Deep River Savages
Deep River Savages is a 1972 Italian cannibal film directed by Umberto Lenzi. It is one of the 72 films on the Director of Public Prosecutions' video nasties list, later dropped without a successful prosecution.
The first Italian cannibal film. A Man Called Horse relocated to Thailand with mondo bolted on.
Sign in to track what you have survived.
The first Italian cannibal film, and it is A Man Called Horse relocated to Thailand.
A British photographer is captured by a tribe, is brutalised, is gradually assimilated, and ends up defending them. That structure is lifted almost intact from the 1970 Richard Harris western, and Lenzi's addition is the mondo apparatus: real rituals, documentary inserts, and real animal slaughter presented as ethnography.
It did not start a boom. It came out, made money in Italy, and sat there for five years until Deodato picked the format back up with Jungle Holocaust.
Its historical importance is genuine and its reputation is larger than the film, which is slow and, apart from the animal footage, surprisingly tame next to what followed.
Banned, seized, prosecuted
DPP 72 · listed, then dropped
Rate this film
No ratings yet. Score it on the five axes and yours will be the first.
Sign in to rate this and add it to your shelf.
Trailer
The sleeves
The same film, sold as a different film in each territory. Click any of them.
Where to watch
Finland
Legal sources only. Availability data from JustWatch via TMDB.
Checked 9 Aug 2026
Discuss with AI
Open a chatbot with a question about this already typed out. Useful for a second opinion, a plot detail, or working out which cut you are holding.
Adjacent
WATCHcultDeath Line
Descendants of collapsed tunnel workers living under Russell Square, and Donald Pleasence steals it.
WATCHcanonThe Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Almost bloodless and completely unbearable. Heat, noise and exhaustion doing all the work.
WATCHknownPrisoner of the Cannibal God
Ursula Andress and Stacy Keach in New Guinea. Real animal deaths, which is why it stays notorious.
WATCHcultMotel Hell
A folksy farmer makes the best smoked meat in the county. The secret is people, planted in the garden up to their necks.
WATCHknownRaw
A vegetarian vet student develops an appetite. Julia Ducournau's debut and a genuine coming-of-age film.
WATCHcultWe Are What We Are
A Mexico City family loses its father and has to work out who now does the hunting.
- Next in Cannibal: Death Line (1972) →