This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

I was extremely thrilled with Severin's Blu-ray of Emanuelle and the Last Cannibal came through my work. I was familiar with Joe D'Amato, the famed Italian porno exploitation trash-master who helmed films with names like Porno Holocaust, Erotic Nights of the Living Dead, and Super Hard Love, but, I must admit, I had never seen a single one of his almost 200 films. I had, however, seen a Black Emanuelle film, the first one, and was not terribly impressed. It wasn't directed by D'Amato, but rather Bitto Albertini, another Italian exploitation guy, though less prolific or esteemed than our man Joe. I found Black Emanuelle (or Emanuelle in Africa as my VHS is titled) to be fairly standard Sexploitation fare, none of the sex or any of the parts in between were impressive or interesting enough to hold my attention, but when I saw the cannibals on the cover of this film, I had a hope. A hope that this film would be what it looked like: a sexploitation Cannibal Holocaust.Well, it delivered. This is one of the purest films of unbridled irredeemable trash I have ever seen, and I loved it. After the opening credits basically the first thing that happens is a nurse gets her whole titty bit off by a she-cannibal. I was excited to see that D'Amato was going for the extreme gore right off the bat, even before the copious (and I mean copious) amount of fucking. Emanuelle is a photojournalist who, after doing an undercover piece in a New York psychiatric ward, finds evidence of a long-thought-extinct tribe of Amazonian cannibals. With her handy cannibal expert, she flies south to trek through the jungle in search of them. And have sex with basically everyone she meets.Here is just a list of some of the things you will see in this film-A Man gets his dick sliced off, very slowly, and eaten -A chimpanzee smokes a cigarette and put on sunglasses while he watches two women sexually bathe each other under a waterfall -A naked lady with her guts ripped out and a live snake stuffed inside her -A man shoves his fingers up a teenage girl's vagina while she is sleeping. (Honestly it kinda looked like he was booty digging but I can't be 100% either way) -A Nun getting her nipple sawed off (and eaten) -People claiming that it is the nighttime when it is very clearly not. Like the sun is out. And they say that it's dark. -Hysterical women being slapped (stupid women with their emotions). -"The Annual Feast of Fertility" (A woman gets stabbed in the vagina and then has her uterus cut out and eaten). -A man is placed between a tug of war with a long string which, of course, cuts his body in half -Incredibly awkward, quiet, and frightening cannibal gang-rape.Let me extrapolate a bit on that last bullet point, because it really was the strangest rape scene I've ever seen. The cannibals need to impregnate their captive and so they gang rape her. She lays there, silent, as each cannibal climbs on her and humps her about four times, in a ridiculously unrealistic simulation of sex (think Tommy Wiseau's idea of what sex looks like). As this happens the other thirty or so cannibals stand by watching, also silent. The whole scene is silent. Just people standing around awkwardly watching this raping happen. The movie was in fact not a response to Ruggero Deodato's notorious video nasty Cannibal Holocaust, but rather its predecessor, 1977's Ultimo Mondo Cannibale, the film credited with jump-starting the cannibal film trend of the ensuing ten years. I haven't seen Deodato's first Cannibal picture, but in comparing Emanuelle to Cannibal Holocaust, many similarities are obvious, though I will say this: Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals has 40% less rape, 100% more consensual sex, and 100% less actual animal killing than Cannibal Holocaust. I do really like the character of Emanuelle in this film. Early on she warns her anthropologist-guide-slash-fucktoy that she is a fiercely independent woman who won't be tied down to one man. She fucks a guy who gives her a ride, she rubs a couple vaginas (briefly), she globetrots around the world doing crazy dangerous shit, getting attacked by snakes and almost eaten, pretends to be a God, all in the name of getting a good story and set of photos for the newspaper where she works. Although, obviously obscured by about fifty pounds of celluloid filth, Emanuelle represents something of a feministic protagonist: Self-posessed, career driven, sex positive, and adventurous. Not a role-model for children, perhaps, but certainly much better than the blood-bags that women usually place in movies this gory. The gore, though. I was not expecting this amount of gore. I mean, it's a cannibal movie, I get that, but this was like... Wow. Some really intense shit. Also a lot of people rubbing their own or each others vaginas, which I was also not expecting since this doesn't have the hardcore inserts like some versions of some Emanuelle films do. Definitely the least "soft" of any softcore porn I've seen. There's a moment about halfway through the film when they first meet the hunter character in the wild and begin talking about hunting. Emanuelle asks why he doesn't hunt in Africa where its much safer as opposed to here in the harsh jungle of the Amazon. The thrill of the hunt, he says, is the hunt itself, not the act of killing. Setting your mind upon a prey and tracking it down, that is what gives him pleasure. This can obviously be said of Emanuelle as well, and the hunter reminds both us, and her, that humans can also be hunted. Emanuelle lives her whole life like a hunt: hunting for sexual gratification, adventure, and for the great stories that drive the passion for her reporting. Or maybe that's just a bunch of bullshit. Lets be honest, this is a movie about people fucking and eating each other. I doubt that Joe D'Amato meant for it to be anything more than that, and that's fine! It doesn't need to be anything more than that. It's a movie that knows exactly what it is and who it is marketed to and does everything you want it to do almost perfectly.9/10

