| If you’re in the mood for nonsensical sordidness, long drawn-out softcore sex scenes, and the occasional bit of wholesome cannibal goodness, you could do a lot worse than Papaya: Love Goddess Of The Cannibals, another enjoyable atrocity from Italy’s late master of sleaze, Joe D’Amato - the man who can be held responsible for numerous tasteless horror/sex films and piss-poor shot-on-video adult quickies throughout his impressive 30-year/200-film career (he once directed as many as 26 movies in a single twelve month period!) and who delivered such classicks as Anthropophagus (aka The Grim Reaper), Beyond The Darkness (aka Buio Omega, aka Buried Alive), the Ator movies, Endgame (a personal favorite), and many of the Black Emanuelle entries upon an allegedly “civilized” world.
 The world still hasn’t recovered.
Filmed on location in the Dominican Republic, Papaya: Love Goddess Of The Cannibals (or Caribbean Papaya, as the actual title card and trailer reads - which is a translation of the original Italian title, Papaya Dei Caraibi) tells the all-but-coherent story of a Papaya (Melissa Chimenti - billed solely “Melissa” - giving the opening credits a downright porn feeling), a brown-skinned island beauty who is a part of a secret island cannibal sect. Within the first six minutes of the movie, we are treated to Papaya lying on the beach nude and walking on the beach nude. These segments are followed by more gratuitous shots of her lying on the beach nude, walking, lying, walking, and then walking into a hut! where one of the evil white developers of a proposed nuclear power plant awaits - love-stricken by the amorous powers the native girl possesses. After a brief bit of teasing and caressing, she promptly bites off his penis. Yes, Papaya is dead-set on wiping out the evil male members by wiping out their evil male members!
 Ha ha, I made a funny.
So anyway, the movie co-stars the great Sirpa Lane (star of Walerian Borowczyk’s The Beast) as Sara, a reporter who befriends Vincent, one of the other evil nuclear power plant developers (Maurice Poli, a familiar face from various Italian peplum, horror and giallo films - who unfortunately for all, appears stark naked here). Soon, after several attempts at establishing a bona fide storyline, the two Anglo-Saxon individuals meet up with Papaya and are lured to a secret ceremony in which real (dead) pigs are sliced open, followed by a white man (poor sap), and then it’s time for the “Disco Cannibal Blood Orgy” which features a lot of beautiful black and brown booty (as the DVD label refers to it as…which is a pretty accurate description) and is led by none other than an unbilled Dakar, everybody’s favorite island native from Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2 (aka Zombie) and Marino Girolami’s Zombi Holocaust (aka Doctor Butcher M.D.)!
Look, who really gives a shit what it’s about? Sit back, put a six-pack of Grolsch on ice, pop up a batch of corn and thrill to the frantic antics of one of Italy’s greatest exploitation filmmakers.
 Presentation
Severin Films claims that this uncut, uncensored print of the long overdue Papaya: Love Goddess Of The Cannibals was “seized from the private collection of a jailed magistrate” - if this is so, I should probably look into a career in European Law as these guys obviously have access to the good stuff. The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen print itself is exceptionally nice-looking, showing only moderate traces of debris. The English dubbed Mono Stereo soundtrack comes through just fine and delivers Sergio Cipriani’s funkadelic score without any problems.
Extras
The Special Features section isn’t anything exceptional (I don’t suspect there were/are a lot of options Severin could have adorned this disc with) and this barebones release contains a Theatrical Trailer (2:38) highlighting the film’s many nude scenes.
The Bottom Line
Don’t worry, the feeling of uncleanliness you’ve received from watching Papaya: Love Goddess Of The Cannibals eventually goes away. As for the mark on your soul though…well, that’s an entirely different subject altogether.
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