Savana violenza carnale (1979)

... aka: Dschungelinferno (Jungle Inferno)

... aka: Hell in the Jungle

... aka: Infierno en la selva

... aka: Remolino sangriento (Bloody Whirlwind)

... aka: Savanna: Carnal Violence

Directed by:

Roberto (Bianchi) Montero

Jorge Gaitán (uncredited)

Based on the scant information you'll find online, this is said to have been made as part of a package deal between Italian (Sirius Cinematográfica S.R.I.), Spanish (Amanecer Films) and Colombian (Acemar División Cinematográfica) production companies, with a second junglesploitation feature titled Remolino sangriento ("Bloody Whirlwind") filmed in Colombia at the exact same time by the same people and featuring most of the same actors. While Savana violenza carnale and Remolino are listed as separate films on most movie websites, the more I looked into this, the more I became convinced these "two" movies are in fact just one. Savana had an international release under multiple titles, yet I could find no real evidence that an entirely different film called Remolino sangriento was ever released, or was ever even filmed. There's no theatrical poster or newspaper ad for it, no home video release, no print for a film that's surfaced, no trailer, no still photo taken during the production and no screen shots.

As for what caused this confusion, I think it traces back to two specific places. The first is the official website of Colombian filmmaker Jorge Gaitán, who claims he co-directed the film with Italian director Roberto Bianchi Montero. The second is a plot synopsis found on Cinéfagos.net (a site specializing in Colombian films), which includes a slightly different yet overlapping cast and crew and supposedly shows a black and white still from the film. The problem? Their capsule plot synopsis for Remolino is an exact match for the plot of Savana and the still photo they use to represent Remolino is actually taken from a scene in Savana.

With all of the above taken into account, I'm entirely convinced Remolino isn't a separate film at all but instead is the original shooting title and / or Colombian theatrical release title for the film commonly known elsewhere as Infierno en la selva ("Hell in the Jungle) or Savana violenza carnale. Also worth noting that the credits on the Savana and Inferno prints, which were meant for distribution in other Spanish-speaking countries as well as Europe, do not include the Colombian cast, crew or director. Instead, almost all of the names present are those representing the Italian, Mexican and Spanish contingent. That's likely because the unknown Colombian cast and crew wouldn't have been a box office draw outside of their home country, yet the Italian / Mexican / Spanish ones may have been.

Alright, now with that out of the way, on with the show...

While out in the jungle leopard hunting, rancher Carlos Gómez (Giuseppe Scarcella) and his doctor friend Miguel (Armando Silvestre) hear a woman screaming and then stumble upon Damián (Aldo Sambrell) lying on the ground and barely responsive. He's dying from a snake bite, so they decide to amputate his hand and hope for the best. Exploring the camp further, they find a young woman named Rita (Rosa Gloria "Vasquez" / Chagoyán) chained up in a hut. She clues them in that a few days prior she and her mother, Susana (Pepa Rendón), were attacked by Damián and his accomplices (Frank Braña and Camilo Medina), who'd all just escaped from prison. The trio of lowlifes tried to rape both women, but Susana managed to blind one of them by throwing boiling hot water in his face. She and the attacker (now an injured liability) were both killed on the spot. Rita was then tied up, taken into the jungle and shackled up in the hut, where she was subjected to beatings and rapes. Damián has a cache of stolen diamonds, worth millions of pesos, and kills his one remaining companion so he can keep it (as well as Rita) all to himself.

Damián manages to beat his infection and recover, but what should they to do with him now? Carlos proposes taking him back to the city and handing him over to the authorities but Rita, not being able to stomach being around the man who killed her mother and raped her, talks them into leaving him tied up in the shack. Once they get back to Bogota they can have the police come retrieve him. That turns out to be a mistake. Soon after they leave, Damián's equally scummy brother, Lucas ("Gil Roland" / Gilberto Galimberti), and another man (Edgardo Román) show up to free him, though the latter is promptly bitten and killed by another snake.

While the first half of the film delivers the goods for fans of this stuff (sweaty atmosphere, some gore, some nudity, animal attacks, mismatched stock footage of jungle critters, etc.), things slow down quite a bit once this leaves the jungle for civilization. Carlos, who's been something of a loner up until now, and Rita, who has basically lost everything, start developing feelings for one another and he invites her to come live in his home. Meanwhile, Damián and his cohorts are up to their usual criminal schemes, including gunning down a trio of policemen, unloading their precious stones to an American black market dealer (Carlos Barbosa) and trying to sabotage a horse show. Damián, of course, also wants revenge on both Carlos and Rita. The doctor character played by Silvestre, the one who actually performed the amputation, curiously exits the film at the midway point and is never seen again.

