Page 135 - Alternative Europe Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945

[Cannibal Apocalypse] which is funny - the idea that if I bite you and you become a cannibal yourself,
that it is a disease like AIDS. I don't like violence. Even with Japanese cartoons I don't like [it] and
with my son I tried to not let him watch them. Even fairytales are very violent. In Cinderella the
stepsistets have their eyes pecked out by birds. It's very scary and bloody! I think it is immoral when
it pretends to be rooted in reality.
Although it has its moments, Cannibal Ferox has some very offensive ethnographic issues and issues to
do with animal ethics...
This comes from the Jacoppetti movies [mondo movies, beginning with Mondo Cane in 1962]
that were censored in this country. There were actually trials because of this, and Jacopetti was a
known fascist, in the first line of the fascist party. But it's something the directors like and for some
reason the audience like them to.
But you see horror as certainly having a different function.
Yes, but many times in the horrors I did there was always some sex and tits.
But there is no sex or tits in City of the Living Dead and none in Cannibal Apocalypse.
Are you sure?
Oh yes, there is that scene where you bite the girl's breast.
That breast scene was done with a prostitute. The scene was shot in Madrid and the girl was a
minor and so we couldn't do the close-up of me biting her tit. So after they called me for figatelli,
meaning little entrails, the post-production scenes missing in the movie. So they asked me to come
over and I got into a cab and there was a lot of traffic so I was late. The producer opened the door to
the huge studio with one chair in the middle and there was a big fat lady with dyed blonde hair and
just a big coat sitting there. She looked at me and said in that strong Roman dialect [affects hilarious
voice] Y o u made it, now let's bite, fuck!' With this, she opened her coat and I said 'Good morning
... aaahhhh!' because she was naked under the coat and was ptepared with the special effects.
Is there anything you are proud of about these films — they are an important part of the horror canon?
Proud is a big word. In them I am doing my job and I am not doing it badly. But I am not the
kind of petson who says that easily. I am very critical toward myself. I am ptoud of some of the roles
I had in theatre. Comic stuff, I am a very good comic actor. I brought the work of Alan Maitland to
Italy. I think he is great, the modern Chekhov. I translated and directed his plays in Italy. But also in
theatte you can never watch yourself. It was fun making Cannibal Ferox but not because of the quality
of the film.
It is a shame you don't know about the place of these films within horror. Films like City of the Living
Dead and the Margheriti and Soavi films, they offer something different, something baroque, perhaps
particularly Italian, that does not resonate with the repetition of many modern American horror films.
I am not familiar with the originals. I do like thrillers but the problem is that I really do get
scared. I remember in City of the Living Dead when I saw it I put my hand on my face in my own
scenes because what scares me most is when something happens all of a sudden. I don't remember,
maybe it was the scene with the hanged man, but I do temember putting my hand over my face. I do
like thrillers like Se7en and Silence of the Lambs and The Usual Suspects, but when there is an idea or
thought behind their images. My son is 13 and has grown out of Disney, unfortunately, because I do
adore Disney. Often I try to find some kid or other who I can take to see Disney.

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