Cannibal Ferox

Rudy, Gloria, and Pat prepare to enter the Colombian rainforest with the aim of proving that cannibalism is a myth. They discuss risks, stakes, and the possibility of encountering locals and drug traffickers. The journey is framed as a scientific expedition rather than a survival drama.

While traversing the jungle, the group meets drug dealer Mike and his partner Joe. Joe is badly wounded, and Mike claims cannibals attacked them, planting doubt and danger around their expedition. Mike’s presence introduces a hostile, duplicitous element to the journey.

At night, Gloria goes missing, triggering a frantic search by the group. Rudy eventually discovers a nearly deserted native village while looking for her, signaling that the jungle hides both danger and shelter. The discovery shifts the plan from exploration to survival.

Because Joe is injured, the travelers stay in the village settlement. Mike manipulates Pat, using charm and proximity to pressure her. Pat resists, but the situation reveals how vulnerability in the jungle can corrupt judgment.

Mike murders a native girl after pressing Pat to commit an act of violence. Joe later reveals that he and Mike orchestrated attacks on the cannibals as a cover for exploiting emeralds and cocaine. The confession reframes the external violence as a human-driven scheme for greed.

The tribe launches a brutal assault, driving the group into captivity. Mike and Pat abandon the others, but all are captured and placed into cages. The natives prepare for a grim fate and assert their control over the captives.

In the cages, the natives torment Mike, beating him severely. He suffers a horrific ordeal as his manhood is severed and his tormentors degrade him, an act witnessed by the other captives. The scene underscores the tribe's power and cruelty.

Rudy manages a fragile escape from captivity but is caught in a booby trap and bleeds severely. His plea for help ends when the natives shoot him with a poisoned dart, causing a swift death in front of Gloria and Pat. The escape attempt highlights the high mortality in the jungle.

Pat and Gloria are placed in a pit while Mike remains in a separate cage. A sympathetic native lowers a rope to aid their escape, but Mike bursts out of his cage, chases the helper away, and cuts the rope, thwarting the attempt. The women remain trapped as danger looms.

Mike escapes the cage and vanishes into the jungle, trying to signal a search plane. He is eventually recaptured by the natives, who mutilate him by severing one hand and drag him back to the village. The plan to reach rescuers fades as his fate becomes tied to the tribe.

A search plane lands to aid the missing expedition, but the natives tell the rescuers that the canoes capsized and crocodiles swallowed the survivors. The misdirection preserves the tribe's control and preserves their secrecy about the fate of the outsiders.

Pat is bound, stripped to the waist, and hung by hooks through her breasts, dying a slow, brutal death. In a separate cage, Mike's head is fitted into a crude contraption, and the top of his skull is removed so the natives can eat his exposed brain. Gloria witnesses the carnage as the tragedy unfolds.

A sympathetic native frees Gloria, guiding her through the jungle toward safety. The helper is killed by a booby trap, illustrating the jungle's lethal cost for anyone who aids outsiders. Gloria eventually reaches a pair of trappers who take her to safety.

Returning to civilization, Gloria publishes Cannibalism: End of a Myth, presenting a lie to support her theory and masking the truth of her ordeal. The book preserves the myth she set out to debunk, fueling controversy about the real events.