When Carlos goes to talk to a police chief, Damián and his men use that as an opportunity to briefly lay siege on his ranch. Cattle is stolen, horses are freed from their stable, buildings are set ablaze, Carlos' assistant Antonio is shot in the head, maid Rosa (Luz Marina Grisales) is whipped, stripped and raped, Rita is kidnapped and they unsuccessfully attempt to blow the entire home up with sticks of dynamite.

Aside from some unconvincing day-for-night photography, this is competently made, but it's also unoriginal, forgettable, saddled with a middling script and not nearly exploitative or nasty enough for its intended audience, nor as sleazy as some as some of the poster art tries to make it appear. It also has a tendency to drag due to a large amount of time-padding travelogue footage, which was included here perhaps to try to entice foreigners to vacation in Colombia. There are lots of long scenic shots, a horse competition, musical numbers, dances, etc. Due to trying to cram all of that in, the climax feels rushed, and despite fist fights, gunfights, a machete duel and a piranha attack, the film fails to build up any real tension or excitement.

The director made numerous softcore films in the 60s and 70s, as well as the giallo The Slasher Is a Sex Maniac (1972) and numerous mondo documentaries and spaghetti westerns. He finished out his career with hard porno flicks in the 80s. His son - Mario Bianchi - had a sleazy movie career that rivaled his father's and included all of the same types of films.

Never released here in the U.S., or in an English friendly version for that matter, this made its way onto home video in Greece, Italy, Spain and West Germany. It was also kind of released in Mexico, though not in its original form. Ample footage from it ended up being used to pad out a stripper / sexploitation film called Las muñecas del King Kong ("The Dolls of King Kong") in 1981. To my knowledge, there's no official / restored DVD release anywhere.

There are two versions of this one floating around online; censored and uncensored, and a run time discrepancy of about 8 to 10 minutes between these. The cut version, which is the one that's been uploaded to Youtube and runs about 85 minutes, is missing some of the violence, a scene where a leopard kills a monkey, almost all of the nudity and both rape scenes. Even the uncut version is pretty tame and comes off like child's play compared to many other films of this type.

★★

Los nuevos extraterrestres (1983)

... aka: El retorno del extraterrestre (Return of the Alien)

... aka: E.T.: The Second Coming

... aka: ETV

... aka: Extra Terrestrial Visitors

... aka: Pod People

... aka: Unearthling, The

... aka: V. F. Extra Terrestrial Visitors

... aka: Vierailijoita oudosta maailmasta (Visitors from a Strange World)

... aka: Visitor

... aka: Visitors - I nuovi extraterrestri (Visitors: The New Extraterrestrials)

Directed by:

J. (Juan) Piquer Simón

A large meteor crashes in the foggy mountains and creates a glowing mound / cave. Three poachers led by Burt (Frank Braña) are illegally hunting there and one of the men goes to the cave, finds a bunch of alien eggs scattered about and starts smashing them with a stick. A large, unseen creature with hairy arms then kills him. We then meet a few other characters, starting with little Tommy Stevens (Óscar Martín), an amateur scientist who loves his cat, collects bugs and speaks in animal genus. An orphan (I think?), Tommy lives with his (I think?) Aunt Molly ("Connie Cheston" / Concha Cuetos), one of those "Don't be late for dinner!" types, and his grumpy Uncle Bill (Manuel Pereiro), who really seems to take issue with the fact this 8-year-old is clearly more intelligent than he is. Having spotted the meteor crash through his telescope the night before, Tommy goes into the woods, finds the glowing cave and, despite seeing a corpse just lying there, steals an egg. He then returns home with it and doesn't tell anyone about anything he just saw.

Meanwhile, at a recording studio, arrogant and temperamental pop singer Rick (Ian Sera), a trio of female background singers and his producers (one wearing an "I'm a Virgin" [!] t-shirt) are working on a new track called "Hear the Engines Roar Now." One could say Rick is unsatisfied with the end product ("It stinks!") and he ends up blaming everyone but himself for it, shrieking at the other singers and chastising the staff. I don't know if Sera had it in his contract that he could only play extremely unlikable characters, but he's about as charming here as was playing "campus stud" Kendall in Simon's sleazy slasher Pieces... but at least there we got the satisfaction of watching him get his dick ripped off at the end! Here, not so much.

