White Cannibal Queen – Vinegar Syndrome (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Spain/Italy/France, 1980
Director: Jesús Franco
Writers: Jesús Franco, Jean Rollin
Cast: Al Cliver, Sabrina Siani, Jérôme Foulon, Lina Romay, Shirley Knight, Anouchka, Antonio Mayans, Olivier Mathot, Jesús Franco, Raymond Hardy, Anne Marie Rosier, Pamela Stanford

Release Date: February 18th, 2025
Approximate Running Time: 90 Minutes 45 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Italian, DTS-HD Mono English
Subtitles: English, English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $44.98

"During the course of a tropical expedition, Jeremy Taylor and his family become the unsuspecting prey of a primitive and cannibalistic tribe. While his wife is savagely killed and devoured, and Jeremy’s arm is also dismembered and devoured, his young daughter is instead taken prisoner by the tribe. Years later, Jeremy has not given up hope of rescuing his daughter and, with the aid of some friends, organizes a new expedition to bring her home. However, to his shock and dismay, he discovers that her white skin and blonde hair have caused her to become worshipped as a god by the cannibals and that she has gained a tolerance for consuming human flesh." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.25/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "Newly scanned & restored in 2K from its 35mm original camera negative."

Here’s a disclaimer that plays before the film, "White Cannibal Queen is being presented in its original Italian theatrical release version, which includes a roughly 60-second overture before the main titles begin.

While other versions extended the titles to cover the complete overture section, we have chosen to present the film as the negative was originally completed. The roughly 60-seconds of black before the titles appear are intentional."

White Cannibal Queen comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 45.6 GB

Feature: 26.3 GB

Though the source looks great most of the time, some imperfections like nicks and specks of dirt remain. Flesh tones look healthy, colors look correct, image clarity and compression are solid, black levels are strong, and grain remains intact.

Audio: 4/5 (DTS-HD Mono Italian, DTS-HD Mono English)

This release comes with two audio options, a DTS-HD mono mix in Italian and a DTS-HD mono mix in English. Range-wise, these two audio tracks are comparable. That said, both audio tracks sound clean, clear, and balanced. Included are removable English subtitles for the Italian language track and removable English SDH for the English language track.

Extras:

Extras for this release include alternate English language titles (2 minutes 29 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), an interview with actor Antonio Mayans titled Jungle Holocaust (30 minutes 55 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with film historian Alessio Di Rocco titled Meat Market, he provides an overview of the Cannibal film genre (27 minutes 53 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with film historian Eugenio Ercolani titled European Cannibals, he discusses White Cannibal Queen and where it fits into the Cannibal film genre (33 minutes 3 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with Stephen Thrower, author of Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jess Franco titled Sardonic Cannibals (32 minutes 36 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an audio commentary with film historians Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth, reversible cover art, and a spot gloss slipcover (limited to 5,000 units).

Summary:

Professor Taylor takes his wife and daughter on his expedition into the remote Amazon jungles. While in the jungle one evening, a tribe of cannibals ambushes Professor Taylor’s boat, where they eat his wife and take him back to the rest of the tribe for an afternoon snack. The tribe of cannibals becomes preoccupied when they discover Professor Taylor’s daughter, Lana, and during the chaos of her arrival, Taylor, minus one arm, narrowly escapes with his life. Years later, after seeking psychiatric help, Taylor feels well enough to make a second trip into the Amazon to rescue the daughter he left behind.

Through the years, White Cannibal Queen has gone through a series of different and yet oddly similar names, like Barbarian Goddess, Mondo Cannibale, and Cannibals. White Cannibal Queen was made during the big Italian cannibal genre boom of the early 1980s when French producer Marius Lesoeur approached exploitation guru Jess Franco about putting his own spin on this latest cinema fad.

The cannibals in White Cannibal Queen are multinational, as we not only have your typical dark-skinned cannibals, but there are also Latino and pale white flesh-looking cannibals, and I thought I saw, but just for a moment, an Asian cannibal. That said, the cannibals are never scary, and the gut munching they do is in slow motion and drawn out to pad the narrative.

The cast has a few Jess Franco regulars, like Lina Romay, who portrays a psychiatrist, and Antonio Mayans, who portrays the cannibal's leader. One of White Cannibal Queen’s few assets is Sabrina Siani (Conquest), who portrays the title character and spends all of her screen time in skimpy native clothing.

Another cast member of note is Al Cliver, who most Euro-Cult will recognize from Lucio Fulci’s Zombie. He would reteam with Jess Franco for The Devil Hunter. I may be in the minority, but I have never cared for Al Cliver as an actor, and he does nothing extraordinary in White Cannibal Queen outside of filling space.

Anyone familiar with Jess Franco’s other Eurociné films knows what to expect; they were a company whose budgets were often non-existent. Many scenes in which Al Cliver's character's arm, which was cut off early on, can be seen because the FX is so cheap. Also, at 91 minutes in length, the narrative moves at a snail's pace.

Having now seen more than 120 films directed by Jess Franco, White Cannibal Queen is one of his least inspired films; it is a lifeless, by-the-numbers film. That said, Jess Franco was never one to not follow a trend, and with White Cannibal Queen, he made a film that is unlike any other cannibal film. Ultimately, if you have climbed to the top of the cannibal mountain with films like Cannibal Ferox or Cannibal Holocaust, then a film like White Cannibal Queen might be too tame and uneventful for you.

White Cannibal Queen gets a definitive release from Vinegar Syndrome.

Written by Michael Den Boer