How Cut and Run Subverted the Cannibal Film Genre

The 1985 film Cut and Run flew under the radar in many ways as a “cannibal film”,  barely gaining any of the same type of recognition or interest that its predecessors saw. This, however, was largely due to the fact that it was quite different from those previous movies. Unlike other cannibal films, Cut and Run centers around drug cartels that are involved in an illegal cocaine operation in South America — with a group of wild cannibals being thrown in the mix for good measure.

The uniqueness of this Italian cannibal film hardly stops there, as elements of Jonestown are even sprinkled in, with famous villain actor [Richard Lynch] playing a former Jonestown Massacre colonel. Fans of horror may also be pleased to see legendary horror actor Michael Berryman and Karen Black. However, since the film went in such an unusual direction, some fans also view it as one of the final nails in the coffin of the “cannibal boom” of the 1970s and 1980s.

Cut and Run, though, was not the official end of the genre. The 1988 film Natura contro [aka The Green Inferno, or Cannibal Holocaust II] is usually listed as the end of cannibal films, yet the genre saw a brief resurgence with Eli Roth’s 2013 film of the same name [The Green Inferno] as well as a few other similar titles. Though the “boom” itself was never to be felt again. However, with a genre so strange and unique, it should be of no surprise that there was an expiration date.

The movie Cut and Run is directed by Ruggero Deodato and a free version is available on Tubi TV, where it’s listed under three combined categories [Horror, Action, Thriller]. The film itself plays more like a pure ‘80s American action movie with a strange score, than it does a late “Italian  cannibal” entry. But some fans of the Italian genre “poliziotteschi”, which was an Italian crime/action genre popular during the 1960s and 1970s, may also have a sense of dejavu watching this film — and rightfully so. 

With snakes, crocodiles, machetes, cocaine, sub machine guns, cartels, and cannibals, this film rarely has a dull moment. But despite the jungle setting itself, this film does not necessarily play like a jungle adventure (like many of the other cannibal films). But Deodato himself knows that, as he was a veteran of that genre, having directed other cannibal films such as; Jungle Holocaust [1977] and Cannibal Holocaust [1979]. So, if anyone has a right to stray away from the genre, it would be Deodato.

Subverting the genre seemed to be intentional, in what appeared to be Deodato’s way of acknowledging the popularity was coming to an end — whether naturally or by force (and whether he liked it or not). At times, the strange score sounds like it belongs more in an ‘80s “slasher movie”, which is actually the direction he went in next, when the following year [1986] Deodato directed a slasher film titled Body Count. So the writing was on the wall, and visible in many ways that the decline of the genre was inevitable, but not before the genre influenced the likes of Eli Roth with his aforementioned cannibal film The Green Inferno. 

With the previously mentioned elements of Jonestown and drug cartels in the jungle, along with cannibalistic tribes, it may be hard to imagine those all intertwined into one movie. They don’t seem to belong together, yet somehow Deodato found a way to seemingly effortlessly blend them all together. The movie plays very fast in every single way, and has a total running length of 1h 27min for the North American version, and a bit longer with additional scenes for the European version.

According to the trivia section of the movie on IMDb, legendary actor Michael Barryman was not too happy with part of the filming, where he found himself standing in water supposedly containing electric eels for “five hours straight”. He was assured by the director beforehand that the water was safe, but upon hearing of the electric eels, he became angry and “threw the director off the pier and into the water”. This was out of character for Berryman, who is widely known as a “super nice guy” by fans. However, that much time near electric eels was where he seemingly had to draw the line. 

Many horror fans may remember Michael Berryman from the horror franchise directed by Wes Craven, The Hills Have Eyes. Berryman appeared in the original film in 1977, and the original “part two” in 1984. Interestingly enough, according to Wikipedia Wes Craven was slated to direct this film [Cut and Run] under the title Marimba, but somehow those plans fell through. No doubt Craven could’ve offered a unique entry into the late stages of the “cannibal boom”.

It’s also interesting to see that Craven was thinking of entering the “cannibal boom” during its very late stages, as Deodato was apparently planning how to correctly bow out of the genre entirely. Considering Craven directed A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984 and Hills Have Eye Part 2  the same year as Cut and Run [1985], fans will likely have a hard time imagining which direction he may have gone in, had he directed the film instead of Deodato. This is because the direction of his films changed greatly from ‘84 and ‘85.

The cannibal film genre began in 1972, with Umberto Lenzi’s film Man From Deep River. By the time the 1990s approached, the cannibal boom was officially over. Perhaps the demand by hardcore fans wasn’t enough for the directors to justify making them any longer, or maybe they were sick of fighting the censorship issues and ending up on the infamous and dreaded “video nasty list”. 

Even though Cut and Run subverted the genre in many ways, fans would likely be hard-pressed to attempt to to discuss the genre without at least a solid mention of this special film. While the movie itself may not have had the same notoriety as Cannibal Holocaust for example (and was much more tame in many ways) there is no denying that anyone who watches the movie, will not be forgetting it anytime soon. 

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