Rick, studio engineer Brian (Emilio Linder) and all three of the background singers - including Rick's doormat of a girlfriend Sharon (Nina Ferrer), Brian's girlfriend Kathy (Sarah Palmer) and low self-esteem third wheel Tracy (Maria Albert), decide to go on a weekend camping trip to Cinder National Forest. Yes, that's the same stretch of mountains where the meteor fell. Rick has also invited Laura ("Susan Blake" / Susana Bequer), a young airhead who clearly has the hots for him, along on the trip and provides the excuse that she "likes the way I perform." A (quite understandably!) infuriated Sharon has an issue with her even being there and attempts to storm off, but Brian puts her at ease. "Making out with chicks is part of his act as an artist!," he tells her, "One today, a different one tomorrow!" For some reason that's enough to get Sharon to rejoin the group. Yikes.

Upon arriving at their campsite, Laura storms off after getting water thrown in her face, runs into the woods and is grabbed by Burt and his sidekick Matt ("William" / Guillermo Antón). She breaks free and tries to flee, but falls into a deep ravine. Rick and the others find her there unconscious but, seeing how the nearest hospital is 50 miles away, they instead decide to look for a nearby ranger station or home with a telephone. They end up at the Stevens' place. However, a rock slide has blocked off an important road and knocked the phone lines out. So, nope, no phone and nowhere to go. Or, as one of the ladies so eloquently puts it, "What a fuck-up this back to nature crap is!"

Tommy has been keeping the alien egg nice and warm under his blanket, so it finally cracks open to reveal a little baby alien. He feeds it milk, white bread, cereal and Planters peanuts and it continues to rapidly grow. In a day it's his size. He dubs it Trumpy. I guess because it has a trumpet-like nose. I once promised a friend's 6-year-old daughter that she could name a cat I was getting. She'd just returned from the grocery store with her mom at the same time I brought the cat home and when I asked what his name was going to be, she immediately blurted out "Coupon!" And I kind of just shrugged and said, "Sure. Why not?" So if I can have a cat named Coupon, I suppose little Tommy is entitled to have a big-eared, glowing-eyed, cone-headed, anteater-snouted, gorilla-suited alien named Trumpy.

Trumpy aces a puzzle and a Simon game, walks on the ceiling and uses his telekinetic abilities to turn the lights on and off, make clothes fly out of the closet and levitate furniture. It also transforms Tommy's telescope into a more powerful instrument he can use to see all the way to Africa (?!) While Tommy's bond with the creature grows, a second alien of the same species goes around killing off the rangers, the poachers and anyone else it happens to stumble onto, finally making its way to the cabin where the main characters are hanging out. Victims are found with some kind of glowing astrological pattern on their foreheads, which is never really explained.

Even though this particular director isn't known for the high quality of his work, he at least made a few entertaining films. However, producer interference seems to be chiefly responsible for giving this one a severe identity crisis. Originally conceived as an alien-in-the-woods horror movie, plans were altered after the massive success of E.T. (1982). Simón was then steered into including the plot involving the little boy and his friendship with the more docile child alien. While other Simón films like Pieces and SLUGS were able to chug along on their sleaziness and over-the-top gore scenes, the horror content here is dull and extremely sanitized to the point where I don't recall seeing so much as a single drop of blood! On the flip-side, this includes too much profanity to be a kid's movie. What we basically end up with is the original horror concept being compromised at every turn by the inclusion of the more family-friendly stuff, which leaves both potential audiences unsatisfied.

There are only a few other notable things about this one, starting with the hilariously overworked fog machine, which is pumping out fumes during every single scene that takes place outside. And there's some pretty good music in here, too, including some dark synth (some of which was stolen from a 1974 album by French artist Georges Rodi) and one catchy-cheesy song on the soundtrack that appears to be titled "Sara" that I could find no other information about. This was also simultaneously filmed in both French and Spanish, with the actors doing separate takes reading their lines in both languages, though the executive producers were Americans Dick Randall and Edward L. Montoro.

Here in the U. S., this was given a belated release from Film Ventures International in 1990, who changed the title to Pod People and added new opening credits swiping footage from Don Dohler's THE GALAXY INVADER (1985). This version became one of the most popular films featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000, and would be cross-referenced in numerous later episodes of the show. In fact, the MST3K version, distributed by Rhino on VHS and Shout! Factory on DVD, is easier to find on home video than the unaltered version of the film.

★1/2