphere of seediness to temper the technical ineptitude. I certainly didn't get tired of seeing the daughter cavorting around in nothing but a leather g-string and there are plenty of unintentional laughs along the way as well.

Blue Underground's DVD presents the movie remastered and looking far better than it has any right to. There's also a funny, charming interview with Franco in which he reveals he's well aware of how terrible the movie is and his distaste for the cannibal subgenre in general.

Recommended for cannibal movie completists only.

cannibals is a good film to nosh on

[sharkattack1978 · 7/10 · 25 January 2007]

OK not the most brilliant film but very gory compared to other cannibal movies. The slow motion eating scenes were good to watch as it slows down the horror to a point where you are nearly sick and totally horrified as they eat the guts of their unfortunate victims. A little boring in parts but the gut munching makes up for that easily. With the exception of cannibal Holocaust, this is one of the gruesome cannibal horrors around. However though it is one of the cheesiest ones too as most of the cannibals look like English actors and the lines are very cheesy too especially when the "chief" of the tribe is talking. I couldn't help but laugh and of course the stupid characters who ignore the warnings and end up running right into the cannibals clutches (which you obviously know is going to happen but you wait to see who gets it first. It is a bit cruel also in parts especially when the women get eaten, a few of which you don't want to die but they do with horrific consequences.

If you just fancy a good gore fest then sit down with a rare steak and beer and watch cannibals. if you can take it.

Didn't much like it

[Ivan Ravenous · 2/10 · 22 July 2000]

I should have known that I wouldn't like this when I saw that it was Franco. I don't know, I just haven't seen anything by him that I've liked.

White Cannibal Queen is typically boring, with lots and lots of slow-motion, extreme-close-up cannibal chowdowns. The budget really shows when you see Al Cliver folding his arm in an attempt to make it look like it's half gone. And the English-speaking native is really laughable.

Anyways, I can't really recommend this to anyone, except Franco fans who like his stuff.

"Cannibalism" a la Franco

[lazarillo · 14 January 2008]

Jess Franco fans like myself are kind of like drug addicts, always watching another film, hoping against hope to again capture the initial rush of something like "Succubus", "Venus in Furs", or "Eugenie--Story of her Journey into Perversion". Usually, we just wind up with mediocre dreck that leaves us vaguely dissatisfied. Sometimes though we REALLY get burned, like with this film. To be fair jungle action films are not Franco's forte--his films often fail to maintain a basic suspension of disbelief that they were NOT filmed in European zoo. Cannibalism is not Franco's thing either, for instance, he doesn't seem to realize that even cannibals COOK their food before they eat it. Franco actually used the same long, slow-motion takes of people eating raw flesh in extreme close-ups at the climax of one of his WIP movies, but in that context it was pretty sickening (if that's a plus). Here though it's just tedious and dull--the only way this rates a "99 on the vomit meter," as Joe Bob Briggs supposedly said, is if extreme boredom causes you to somehow throw up.

Naturally, with cannibal scenes this laughable the film is nowhere near as potent as one of your better Italian cannibal epics (although they don't slaughter any real animals, at least). But one thing I certainly would expect from a Franco film is sex and nudity--and that's were it REALLY disappoints. Lina "Mrs. Jess Franco" Romay is in the cast, but Franco uncharacteristically keeps her under wraps except for a brief t-shot when she's being eaten (literally). She is by far the most talented actor in the movie, but still what a waste of an actress who had one of the best bodies around in those days. You have the opposite problem with Sabrina Siani, playing the same barely-legal jungle girl character played by Alice Arno, Katja Beinert, and Ursula Fellehner in other Franco movies. Siani spends the entire movie half-naked, but she's such a terrible actress even that gets boring, and her one sex scene can best be described as somnambulistic. I also couldn't help wondering how the dark-haired little girl in the beginning grew up to be a blonde teenager (albeit with dark roots). Where did she find peroxide in the jungle? (Of course, she had to be blonde or this "white goddess" wouldn't have looked any whiter than the obviously European "cannibals").

But I'm forgetting something--oh yeah, the plot. Well, it's pretty much the exact same plot as "Diamonds of Kilimajaro", but with more inept "cannibalism" scenes and less gratuitous nudity. Watch that one instead.

Awful attempt from Jesus Franco at a jungle adventure/cannibal film.

