Ruggero Deodato Movies
Growing up in Rome's Parioli region, home to many of Italian cinema's most notable figures of the 1950s, Ruggero Deodato naturally found an interest in cinema, as his friendship with the son of director Roberto Rossellini led to an assistant director job on Il Generale della Rovere in 1959. Over the next eight years, Deodato's talents led him to assist on more than 40 films for such luminaries as Mauro Bolognini, Riccardo Freda, and Joseph Losey, and in 1968 he was rewarded with his first official film as director, Fenomenal e il Tesoro di Tutankamen (earlier, he had completed the direction of Antonio Margheriti's 1964 film Ursus il Terrore dei Kirghisi but his contributions were uncredited). Deodato dabbled in many different genres over his lengthy career, from romantic dramas (L'Ultimo Sapore dell'Aria) to violent police thrillers (Uomini si Nasce, Poliziotti si Muore) to disaster epics (Concorde Affair '79), but it is in the realm of ultraviolent horror that he is best known. Creator of one of the most infamous splatter films of all time, 1979's neo-realist Amazonian nightmare Cannibal Holocaust, the director has been alternately vilified and praised for that much-banned film's violence (much of it unstaged and involving real animals butchered for the camera) and a seemingly misanthropic world view which permeates many of his best-known films. From the bloody rape-revenge film La Casa Sperduta nel Parco -- actually a keenly-observed social satire -- to the savage horrors of Inferno in Diretta, many of Deodato's films are marked by a persistent theme of man's inhumanity to man, reducing the human condition to its most primal, almost feral level. Interestingly, in his most notorious works, it is "civilized" man -- whose avarice has compromised his soul in the pursuit of wealth, drugs, sex, or fame -- whom Deodato portrays as more savage than any cannibalistic tribesman or scrappy urban thug. Age seems to have mellowed the filmmaker's views, as few moments in his work after 1987 compare to the uncompromising depictions of human cruelty which came before. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Three American students studying art in Rome are drawn into a grim world of torture and suffering in director Eli Roth's blackly comic sequel to the horror hit that shocked the world. Beth (Lauren German), Whitney (Bijou Phillips), and Lorna (Heather Matarazzo) have ventured outside of their stateside surroundings in order to get a more worldly appreciation of the arts. But sketching nudes all day can take its toll on even the most talented artist, and when class is over the three girls jump at the opportunity to experience Europe firsthand. As they set out on the train for an impromptu weekend trip, however, the coeds are surprised to cross paths with the beautiful model they had just been sketching. It appears that she, too, is preparing for a vacation that promises to be both relaxing and rejuvenating, and a generous invitation to join her at a remote hostel surrounded by soothing hot springs ultimately proves too tempting for the adventurous Americans to pass up. Unfortunately for the unsuspecting students, one person's idea of relaxing can be another's worst nightmare. Now on an unavoidable collision course with two American businessmen who long to get an edge on their competition by experiencing the thrill of the kill and a scythe-wielding woman who maintains her youthful visage using the Elizabeth Bathory method, these unsuspecting students are about to fall into a trap that remains one of the sadistic and wealthy elite's most well-guarded secrets. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lauren German, Roger Bart, (more)
- 1988
- PG
Garrett (Miles O'Keeffe) is a bounty hunter who rides across Morocco on horseback to save the beautiful heiress Analisa (Savina Gersak) from her Arab kidnappers. Armed with a crossbow and exploding arrows, he battles the villains who seek a stash of priceless diamonds held by Analisa's father (Donald Hodson). This unexciting action adventure is plagued by audio technical problems. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miles O'Keeffe, Savina Gersak, (more)
- 1988
- R
This Italian production is the story of a young model who fears for her life after a series of prank phone calls. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlotte Lewis, William Berger, (more)
- 1987
The professional wrestling world's battling "Barbarian Brothers" are featured as the heroes in this sword-and-sorcery fantasy film. They're out to rescue their lovely queen and retrieve a magic ruby, stolen from them years before. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Paul, Peter Paul, (more)
- 1987
- R
This Italian production was released directly to video, despite the casting of several well-known stars in leading roles. It is also somewhat remarkable for having no less than five alternate titles. In the story, Robert Domenici (Michael York) is a concert pianist suffering from a rare disease which produces super-rapid aging. On a visit to Venice during festival season he decides to take revenge on the world by killing and dismembering former girlfriends. He is nearly impossible to trace, as any description of his appearance rapidly becomes inaccurate. However, he meets his match in the wily Inspector Downey (Donald Pleasance), who persistently pursues him. This mild horror film also features Edwige Fenech, whose uncertain English has great charm. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael York, Donald Pleasence, (more)
- 1986
Italian director Ruggero Deodato is best known for his notorious Cannibal Holocaust and the brutal action film Inferno in Diretta. In this derivative slasher entry, Deodato shows very little of the vicious realism which distinguished those films. A group of average teenagers vacation at a campground run by the vituperative David Hess (Last House on the Left) and his wife (Mimsy Farmer). The teens are murdered one by one by an unseen killer, and the massacre turns out to be the result of Farmer's adulterous affair with local policeman Charles Napier years before, which caused her son to go insane. The main attraction of this film is its cast, which also includes horror veterans John Steiner and Ivan Rassimov, because although Deodato generates a fair amount of suspense in the murder scenes, the effect is weakened by the overly familiar structure. Hess and Farmer are typically strong leads and Napier is at his two-faced best, but Camping del Terrore remains one of Deodato's least interesting films. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
