Antonio Margheriti & The Jungles of Doom: His ’80s Adventure Films (4K Ultra HD Review)
DIRECTED BY: Antonio Margheriti
STARRING: Luciano Pigozzi, David Warbeck, Protacio Dee
RATED: UR/Region: O/1.85:1, 2.35:1, 2.39:1/2160P/NUMBER OF DISCS 7
AVAILABLE FROM Severin Films
There are boutique labels that lovingly preserve cinema history, and then there’s Severin Films, the company that routinely digs through the cinematic equivalent of a gas station bargain bin at 2 AM and somehow emerges holding buried treasure covered in jungle mud, fake snakes, and miniature explosions. Antonio Margheriti & The Jungles of Doom: His 80’s Adventure Films is exactly the kind of deranged box set that reminds you why physical media collectors willingly spend rent money on movies most normal people would mistake for forgotten Cannon knockoffs airing on regional television at 1:30 in the morning.
And that’s meant as the highest compliment possible.
This set collects three gloriously shameless Italian “Indiana Jonesploitation” adventures directed by Antonio Margheriti, a filmmaker who never met a budget limitation he couldn’t aggressively ignore with enough stock footage, smoke bombs, and sheer chaotic confidence. The transfers look shockingly good for movies that previously survived mostly through VHS tapes copied so many times they resembled swamp hallucinations. Severin clearly treated these films with the same reverence the Vatican gives ancient scripture, which is hilarious considering one of these movies contains a booby trap sequence that feels engineered by a child smashing action figures together while chugging espresso.
First up is The Hunters of the Golden Cobra, which basically asks, “What if Indiana Jones was played by exhausted mercenaries wandering through the jungle while everyone sweats directly into the camera lens?” David Warbeck and John Steiner attack this material with the sincerity of men who know the movie is ridiculous but have bills to pay. The result is immensely entertaining. There are mystical relics, machine guns, jungle traps, betrayals, and action scenes held together by pure Italian exploitation duct tape. It rules. Margheriti directs everything at maximum velocity, as if he feared the financing might disappear halfway through lunch. The movie has the energy of a VHS cover come to life, and Severin’s restoration makes every ridiculous frame look far better than it has any right to.
Then comes The Ark of the Sun God, which somehow feels even more like someone legally distinct from Indiana Jones broke into a warehouse full of smoke machines and ancient artifacts. The plot involving the Scepter of Gilgamesh barely matters because the real attraction is watching Margheriti fling his cast through one serial-style set piece after another with complete disregard for subtlety or physics. Warbeck returns looking permanently annoyed in the most entertaining possible way, and the film has that wonderful Eurocult quality where every location looks simultaneously expensive and suspiciously abandoned. The pacing never slows down long enough for logic to become a problem. Severin’s presentation lets you appreciate all the absurd production design and matte-shot insanity in crisp detail, which honestly may qualify as archaeological preservation.
And then there’s Jungle Raiders, the crown jewel of this delirious little collection. This thing is gloriously stupid in the most lovable way imaginable. Lee Van Cleef looks like he wandered in from a completely different movie and decided to stay because the catering was decent, while Christopher Connelly barrels through the film with pure drive-in movie charisma. There are pirates, volcanoes, death cults, exploding miniatures, and enough jungle mayhem to qualify as an OSHA violation. The movie feels like it was assembled entirely from old adventure serials, leftover pyrotechnics, and somebody screaming “MORE COBRAS!” off-camera. Yet somehow it’s unbelievably charming. Severin giving this movie a loving restoration is the kind of niche physical media insanity I fully support.
The extras are exactly what collectors want too: interviews, archival material, trailers, essays, and enough contextual material to make you appreciate how these wonderfully trashy productions came together. Severin understands the assignment better than almost anyone. They know fans of this stuff don’t want these movies cleaned up into respectable museum pieces. They want them preserved as loud, sweaty, explosive artifacts of VHS-era adventure filmmaking. Mission accomplished.
What makes this set special is that it captures a very specific era of exploitation cinema where filmmakers saw Raiders of the Lost Ark and thought, “We absolutely cannot afford this… but we’re making it anyway.” And honestly? That desperation gives these movies personality modern blockbusters would kill for. They’re messy, cheap, overcooked, occasionally nonsensical, and completely alive.
This box set is a monument to cinematic shamelessness, and Severin has packaged it like sacred text for degenerates raised on video store shelves and late-night cable television. It’s one of the most entertaining boutique releases of the year, proving once again that Italian exploitation filmmakers could make adventure movies out of literally anything as long as they had fog machines, a jungle, and at least one guy willing to punch a henchman into a cardboard wall.
Extras
THE HUNTERS OF THE GOLDEN COBRA (1982)
DISC ONE – 4K BLU-RAY
- NEW 4K RESTORATION FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
- HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
- Original English and Italian audio tracks, with optional English SDH and English subtitles
- Trailer
DISC TWO – BLU-RAY
- NEW 4K RESTORATION FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
- Original English and Italian audio tracks, with optional English SDH and English subtitles
- The Path Of The Cobra – Interview With Assistant Director Edoardo Margheriti
- Bloodline Of The Cobra – Interview With Second Camera Assistant Davide Mancori
- 1996 Festival Of Fantastic Films Award Presentation And Q&A With David Warbeck
- Video Essay By Rob Hill, Author Of The Bad Movie Bible
- Trailer
- REGION-A “LOCKED” BLU-RAY
THE ARK OF THE SUN GOD (1984)
DISC ONE – 4K BLU-RAY
- EXCLUSIVE NEW 4K RESTORATION FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
- HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
- Original English and Italian audio tracks, with optional English SDH and English subtitles
- Trailer
DISC TWO – BLU-RAY
- EXCLUSIVE NEW 4K RESTORATION FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
- Original English and Italian audio tracks, with optional English SDH and English subtitles
- Second Unit Chronicles – Interview With Assistant Director Edoardo Margheriti
- Raiders Of The Sun God – Interview With Writer Giovanni Paolucci
- Antonio Margheriti Recalls David Warbeck
- Trailer
- REGION-A “LOCKED” BLU-RAY
DISC THREE – CD
- The complete original soundtracks of The Hunters of the Golden Cobra and The Ark of the Sun God presented on CD.
JUNGLE RAIDERS (1985)
DISC ONE – 4K BLU-RAY
- EXCLUSIVE NEW 4K RESTORATION FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
- HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
- Original English and Italian audio tracks, with optional English SDH and English subtitles
- Trailer
DISC TWO – BLU-RAY
- EXCLUSIVE NEW 4K RESTORATION FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
- Original English and Italian audio tracks, with optional English SDH and English subtitles
- The Ruby Trail – Interview With Assistant Director Edoardo Margheriti
- Italian Credit Sequence
- Trailer
- REGION-A “LOCKED” BLU-RAY