[poolandrews · 1/10 · 20 November 2004]

Dr. Jeremy Taylor (Al Cliver), Jerry to his lady friends!, is a specialist in tropical diseases. Together with his wife Elizabeth (Pamela Stanford) and young daughter Lana (Anouchka) he is traveling by boat to a remote jungle Hospital to conduct some research. However the captain of the boat warns Jeremy that a previous expedition was attacked, killed and eaten by a local tribe of cannibals. Some cannibals sneak on board the boat, even though they had to swim across the river to the boat when they board it they are completely dry. The cannibals kill the captain with a spear. They grab Elizabeth and do what cannibals do best, they rip her stomach open, pull her intestines out and eat them. Jeremy witnesses this, the cannibals decide to kidnap Jeremy and take him back to their village. Lana manages to hide from the cannibals and is not seen. Later she is found floating in a river by the tribes leader and his young son, immediately she is worshiped as a 'white goddess' and is also taken to the village. Once there, the cannibals chop the lower half of Jeremy's left arm off. They cook it over a fire and start to eat it. They are soon distracted by the arrival of their leader and Lana. Jeremy senses his opportunity and makes his escape. He is found and rescued by two men in a jeep. Cut to New York, cue lots of shots of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline. Jeremy is Hospitalized and considered mad, but he does get a sexy nurse, Ana (Lina Romay) to look after him and take him for walks around Manhattan. When Jeremy is released he heads straight for Barbara Shelton (Shirley Knight), the president of the Shelton organization who funded his original expedition. He tries to obtain funding for another trip so he can find his now grown up daughter (Sabrina Siani). Eventually she agrees as long as herself, her lover Charles Fenton (Olivier Mathot) and some of their rich friends who want to come along for an adventure, can join him. Jeremy's sexy nurse Ana also tags along. While taking some photos of each other Barbara steps onto a severed hand. Jeremy also find his Hospital which has been attacked and all the staff killed. As the remaining group carry on towards the cannibals village they are picked off one-by-one. Directed by Jesus Franco this is a pretty inept film. At least one of the expedition isn't given a name which sums up the depth of character Franco wanted to achieve. The cannibals themselves are laughable, they decorate themselves with children's face paint, and have dodgy haircuts. The village is depicted by two huts. And why do the females in this film wear high heeled boots? They look good ladies but aren't very practical considering their hiking through the middle of thick jungle. There is also a plastic crocodile at the beginning that looks stupid. Talking of plastic props, Franco uses several plastic skulls that maybe he borrowed from Jerry Warren after he had made Frankenstein Island (1981), they don't even have hollow eye sockets. The editing is poor, Lana is seen looking through the window of the boat, the next time she is seen she is floating in a river, thats as clear as mud as to what happened there then. At the end when the main cannibals head is held underwater, when he gets up his hair is wet and his face paint is smudged, in the next shot after that he is dry and his face paint is perfect. The one thing that could have saved this the gore, is also ruined by Franco. He films the cannibal scenes in such a way that they are boring. Unbelievable but true. He uses slow motion, jerkiness, extreme close ups, blurriness, the odd shot in black and white that appear to be placed in there at random, and on the soundtrack he uses chanting, heavy breathing and echoing. It's a shame because the effects aren't to bad, lots of animal intestines, blood, rib cages and fake torn flesh, it's just the way Franco presents it. He makes sure there's plenty of naked flesh around, too. Sabrina Siani is always at least half naked whenever she appears on screen, which isn't a bad thing by any means. Franco has a cameo as a businessman who trades with the cannibals. There are much better cannibal films out there, but this is good for a few unintentional laughs. It keeps moving at a fair pace but overall is very poor. Don't waste your time.

Cool title. Crap film.

[BA_Harrison · 2/10 · 24 March 2007]

The opening credits on my DVD say this is a Franco Prosperi film, yet the cover states that the director is none other than Jess Franco; I am more inclined to believe the latter given the dreadful camera-work, poor narrative, dreadful effects and general shoddiness of this production.

Looking as though it was shot in the local botanical gardens (I'm sure I spotted roads and walls in the supposed tropical jungle) and featuring the most unconvincing cannibals ever (due to badly applied face paint, they look like members of Kiss crossed with the Insane Clown Posse), this lamentable mess of a movie features Al Cliver as Jeremy Taylor, a doctor searching for his missing daughter, who was abducted by a tribe of cannibals many years before. After putting together an expedition and travelling into cannibal country, he discovers his long-lost girl living with the gut-munchers having been proclaimed a goddess by the savages.

