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In hopes of
selling their story for a big buck, four
friends head into the jungles of Papua New Guinea to
find out the truth about what really happened to
Michael Rockefeller back in the early 60s. Disputes
and disagreements quickly start to evolve among the
friends and the four decide to split up in groups of
two. Unfortunately for them, that only makes them so
much easier to hunt...
Blair Witch Project meets Cannibal Holocaust in this
cannibal flick filled with potential, but once again,
fails to live up to it. I was really psyched going
into this film as I've been loving what Dimension
Extreme has given us so far and while Welcome To The
Jungle isn't a bad movie, I was somewhat disappointed
as I think that this could've been the movie to make
cannibal flicks big again. The Blair With style footage
is annoying at first but works better as the movie
progresses. The New Guinea scenery is simply fantastic
and if it hadn't been for all the violence, I'd love
to go there sometime, but I'm probably better off going
to Indonesia (plus I'd get to see tons of Indonesian
horror flicks in cinemas as they release about one
new horror flick every week).
Welcome To The Jungle tells the story of four college
students who are on vacation in Fiji when they decide
to travel to Papua New Guinea for a month in an effort
to find Michael Rockefeller. According to rumours,
Michael is still very much alive and lives with a tribe
deep in the woods of Papua New Guinea. As the friends
go deeper and deeper into the jungle, they start getting
on each others nerves and eventually decide to split
up in groups of two. What they don't know is that
they've just entered cannibal territory, and they're
invited for dinner - whether they like it or not.
This movie has many things going for it and also many
things going against it. For starters I was really
annoyed that they made Papua New Guinea look like a
tiny island while it is in fact a gigantic part of
an island. Hell, it's almost as big as the UK (if not
bigger?) and they reach the Indonesian border in a
matter of hours. Not very believable. Furthermore they
are strangely close to the ocean despite the fact that
they've been hiking deeper and deeper into the jungle
for several days. Then we have the obvious fact that
the Blair witch filming style has been done to death
and it VERY rarely works. In Welcome To The Jungle it
almost works if it hadn't been for the fact that the
actors are rather bad and that an unknown person (a
fifth person if you will) is holding the camera at
times. It's really quite hard to believe that this
was written and directed by the same man who brought
us "The Punisher". On the other hand, the movie does
look like it was quite expensive to make.
That brings me to how beautiful the movie looks. Despite
being filmed with a Blair witch style, the movie still
looks very high-budget. I also didn't mind the actors
who did the best that they could with the material.
It takes a while for the movie to get going but the
pace never bothered me as I knew that it would eventually
get to the good stuff. And so it did. Unfortunately it
wasn't as good as I had hoped that it'd be. The cannibals
are way too subtle and friendly and don't come off very
intimidating. It does feel quite realistic though.
Overall, I did enjoy Welcome To The Jungle, but not
as much as I had hoped. It's a decent cannibal flick...
scratch that, it's the best cannibal flick of the year
if not in several years since it brings back feelings
from the good old days when cannibal movies were
actually good. I appreciate the effort, I truly do as
I think that this could have been a spectacular movie,
but in the end, it's just average.
A lot of quick flashes of gore involving impalements,
dismembered body parts, a decapitated head and more.
No music in here.
A cannibal flick filled with potential which it
unfortunately doesn't live up to. It had all the right
ingredients but for some reason it just didn't work.
I've said it before and I'll say it again though,
Dimension Extreme should be doing the national horror
fest instead of After Dark though as their movies are
clearly of much higher standards. If you're in the
mood for a professionally made cannibal flick, you
should probably give this one a spin.
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