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Released by: Severin Films
Released on: 12/9/2010
Director: Joe D'Amato
Cast: Melissa Chimenti, Sirpa Lane
Year: 1978
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The Movie:
Strange even by the unusually bizarre standards of Joe D'Amato's oddball filmography, Papaya Love Goddess Of The Cannibals is a bit of a head scratcher. Shot on location in the Caribbean, the film begins when a lovely tanned woman named Papaya (played by the mysterious and buxom 'Melissa') rubs her self on the beach. Once that's over with, she heads into a little room and boffs a strange white dude. While this might sound good in theory, she finishes him off by biting his dick off. Looks like she was in cahoots with two native guys, but as to why, well, we just don't know yet.
Cut to a cockfight. And by cockfight, I mean a chicken versus chicken encounter (we are talking D'Amato here, so it's important to clarify). Meet Sara (the Sirpa Lane of Borowczyk's The Beast and the amazingly terrible The Beast In Space) and her boyfriend Vincent (Maurice Polie), a couple of vacationing hipsters who love chicken on chicken violence. We also learn that Vincent is really into nuclear power plants and that he's planning on building one here on the island. Neat! At any rate, they head back to their room and promptly get it on in the shower. Once that's over with they move to the bed and when Sara decides she's thirsty for some J&B goodness, her lust for bad whiskey soon turns to abject horror as she discovers the burnt remains of a corpse in their room.
Later on, Vincent and Sara pick up a buxom hitchhiker who just so happens to be Papaya. They ogle her and makes eyes at one another hinting at the inevitable three way to come. After all, what good is a cockfighting, corpse finding, nuclear power plant building vacation without a good three way? But it doesn't happen yet. First Sara and Vincent have to go to a voodoo ceremony and drink some blood. Then, once that's done, they can have their three way. And they do. But once Sara finds out that Vincent is actually an asshole and is planning on booting some poor natives out of their homes to build his plant, she has a change of heart and the only one who can save the day is… Papaya! Oh, and Sara and Papaya make out at one point late in the film. That's not a spoiler, because unless you're dim you knew it was coming after the three way.
This movie is awesome.
Grounded by a lovely disco-funk-whatever score courtesy of the inevitable Stelvio Cipriani, Papaya Love Goddess Of The Cannibals (or, if the title card on this transfer is to be believed, Caribbean Papaya) is pretty screwy stuff. The plot seems like it was made up as the filmmakers were going on, and trying to make sense of it all would probably be bad for your health. Worth noting is that this is definitely not the horror film that the packaging for the DVD makes it out to be - this is a softcore potboiler all the way with only some sporadic (and fairly tame) violence. The focus here is on sex, not so much on violence. On that level, however, it delivers. Copious amounts of completely unnecessary but very welcome nudity from the white skinned and blonde haired Sipra Lane contrasts nicely with the equally completely unnecessary but also very welcome nudity from the buxom tanned Melissa (who gets bonus points for only needing one name).
The camera work runs the gamut from beautiful looking travelogue footage to quickly shot sloppy shots that look like they were added in at the last minute but like most of D'Amato's pictures, for the most part this film does look very good. The film makes excellent use of its tropical locations and while it is conspicuously short on cannibal action, it makes up for it all with a gleefully insane plot, a super rad score and a lot of hot naked chicks.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Papaya lands on DVD in a pretty spiffy 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. While the image is a little grainy throughout, there isn't any major print damage to complain about and the colors look nice and natural here. Skin tones, of which there are plenty, look nice and healthy and detail is fairy good in the foreground and the background. A few scenes look to have been shot with an intentionally soft look but aside from that, Papaya looks pretty decent on this DVD.
The sole audio option on this disc is an English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track. This mix won't really 'wow' you but it gets the job done. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout and the funky soundtrack has some nice resonance to it. There's a little bit of background hiss here and there if you want to listen for it but odds are that if you don't, you won't even notice it.
Save for some classy menus and chapter selection, the only supplement on this disc is the film's original theatrical trailer, presented here in anamorphic widescreen.
The Final Word:
Fans of D'Amato's Black Emmanuelle films will probably really enjoy Papaya: Love Goddess Of The Cannibals as it works on the same level - hot naked girls, exotics locations, goofy plot points and a killer Euro-disco soundtrack! If this sounds like your idea of a good time, you'll want to give Severin's fine DVD a look.