As any fan of the genre knows, cannibal movies should include as much stomach churning gore as possible, plus frequent nudity and, wherever possible, real animals being hacked to pieces. White Cannibal Queen fails on all counts. The gore is shot in out-of-focus, extreme close-up (and in slow motion!), the nudity is sparse (the 'cannibal queen' is topless and Franco regular Lina Romay briefly bares her breasts) and not a single defenceless critter gets mutilated.

Only a cool funky jungle soundtrack, and an extremely funny moment when the head cannibal suddenly starts to speak English, prevents me from giving this Franco farrago the lowest possible score (he's already been given 1/10 from me for his excremental efforts A Virgin Among the Living Dead and Succubus).

Simply awful!

[Aussie Stud · 1/10 · 5 August 2001]

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** I remember seeing this on the bottom shelf in the 'HORROR' section of my local independent video store. The cover looked pretty old (a dark red cover with the words "CANNIBALS" above a pair of terrified eyes) and it certainly hadn't been rented too many times, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

I didn't really know what to expect. This was a Vestron Video release and it had one of those tiny video descriptions on the back that said something like "A family of vacationers are attacked by... CANNIBALS!" and below that were two box cover previews of other soon-to-be-released videos like "DEATH SHIP" and "THE NEVER DEAD (aka PHANTASM)".

When I put this on, I discovered that this appeared to be another one of those "CANNIBAL FEROX"-cum-"THE WOMAN FROM DEEP RIVER"-type movies. It was yet another Italian production with extremely bad dubbing and it stars Al Cliver(!!), (of "ZOMBIE" fame).

A boat captain, his wife and their young daughter (probably about 8 years old) are vacationing in some Amazon-type location. They dock in some desolate swamp while enjoying the sights. A band of native men sneak aboard the boat from the water and attack the family. The father is knocked out while the mother is eaten alive! (Yes you heard me right). The native cannibals hold the mother down while they tear flesh from her stomach. We spend about five minutes watching the mother moan in agony as she becomes cannibal food. We don't see too much of the actual flesh tearing, but we do get to see some awful shots of the cannibals munching on what looks like chunks of cantaloupe covered in ketchup, and all the while the camera pans on the mother's face while she whimpers and moans. When they're done with her, they kidnap the daughter and disappear.

It is now about 20 years later and we cut to the 'present' day and Al Cliver has been hired by the Captain of the boat to help him locate his daughter (like the probabilities of her being alive are high!). He believes he has found the exact location of the cannibal tribe deep within the jungle.

How could Al Cliver say no? He certainly couldn't resist taking two strangers to Zombie island in "ZOMBIE", but I digress. So the two men and a group of other local natives (not cannibals) of the country set out on an expedition to find the daughter. Meanwhile, we shoot to shots of the cannibal tribe and the daughter is indeed alive. She is now a voluptuous young beauty with long blonde hair who spends most of her time walking around with her breasts in full shot, covered in body markings and tattoos. We even get to see sleazy shots of her having sex with the young man who will become leader of the tribe when it is his time. It appears as though she has adapted to the locale and barely has any recollection of her natural parents. There are no reasons as to why she didn't become cannibal food - I guess she was just a set precedent so we could be introduced further down the line to a naked blonde woman.

Meanwhile, Al Cliver and his troop are attacked along the way by the cannibals. Of course, the native men of his troop are the first to die. We get to see them getting attacked and eaten the same way we got to see the mother die. 5 minutes of slow tedious shots of moaning and whimpering and ridiculous face shots of the cannibals munching on pieces of cantaloupe. I've never seen anything so ridiculous!

Cut to the chase, the next 30 minutes shows the rescue attempt of the daughter by Cliver, the slaying of the young man she was having sex with and a great deal of slaughter of the cannibal tribesmen.

I couldn't wait to return this garbage to the video store. And to think this was a 5-day rental! Why are all these Italian horror genre movies the same! They all appear as if they were filmed by some grainy tinny little camera, they always hire the WORST actors/actresses, (I've seen Al Cliver in about three of them now), and the dubbing is worse than what's usually featured in a Bruce Lee movie (the dialogue continues even after their mouths have stopped moving!)

