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.

Actually, I rather liked this film. I was lucky enough to find the DVD edition on a shelf in my local Pound Shop. The lighting/filming techniques were behind those of the day and I think that was intentional - as it adds to the mystery of the whole story. You don't really understand the whole story until you've seen the whole film, sat for a while, thought about what it was about, watched it again and then finally formed a thesis around what and why the story went the way it did.To answer a previous post; they don't appear to have any neighbours as such as they live in an old dilapidated manor house and its quite clear that any friends they do have are of the open-minded, scientific type who are'nt that interested in why someone may need something unusual.It's a sort of 'what if' scenario where the extremes of entrapment are explored and it is quite clear why the two sisters are so psychologically deranged - if you have a little bit of insight in to the human psyche.There are also two levels of captor/captee that maybe many miss.The younger sister is actually captee of the older sister who is her provider of food/water/bedding/...and pets.And the younger sister becomes captor through learnt behaviour from watching her father at his 'study', which is why she copies him and sketches her captives in the same way.There is also a suggestion that hypnotic musical rhythms help to strengthen these psychotic pathways of the brain(hence the African rituals).Her general behaviour is childlike, not grown up and illustrates that even though she has taken on the responsibility of captor she is not prepared mentally to accept this and care for her captees - which is why her psyche revolts. But at the same time she is trying to understand how the captee feels because she gets locked in the cage herself.If you understand what I've said here, then you'll also see the similarities with 'The Cell'.Quite an intelligent story I thought, though admittedly I originally bought it for a horror flick night in. I'd have given it a 10 if there was more explanation in the film of how it all started.

If you're going to make horror picture, you should make sure of the following: 1. It has an understandable plot.2. It is scary.3. It should filmed in enough light for you to know what's going on.This film follows none of the above criteria. In fact, the words "PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER" on the front of the DVD box must be the biggest lie in the English language. So what as it got to offer? Well, no attractive women, Carol Kane and whoever plays her weird sister in this are as ugly as sin. What they wear is quite nice, perhaps because they moved from Africa at the start of the film. Why do I mention this? Because the plot seems to revolve around the younger sister missing her old home to such an extent, she plays tribal music full blast all day long, and walks about in outfits that wouldn't look out of place on a shaman's wife. Eventually she hears voices in her head(?) and decides to kill and torture a few people in a cage they have built into their house. There is a rather grim ending. And that's it. I was seriously freaked out by this surreal movie, which I doubt even made sense to its director. What was she hoping to accomplice? If it was giving me a hernia, her efforts were an unqualified success. 0/10

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.