- Year
- 1981
- Country
- Italy
- Runtime
- 93 min
- Director
- Umberto Lenzi
- Updated
- 10 Aug 2026
- Obscurity
- known (23/100)
- Also known as
- Make Them Die Slowly · Woman from Deep River
- Banned in
- UK
Cannibal Ferox
A DPP video nasty its distributors long promoted as banned in 31 countries, not passed by the BBFC in any form until 2000.
Lenzi chasing Deodato with none of the argument. Real animal deaths, no defence.
Umberto Lenzi runs the Cannibal Holocaust playbook with the intelligence removed and the cruelty intact. A trio of Americans in the Amazon provoke a tribe into brutal reprisal, and the film exists to string together atrocity set pieces, marketed in the US under the honest title Make Them Die Slowly.
It contains real animal killings, and unlike Deodato's film it has no structural argument to sit them inside; the cruelty is the entire product. It was banned in dozens of countries and remains cut in many.
Notorious rather than good. Know exactly what is in it before you go near it.
Trailer
The numbers
Nobody has rated this yet. Be the first to make a claim you'll have to defend.
Your call
Where to watch
Legal options in USA
Links open in a new tab (↗). Availability data via TMDB and changes constantly, so confirm on the service. Legal options only. Checked 23 Sept 2026. All options ↗
Discuss with AI
Open a chatbot with a question about this film already typed out. Useful for a second opinion, plot detail, or where to find a copy.
Written about
- Banned, cut and confiscated
A Fulci print flown out of the country, an Australian rating that just means no, and a German court that filed The Evil Dead under criminal violence. Three states, three machines for making a film disappear.
- The Italian cannibal cycle, 1977 to 1985
Eight years, a dozen films, one arrest, and a court appearance to prove the cast were still alive.
Filed alongside
▶ watchobscureTurkey Shoot
The budget vanished mid-shoot and they kept going. Chaotic, mean, fun.
▶ watchcultIsland of Death
Mykonos has never looked prettier or hosted anything uglier. Mastorakis dared himself to be banned and won.
▶ watch⊘ bannedcultSS Experiment Camp
A DPP video nasty far better known for its poster than for anything in the film.
▶ watch⊘ bannedcultZombie Holocaust
Cannibals and zombies at once, reusing the Zombi 2 sets and cast.
▶ watch⊘ bannedcultCannibal Apocalypse
Vietnam veterans as cannibals. Sillier and kinder than the jungle cycle.
▶ watch⊘ bannedcultMan from Deep River
The one that started it, by remaking A Man Called Horse in Thailand.