I give this movie a Grade Z - It rates about the same as "THE VIDEO DEAD".

Madness or maybe art? Franco splits the world into two halfs.

[henry-toma · 2/10 · 28 March 2005]

This film contains scenes which are very likely to disappear from modern cinema. Imagine a today's star (I would reckon Al Cliver as one of the genre)pretending to fight his way through the jungle by walking through an Italian hotel park. The ultimate scene is clearly the fight in the water in a wet white T-shirt where you can see his arm which was meant to be chopped off. So bad that it slowly becomes funny. I am sure that Franco himself had the most of fun. To call this oeuvre Mondo cannibale 3 only harmed the genre and its fans. If you think you have seen it all - watch this. The Franco-cannibals are not very frightening, they wear Shorts and a kind of Halloween face painting, but some moments of the film show them an an LSD light and sound mixture, which obviously is too long but it reminds me of the art experiments of some 70 movies. I am not sure how many films Jess Franco shot, but I know there were many of them. All of them which I saw contain the same cheap and lousy handling of everything which keeps a film together: story, actors, dialogs, camera. I think the time is over where you can shoot a picture like that within ten days and get it into cinemas throughout Europe.

Why is'nt there a zero star?!?!?

[Pinouchipop · 1/10 · 12 August 2021]

That bad! Really. Horrible images, ridiculous pretended "natives" bouncing up around their badly played preys, ugly smeared makeup...

If there is a story, it gets lost in the jungle!

Not worth losing time watching.

White cannbial queen

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 3 February 2022]

Also known as The Cannibals, Die Blonde Göttin, White Cannibal Queen*, A Woman for the Cannibals and Barbarian Goddess, this cannibal film - did you get the context clues - has director Jess Franco doing his best to make an Italian movie, what with Al Cliver (who is also in Franco's Devil Hunter) and Sabrina Siani (Conquest, The Throne of Fire, Quest for the Mighty Sword) in the cast and its appearance as a category 3 video nasty.

Franco only did these movies for the money, but he still takes some time to make this film look halfway decent. He luckily has Siani as Lana, a girl whose mother was killed before she was kidnapped and made into, well, a white cannibal queen. Now, Cliver - her father - has to come back to the jungle and rescue her.

Franco wrote this with an uncredited Jean Rollin and co-directed it with Francesco Prosperi who made the aforementioned The Throne of Fire as well as Gunan, King of the Barbarians with Siani.

So while Franco disliked everything about this movie, I loved the slow motion blood and guts munching, the fact that the cannibals all looked like movie punks and that for being, well cannibals, they all wore very civilized looking sandals. It's a good idea to have support and protection for your peds in the green inferno.

Also. Cliver only has one arm because these guys already ate it before, you know, killing his wife and stealing his daughter and turning her into their blonde goddess. Franco himself shows up in this and somehow, he has the worst dubbing of any character in the movie, which endears him to me even more and makes me think, well, at least everybody equally gets painted with the same brush.

*That's the name R. D Francis reviewed this under when he did a Jess Franco triple feature.

One of the worse cannibal movies

[kermit2468 · 1/10 · 5 March 2008]

Where do i start with this movie?,well it has to be the worse cannibal movie I've seen since Cannibal Terror. The acting is really bad and I have seen more gore going into a butchers shop when they are preparing their stock. I remember seeing this movie when i was a kid and how i covered my eyes at some scenes,but now when i think about it maybe i covered my eyes because it was so bad. I viewed it today for the first time since the 80s thinking that maybe it would be good as im a big fan of the splatter movies of than genre and was looking for a blood and guts fest. The movie just doesn't deliver,the acting is pathetic,the gore is a laughable and if it wasn't for the sexy blonde who walked about topless then i would have turned it off. The movie is about a family who are on a boat and get attacked by cannibals,the mother gets eaten alive and the daughter gets kidnapped by the cannibals who look like guys who would sell you fake designer labels when you go on holiday. Anyway the father survives and goes back to the US,years later he gets his memory back and goes looking for his daughter with a gang of people you wouldn't depend on if you got lost in a mall. The movie i would recommend to watch if you've had alcohol and want a good laugh,as thats what i done through it just looking at the goofs. Things to watch out for,cannibals that wear wedding rings,plastic skulls of poles,the need to speak English to let you know what role the girl plays in the movie and a Portuguese guy who sounds like George Bush. Anyway i wont spoil this movie for you,but be warned that if you invite your friends to watch it with you then you could loose them.

