Gow The Killer

Primitive, naked, flesh-eating tribes of the South Pacific islands are captured on film for the first time by daring cameraman/adventurer, Edward A. Salisbury, in this ground-breaking documentary from 1928. Among Salisbury's crew on this cinematic journey into the heart of human darkness was a young Merian C. Cooper, who went on to direct his own wild-life adventure reels before creating the archetypal masterpiece of primeval passion and horror, King Kong, in 1933. Cooper was no doubt inspired in that creation by what he witnessed on this voyage.

Salisbury sails from island to island, exposing to the unflinching eye ever more primitive tribes with ever more bizarre and bloodthirsty rituals and customs. These heretofore hidden peoples, some so uncivilized they haven't even mastered fire, are cultures on the brink of extinction. To observe them make war and hunt for human heads is to look back to the dawn of man, a dawn drenched in blood and terror.

• exploitation