In this Italian adventure, the deadly drug manufacturing and export operation of a prominent South- American drug czar is discovered by an investigative TV news correspondent and her cameraman who went to the jungle to look into evidence that a notorious, corrupt colonel is still alive. While in the jungles, they encounter hostile natives and other typical dangers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lisa Blount, Leonard Mann, (more)
- 1983
In this sci-fi film, the lost continent of Atlantis rises in the Bahamas. The new surface dwellers aren't too friendly as they wage war on the locals. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1980
- Add The House on the Edge of the Park to QueueAdd The House on the Edge of the Park to top of Queue
Filmed in 1979 but not released in Italy until 1984, this softcore story involves two New York street thugs, Alex (David Hess) and Ricky (John Morghen), who crash an upscale dinner party in a New Jersey mansion, only to have the tables turned on them. A part of the clash between the classes involves domination and submission sex games that reveal the party-goers to be much worse than the two toughs who sought to have some fun at their expense. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Hess, Annie Belle, (more)
This half-baked but entertaining disaster film (not to be confused with America's The Concorde - Airport '79) deals with the attempts of an evil corporation to sabotage the Concorde before it hurts their own airline business. James Franciscus plays a reporter who teams up with Mimsy Farmer (Macchie Solari) to save the plane and its passengers from certain doom. Venantino Venantini co-stars with Edmund Purdom, Van Johnson, and Joseph Cotton, while cultists should look for porn star R. Bolla (appearing as Robert Kerman) in the tower, and some simply pathetic miniature effects. Kerman was also in Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust and Umberto Lenzi's Cannibal Ferox. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1979
- NR
While Umberto Lenzi began the Italian-made cycle of brutal Amazonian cannibal horrors with Il Paese del Sesso Selvaggio and effectively ended it with the nauseating Cannibal Ferox, it was Ruggero Deodato who directed the subgenre's most enduring film. This popular bloodbath features a fetus ripped from a woman's body, people impaled on spikes, a genuine tortoise-flaying, and numerous other indignities, both real and simulated. The plot concerns the efforts of a group of American explorers to discover the fate of a missing documentary film crew. They receive a scratchy film-reel containing the bloody truth from a tribe of tree-dwelling natives, and the reel's contents make up the bulk of the film. Advertisements claimed that "the crew who filmed it were actually devoured alive by cannibals," yet most of them were spotted alive in future unsavory gore films. While the film is undoubtedly gruesome enough to satisfy fans, its mixture of nauseating mondo animal slaughter, repulsive sexual violence, and pie-faced attempts at socially conscious moralizing make it rather distasteful morally as well. The fact that the film's sole spokesperson for the anti-exploitation perspective is played by porno star Richard Bolla should give an indication of where its sympathies lie. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Kerman, Francesca Ciardi, (more)
Ruggero Deodato directed this gory cannibal movie, one of many to pour out of Italy in the wake of Il Paese del Sesso Selvaggio (1972), which also starred Me Me Lay and Ivan Rassimov. Rassimov's plane crashes in the Amazon jungle, and he is soon captured by a Stone-Age tribe, which tries to kill him -- until a native woman (Lay) frees him for sex and pays with her life. There is real mondo-style footage of animals devouring each other to go along with staged horrors such as Lay being gutted and having her body cavity filled with hot coals. Deodato returned with the more extreme Cannibal Holocaust a few years later. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Massimo Foschi, Ivan Rassimov, (more)
- 1968
Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust) was brought in to replace Romano Ferrara as director for this sequel to Ferrara's 1967 adventure fantasy Gungala la Vergine della Giungla. Kirsten Svanhold (aka "Kitty Swan") returns as the beautiful, savage Gungala, who reigns over the jungle and communes with the animals. This time she battles mad Arabs who want to take over the African continent and falls in love with a member of an expedition sent to find her. Not bad for its type, but full of the usual racist stereotypes and bwana lore. Micaela Cendali Pignatelli co-stars with Angelo Infanti, Tiffany Anderson, and Giancarlo Sisti. Pat Starke sings the theme song. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1966
Not originally a "Ringo" entry, this exciting spaghetti western was redubbed to exploit the series' popular success. Mark Damon plays Ringo (Johnny in the original), a bounty-hunter who is hired to nab outlaw leader Franco Derosa, but ends up taking on Derosa's entire gang and demolishing half of Coldstone City with dynamite before the situation is resolved. Skillfully directed by Sergio Corbucci, this action-packed film features a stirring Carlo Savina soundtrack and numerous explosions, as well as an engaging performance by Damon, star of Roger Corman's The Fall of the House of Usher. Corbucci went on to direct the immensely popular Django. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Sergio Corbucci crafted one of the most popular and widely imitated of the Italian "spaghetti westerns" of the 1960s with this violent but stylish action saga. A mysterious man named Django (Franco Nero) arrives in a Mexican border town dragging a small coffin behind him. When he attempts to save a woman who is being attacked by a group of bandits, he finds himself in the middle of a conflict between Mexican gangsters and racist Yankee thugs, with the innocent townspeople and a fortune in Mexican gold stuck somewhere in between. Django becomes a force to be reckoned with when it's discovered his coffin actually contains a Gatling gun. Django proved so popular in Europe that over 30 sequels and follow-ups were produced, though Franco Nero would not return to the role until 1987's Django 2: Il Grande Ritorno (the only sequel endorsed by Corbucci, which proved to be the last film in the series. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franco Nero, Loredana Nusciak, (more)