Schlocky Franco.

[MonsterVision99 · 7/10 · 6 August 2017]

Jess Franco's Cannibals, A.K.A White Cannibal Queen, it's probably one of the cheesiest Franco films, and most of it doesn't have much to do with the movie itself but with its dubbing. The dubbing is laughable, sounds more like a parody, but maybe it only bothers me, I have never liked the English dubbing in films (but sometimes its the only way to watch these low budget exploitation films).

Most of its elements are what you would see in an average Cannibal film from this era, but Jess Franco gives this movie it's own feeling, it looks like hes trying to save it, I am sure he knows just how crappy the movie is, so he chooses to make it a parody of other cannibal films.

I found it very enjoyable, it has the usual Franco stuff that I like, but it's also quite campy and funny, this is my kind of schlock. I may enjoy this more with a Spanish dubbing, I really want to get that version.

SEX...

[PWT20 · 2/10 · 12 December 2004]

now that I got your attention, lemme make an awful movie with "sex" (or equivalent in a foreign language) in the title in the hopes that will entice more people to see it! And to make matters even worse, let's not even put ANY sex in the film whatsoever.

Contrary to Franco's title, "Sexo cannibal", there is absolutely no sex in this film - only 2-3 topless women. (So those of you waiting for the booty romp, you can try elsewhere.) This film is The Worst Cannibal Film that I have seen out of Deodato's "Cannibal Holocaust" (1980) and Lenzi's "Cannibal Ferox" (1981) in that there is no social commentary, none of the characters go through any change, and it's just pointless.

*** MINOR SPOILERS *** What I find HILARIOUS is how the explorer who goes back into the jungles in search of his daughter who has been "adopted" by a tribe of cannibals hasn't aged a single day. Yet his daughter looks to be about 10 years older than the last time they saw each other! I would think that if your daughter is kidnapped, you'd want to look for her ASAP...and not wait an entire decade.

Another incredulous point is how little attention was paid to the casting of the cannibalistic tribe. Sure, they're extras, but c'mon it shouldn't be THAT difficult to find native-looking people, is it?? The extras that were cast were pure honkey. Plus, their tribal face make-up looked more like that of a clown. Totally BOGUS!

Other than to listen to the usual cool, swanky music that accompanies Franco's films, there isn't a reason to watch this "Sexo cannibal". It's simple a tossaway, wannabe exploitation that doesn't bother to exploit anything. Instead, I would recommend either Deodato or Lenzi as they at least provide crucial, intelligent, social commentary.

Franco jumps on yet another bandwagon!

[smstr-2 · 4 January 2000]

With the many successes in the cannibal genre by his Italian counterparts in the early 80's, it was inevitable that Jess Franco would make a jungle movie of his own. Despite actually having some acting talent at hand for once, Jess Franco still fails to deliver the goods that made such movies as "Cannibal Holocaust" and "Cannibal Ferox" cult classics. If you are a huge fan of the jungle/cannibal genre then you will enjoy the unintended humor in this film, elsewise, you might as well let it keep on collecting dust on the video store shelf.

better than watching paint dry... but only just!!!

[killchav-1 · 4/10 · 9 January 2008]

this is one of those films that you force yourself to watch until the very end because you love the topic of film. one of those films that's cover and blurb promise a story and you get a gore fest of unbearably disappointing levels. if you value your sanity though, i seriously recommend not wasting your time on this, although considering that you have taken an interest in it already makes your state of sanity questionable! the unrepentantly repetitive scenes in this film give way to a genuinely weakly carried-out plot and generally ruin what could have been a good film. please, oh good please do not waste your time on this film when there are movies such as wrong turn, the hills have eyes and evil breed out there. the three worst things about this movie? the awful dubbing (id' rather listen to nails on a chalkboard). the boring cannibalism scenes, all shot in slow-mo and the same as the last. the rubber crocodile. don't even bother with this movie unless your set on viewing the entire cannibal-horror sub-genre. as hinted in the title of this review, this is better than watching paint dry, but only just. though, if it's textured paint...