Love Goddess of the Cannibals

1978
Dir. Joe D’Amato

A team of geologists attempt to remove an indigenous, allegedly cannibalistic population from their island home in order to set up a power station and perform atomic research. The islanders' leader has other plans though, and she sets about disposing of the the pesky geologists one by one, utilising the art of seduction to aid her quest.

Papaya (Melissa) is just your average voodoo priestess, eco-activist and blood crazed cannibal, willing to do whatever it takes to keep her tropical island home from being exploited by nuclear scientists hell-bent on building a nuclear reactor on it. And if that means stripping off her clothes every five minutes and seducing them one by one, then killing them by castrating them - so be it! 

The film opens with Papaya emerging from the sea, strutting across the beach, entering a palm-hut, smearing fruit over a man before biting off his penis and watching as her henchmen (who look like they’d be equally at home on the floor of a Seventies New York disco) torch the hut. Next up we meet Sarah (Sirpa Lane) a roving reporter holidaying in the sun, who just happens to bump into her old ‘acquaintance’ Vincent (Maurice Poli), who is on the island to install a nuclear reactor. He’s also looking for his missing scientist buddy (Papaya’s victim from the opening scene). Before long the two are busy getting reacquainted, which mainly consists of taking showers together and having lots of sex. While exploring the island they encounter Papaya, who invites them to a strange ritual where they’re drugged and overcome by the urge to undress. Again. It eventually becomes clear that Papaya and the islanders don’t want a nuclear reactor on their beautiful island and she’s making sure it won’t happen by killing off all the scientists. Naturally Vincent falls for her. Meanwhile, Sarah begins searching for a juicy story, and her research involves having lots of sex around the island.


Love Goddess of the Cannibals, or to call it by its original, somewhat less lurid title Caribbean Papaya, is something of a long lost ‘Euro cult classic’ from the ever-warped mind of Italian sex, sleaze and horror maestro, Joe ‘exploitation’ D’Amato. In a highly kitsch riot of infrequent bloody mutilation, copious lesbian sex scenes and a hypnotic tribal score courtesy of Stelvio Cipriani, Love Goddess takes its viewers on a delirious trip into jungle-infested sleaze, naked flesh and writhing orgies of sex, death and innards. Essentially a soft-core erotica flick, Love Goddess includes a number of ‘horror’ elements to add to the exploitation quota. These pepper the film sporadically and include a castration, a human sacrifice and a shot of a man eating a still-beating heart. There are also scenes featuring a cock fight (no, not THAT kind of cock) and butchered pigs being split open; their insides tumbling out. The rest of the film’s running time is made up of expository dialogue scenes in which characters spout hilarious badly-dubbed dialogue about nuclear reactors, the environment and how they love to be naked. Every other scene is a sex scene in which stars Melissa and Sirpa Lane (star of Walerian Borowczyk’s controversial cult classic The Beast, and its deliriously kitsch sequel, The Beast in Space) shag their way through the cast before eventually sleeping with each other on a utopian beach, complete with coconut trees and a roaring surf.


D’Amato does manage to muster a fair degree of tension and eerie atmospherics in some of the scenes in which Vincent and Sarah explore the seemingly deserted village – and in the scene where Sarah is chased through the village by a group of young boys. Those expecting a gory cannibal fest will be bitterly disappointed though, as the film boasts about as much horror quotient as its cast boast the ability to remain dressed throughout a scene. Those who are open to kitsch erotica with an irresistibly funky soundtrack and a penchant for stylishly shot scenes of Seventies love-making might be more satisfied with what’s on offer here.

Love Goddess Of The Cannibals (cert. 18) was released on DVD (£15.99) by Shameless Screen Entertainment on 28th June 2010. Special Features include: Shameless ‘Rebuild’ version; alternate title sequences; theatrical trailers; Shameless trailers; reversible sleeve featuring original artwork; English and Italian audio options with optional English subtitles.

Popular posts from this blog

Whistle and I’ll Come to You (2010)

Image
Dir. Andy de Emmony After placing his senile wife in a care home, retired astronomer James Parkin (John Hurt) heads for the coast to revisit their ‘old haunts’, including the now out-of-season hotel they honeymooned in. By day he is stalked along the windswept beaches by a spectral figure dressed in white, and by night he is terrorised by strange sounds and someone, or something, attempting to enter his room… In the 2000s BBC4 attempted to reignite the old Ghost Story at Christmas tradition by adapting MR James’s A View from a Hill (2005) and Number 13 (2006). This series was seemingly short lived though, as their next outing wasn’t until 2010, and an unusual reinterpretation of James’s classic chiller Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad . While de Emmony’s direction captures the atmosphere and tone of James very well, this film differs significantly from other adaptations, including Jonathan Miller’s supremely unsettling 1968 take . Neil Cross’s screenplay only incorpo...
Read more

Caveat (2020)

Image
Isaac, a brooding drifter suffering from memory loss, agrees to look after Olga, the niece of his acquaintance Moe. A troubled woman prone to bouts of catatonia, Olga lives in an old, ramshackle house on an isolated island in the middle of a dark lake. Isaac agrees to wear a chained harness that prevents him from going into certain rooms. He gradually comes to learn of the unsettling history of the house and the unquiet dead it harbours within its walls... Written and directed by Damian McCarthy,  Caveat  is steeped in the Gothic tradition. With distinct echoes of the work of Edgar Allan Poe, it is ripe with a lingering atmosphere of morbidity and decay. McCarthy's screenplay toys with themes such as psychological rot, dark family secrets, and the aftermath of unspeakable violence and cruelty. The story unfolds within the creepy confines of the lonely, mouldy house, with myriad forbidden rooms, hidden passageways and concealed bloody secrets. The house itself is cut off from c...
Read more

Shankill Graveyard

Image
While staying with my parents recently in my home town of Lurgan, County Armagh, I naturally decided to pay a visit to a few of the local graveyards. Top of my list was Shankill Graveyard. Located just outside the town centre, and surrounded by a residential area, the site upon which Shankill cemetery stands was a place of worship in earlier centuries. Shankill Parish church was originally situated here before it was eventually moved to the town centre. The outline of a double ring fort is still noticeable. Amongst those at rest in the cemetery are the Brownlow family, who established the town in 1610 when they were given land beside Lough Neagh by the British government during the Plantation. They eventually contributed to the development of the linen industry the town became famous for throughout the seventeenth century. Their family vault is situated in the centre of the cemetery where the old church once stood. Apparently well off English families such as the Brownlow’s, sough...
Read more