Regrettably not the classic that Emanuelle in America is. Regardless it is recommended viewing thanks to the usual D'Amato hijinks. Surprisingly bereft of hardcore material, this so-called horror-porn is more horror-adventure than anything else, with a few softcore scenes to "liven" the proceedings. Most of these are delightfully ridiculous (including a scene where Emanuelle's lover somehow inserts himself with removing or even unzipping his trousers), the least disturbing gang rape ever (actually, it's just kind of pathetic), and a scene where one character discovers to his dismay that sleep is the least effective roofie. This also has some surprisingly strong gore (strong for D'Amato anyway...after the horrible effects from Death Smiles at Murder, Antropophagous, and Porno Holocaust anything will look good!), including some unfortunate mammary trauma.As usual Laura Gemser spends much time out of her clothes, and with various sexual partners. Her character is much less impressive this time, however. Sure, she delivers the usual "I'm a free woman" spiel, but doesn't really deliver on it. Whereas in Emanuelle in America she used her body and sexuality almost as a weapon, here it's hardly an issue. She sleeps with Professor Mark Lester (weirdly enough, also the name of Mark Shannon's character in Sesso Nero, minus the title of Professor) and some other random dude, and feels up a couple ladies, but it never really feels like she's in control. It doesn't help that the dubbing in this film is far inferior to Emanuelle in America's. Not quite Female Vampire bad, but maybe halfway there. D'Amato's work is pretty workmanlike this time around. There are some pretty creative sequences littered throughout (I loved the way the sex scene between Emanuelle and Mark was intercut with them leaving for their expedition), but it's not really up there with his best work. His cinematography is likewise bare bones, but does feature some embarrassing errors. There's one scene set in the daytime where the close-ups are almost pitch black! You've also gotta love the way he has his character enthusiastically gawk at some stock footage of alligators.All in all somewhat disappointing compared to the outrageous and audacious Emanuelle in America, but worth viewing for jerks like me to laugh at the insanity of it all. Nico Fidenco (he of Porno Holocaust and Emanuelle in America fame) returns with a decent soundtrack, and Laura Gemser is always a welcome presence. Did I mention that for no reason there's a shot of a monkey smoking a cigarette?

Wow. This one sat on my shelf for about 6 months before I popped it in and I sort of wish I had done it sooner.The viewer is treated to more nudity than is found in your standard cannibal flick. It's a lot more porno-ish than others of its ilk. Laura Gemser hams it up big time as our heroine, hardly believable for a second as an 'investigative journalist...' There are a few sex scenes before we even get to the jungle. Then there is more sex. Finally, the whole group gets massacred by savages and the fun begins. Nipples get sliced off and eaten, innards get ripped out and munched on, a dude gets sliced in half, longways...it's pretty awesome. Very inventive dismembering sequences and killings.Some of the shots were clearly done out of sequence and it appears to be night time when it is supposed to be day. The acting is all around terrible but it remains entertaining throughout. One thing I enjoyed about this cannibal film was the lack of animal violence that is found in so many others in the genre. I for one thought the movie was way better for the lack of that.By far the most impressive thing about this movie to me was the score which I thought was amazing. Wish I could find the soundtrack.In short, if you enjoy cannibal flicks with lots of raunchy sex thrown in for good measure and don't mind some poor acting, check out "Emmanuelle and the Last Cannibals." Maybe a good 'first date' kinda flick to watch with a chick...8 out of 10, kids.

Joe D'Amato's "Emanuelle E Gli Ultimi Canibali" aka. "Emanuelle And The Last Cannibals" of 1977 is an extremely sleazy and highly entertaining piece of 70s horror sexploitation, which my fellow exploitation fans will love for its constant extreme sex and gore scenes and, especially, for the stunningly beautiful Exploitation siren Laura Gemser, who once again plays the role of the nymphomaniac journalist (Black) Emanuelle. When working undercover in a mental institution, Emanuelle discovers that a girl must have been raised by cannibals. Emanuelle and Professor Mark Lester (Gabriele Tinti), an anthropologist whom she feels attracted to (of course), travel to Brazil. Accompanied by some other folks, they enter the jungle near the Amazon, where a supposedly extinct cannibal tribe used to live...The gorgeous Laura Gemser is most famous for playing the lead in the 70s soft-core porn 'Black Emanuelle' series, which tried to tie in with the famous (and at the time scandalous) "Emmanuelle" of 1974, and Joe D'Amato directed a few of those film. "Emanuelle And The Last Cannibals" is a very exploitative mix of the constant sex orgies of the 'Black Emanuelle' films and the constant gore of the ultra-violent Italian Cannibal flicks. The result is a vastly entertaining Sleaze flick that no Exploitation-buff should consider missing. The plot is quite forgettable, the movie just constantly jumps from a gory massacre to a sex orgy, back to a gore scene, back to a sex scene, and so on - but who's complaining? It is almost impossible to get bored. The film also has quite a bunch of creepy moments, its main purpose, however is not suspense, but sex and gore. Laura Gemser is, as always, extremely hot, and actually naked for about 80 percent of the time, and the rest of the female cast is not too keen on wearing clothes either. The supporting cast includes the great Donal O'Brien who enjoys a deserved cult-status among fans of European genre-cinema for starring in various Spaghetti Westerns and Italian Exploitation flicks always plays his roles very good. The rest of the performances are rather forgettable, but "Emanuelle And The Last Cannibals" is probably not a film one will watch for the good acting anyway. If you are easily offended never mind this movie, but every lover of sleazy Sexploitation and Cannibal flicks should have a great time. Highly recommended to all my fellow Exploitation-buffs and Laura Gemser fans out there.