Horror Safari (1982)

Horror Safari (1982) (aka Invaders of the Lost Gold), is an Italian-Filipino production boasting an impressive-looking cast of has beens, exploitation favourites and TV stars.  Stuart Whitman and Edmond Purdom certainly fall into the first category, but while Purdom had long been a resident of Italian exploitation movies after the failure of his brief Hollywood career, it is sad to see a washed up Whitman, a perfectly decent second ranking leading man, reduced to appearing in these films.  They are supported by exploitation regulars Laura Gemser, Woody Strode and Harold Sakata, while Glynis Barber, fresh from a stint in Blake's Seven, but prior to her starring turn in Dempsey and Makepeace, provides the glamour.  Perhaps most surprising is the presence of Alan Birkinshaw in the director's chair - famous (or infamous) for directing the ultra low budget (no to mention utterly bizarre) British slasher Killer's Moon (1978).  It is hard to know whether Horror Safari was a step up or step down for him, it was certainly a departure, bearing in mind that his first two features had been a sex comedy (Confessions of a Sex Maniac (1974)) and a slasher (the aforementioned Killer's Moon).  In contrast to those two, Horror Safari is a jungle treasure hunt adventure, clearly taking some of its inspiration from the then popular Italian cannibal films, but without the flesh-eating natives.  That said, the film's opening, with its hordes of hostile natives chasing a group of Japanese soldiers laden with gold through the Philippines jungle, spearing and decapitating various of them, is clearly intended to mislead the unwary into believing that they might just be getting some cannibal capers.

Despite this spirited 1945-set prologue, once the film flashes forward to the then present of the eighties it quickly gets bogged down in the details of the organisation of an expedition to recover the Japanese gold from the jungle.  Smarmy rogue Edmond Purdom has learned the location of the gold from the only surviving Japanese soldier, (the other two committed suicide rather than speak to him - an understandable reaction to Purdom turning up on your doorstep), played by Harold Sakata, but he doesn't have the money to finance the expedition.  Consequently, he's reluctantly forced to turn to wealthy Douglas Jefferson (David DeMaryn) for help.  He, in turn, wants to have the expedition led by his own man, disgraced explorer Mark Forrest (Whitman), who had once tried to kill Purdom (again, entirely understandable).  Yet more people join the expedition including Forrest's buddy Cal (Strode), Jefferson's daughter (Barber) and a boat captain and his other half (Gemser).  The latter is also a former squeeze of Forrest's.  Plus, there are a whole phalanx of porters.  Unfortunately, it takes what seems like an age to assemble this lot, with the film past the half way point before we get back to that jungle, which is now seemingly bereft of crazed head-hunting natives.  

Despite the lack of head-hunters, the jungle proves a perilous place to be, with various members of the expedition falling prey to hazards like crocodiles - although there's nothing graphic shown is all we get is an alternation between stock footage of a snarling crocodile intercut with a screaming actor, the camera zooming further in on his face each time, to denote the attack.  The most mysterious death, though, is that of Gemser's character, who drops dead for apparent reason while bathing in a pool, (but not before having fulfilled the film's requirement for some female nudity, of course).  Even Purdom vanishes along the way.  Eventually, only Whitman, Barber and Sakata are left to find the cavern where the gold is hidden - except, of course, that dastardly Purdom isn't dead and turns up to try and kill them all and take the treasure for himself. The whole film is every bit as predictable as it sounds and moves at a deathly pace, to boot.  Birkinshaw does his best with a turgid script that allows little room for plot or character development, let alone any action or thrills.  The dialogue is clunky and delivered without conviction by most of the cast, while production values are generally poor.  The jungle sequences generally look good, with Birkinshaw making the most the script will allow him of the Filipino locations.  The only time he is really able to put together the sort of action sequence you'd expect in this sort of jungle adventure is in the World War Two set prologue, with its well staged and filmed chase through the jungle.  Ultimately, Horror Safari is simply not exciting enough to be an action adventure film, nor is it horrific enough, offering only mild thrills, to qualify as any kind of jungle horror flick.  

As a side note, a few years later Birkinshaw would direct another jungle-set film, a version Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None set on an African safari, for Harry Allan Towers. Whether it is any better than Horror Safari, I have no idea, but it dies star Frank Stallone - I'll let you draw your own conclusions from that.