Life and Career
Lenzi was born in Massa Marittima, Grosseto, southern Tuscany. He is the writer/director of two highly controversial exploitation films: Eaten Alive! (1980) and Cannibal Ferox (1981) as well as the director of the film adaptation of the Italian comic book Kriminal (1966). He was one of the first Italian directors to get involved in the giallo film craze (along with Mario Bava and Dario Argento), and his jungle adventure Man From Deep River is credited as being the film that started the Italian cannibal film genre later popularized by Ruggero Deodato, Jess Franco and others. Lenzi has claimed in interviews however that he was never too enamored of the cannibal films he made, being much prouder of his war films, his police crime films and his westerns. Lenzi has said in interviews that Man From Deep River was his best cannibal film (he said he only did the other two to make a quick buck), and his favorite gialli were Orgasmo and Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (while he absolutely detested Spasmo). He said his Black Demons was another of his all-time favorites, a "potential masterpiece" marred only by the poor acting of the unattractive female lead he was forced to work with.
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