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| Classic poster for Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust |
QUICK REVIEW:
A documentary crew heads into the Amazon jungle to film the gruesome practices of indigenous tribes there. Their material is brought back without them and screened in the station HQ in New York, where the disturbing material prompts ethical questions.
It is completely understandable that Cannibal Holocaust has the much debated place in film history that it has. It is a completely gruesome, extremely real film and undoubtedly the best cannibal exploitation gore movie ever made.
The film is a shocking study in human inhumanity, and a biting critique of modern media standards and modern civilization in general, which is depicted as depraved and uncivilized.
It is an electric, hard-to-watch and strange film, and also the film that invented the found-footage format that has later spun a legitimate (mostly horror) sub-genre.
This controversial masterpiece is directed by great Italian director Ruggero Deodato, who had previously directed the very good cannibal movie Last Cannibal World/Ultimo Mondo Cannibale (1977), and who also in 1980 released the eerie rape-and-revenge horror The House on the Edge of the Park.
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| A still of the infamous impalement scene, which Deodato had to subsequently prove in court had not been accomplished by actually impaling an indigenous woman. The photographing man on the right I believe to be Robert Kerman, the pornstar/actor, who also starred in Umberto Lenzi's inferior cannibal movie Eaten Alive! (1980) |
Cannibal Holocaust was banned in Italy shortly after its release, and Deodato was prosecuted and had to prove that his actors had not actually been eaten in the film, which he did. He, the producers, screenwriter and United Artists representative was, however, convicted of obscenity and violence and given a four month suspended sentence. Deodato struggled for years to have the Italian ban lifted, which it finally was.
Marketing of the film has stated that it has been banned in 50 nations, which is a dubious fact, but it certainly has been in many, and many countries have only recently lifted their bans. Besides visceral rape, murder, torture and cannibalistic scenes, it is especially the scenes of real animal deaths that have outraged people. In total there are 6 animal deaths on screen in the film.
Cannibal Holocaust has two unofficial sequels, and Deodato has been wanting to make his sequel for years, but hasn't found funding.
Instead, young, American horror maestro Eli Roth (Hostel (2005)) has now made The Green Inferno (2014), the first real new cannibal movie in ages, without a doubt with much inspiration from Deodato's classic.
The posters for this crazy, strong film don't trick anyone into seeing it unknowingly, as you see here:
Watch an old trailer for the enraged, (for some audiences enraging as well), film here
Cost: 0.1 mil. $
Box office: Reportedly 2 mil. $ in 10 days before it was seized and banned in Italy alone
= Huge hit
What do you think of Cannibal Holocaust?
Have you seen other Deodato films, and if so, what can you tell about them?
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