Highly Overrated But Still Good

Absolutely the worst movie.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

An insane woman serially kills her multiple pet apes, has sex with her sister, murders the sister's boyfriend, then the sister dies and everyone but the nut-job ends up buried in the back yard....the end. It is a criminal pity that such a cast - Grant, Olson, Geer, and especially the brilliant Kane should have been wasted in this dire, depressing, profoundly ugly little movie - who's "high point" is the unspeakably vicious, brutal beating death of a captive orangutan - which I deeply wish that I could scrape from my memory as one scrapes dog excrement from the sole of one's shoe. Anyone who could derive any entertainment or enjoyment from this could sit smiling through a snuff film. Utterly irredeemable trash to be avoided at all costs.

It seems to me all reviewers refer to the DVD when reviewing the film. That's a pity. In the theatre release, which I was fortunate enough to see, the colours are warm and rich, the lighting is subdued but atmospheric, and the acting, of course, is excellent. Especially Mz Kane, who could be whining and annoying in other films but does a great job here. It would be an error to simply see this movie as a horror flick. If you do so, you will be disappointed. This is a psychological thriller that draws on our archetypical fears. It thus presents us with a highly interesting content, but also the form is interesting. The unity of space, the closedness of the oppressive interior, contribute to the feeling of unease.

This movie was flat out weird. Carol Kane plays Cissy, a woman who dresses in African-type clothing and has literally turned the house into a jungle. Cissy lives alone with her older sister, Ellen. They only have each other and you can tell right from the back that Cissy has issues!!! She loves her sister dearly and longs to spend time with her. She sleeps with her sister at night as if she's a child and does things that maybe not many women do to their sisters. For instance, there's this one scene where Cissy is sleeping with her sister in a hammock and then Cissy begins to kiss and touch her sister while she's asleep and then you see the hammock turn over. Don't know what the heck that was supposed to mean. Then this other night, Cissy is telling her sister how she loves to be naked next to her and how she's the only person that's touched her breasts and all that stuff. Then Cissy is pouring hot oil over her sisters back and giving her a sexual back massage. WEIRD!!!Anyway, Cissy kills her pet monkey and threatens to commit suicide when she can't get another one. After cutting her wrist, her sister gives in and gets her another one. One day Ellen hears Cissy screaming and sees her beating the monkey to death with a chain. ISSUES!!!!!!!!!!!! Cissy then kills her sister's boyfriend, whom she hated. She then causes her sister to go crazy and eventually the sister dies. The quality of the DVD was very weak and dark. You can hardly see much of the movie but other than that....it was good!!! Once again, KUDOS to Kane!! She's excellent!!!! Every movie I've seen her in so far she blows me away. She's really good!!! I especially love it when she plays psycho characters like this one and the one from 'Office Killer'.

While perusing the 50cent rental section at the local video store, I came across "The Mafu Cage." Reading the flipside of the box led me to believe that this would simply be a run-of-the-mill 70s horror flick. However, it was hardly that; And very perversely bizarre. Cissy falls into the depths of insanity and general crackness while living with her older sister after her ape/monkey researching father dies...Riddled with tribal music, inferred incest and a living room converted to a jungle, I'd recommend "The Mafu Cage" to any who desire a high weirdness factor in their movies.