Anaconda (1997) - Limited fun in slick jungle escapade

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A giant anaconda lurks in the dark on this effective poster for Luis Llosa's Anaconda

A documentary film crew on the Amazon river quickly meet resistance, which gets them to turn around. - With a monster anaconda on their trail!

 

Anaconda is written by Hans Bauer (Komodo (1999)), Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. (Top Gun (1986), both) and directed by Luis Llosa (Crime Zone (1988)).

It is a very silly and flat studio invention, - almost more package than film. The different actors are more so in the picture to activate certain demographics than for any other reasons, pick up a paycheck and maybe have a laugh or two. None of them get to show what they can in this stupid story: Ice Cube's (Three Kings (1999)) character is laughable; Jonathan Hyde (The Tailor of Panama (2001)) as the sneering Brit, who doesn't seem to serve any function on the trip, is also ungainly.

The giant snake is very well-made, and that is what gives Anaconda its bite of entertainment value. SPOILER Also this is the place to go, if you were wondering where to see Jon Voight (Rosewood (1997)) gobbled up and then thrown up by a giant snake!

 

Watch a very short trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 45 mil. $

Box office: 136.8 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.04 times its cost)

[Anaconda was released 11 April (USA) and runs 89 minutes. Jennifer Lopez (My Family (1995)) was paid 1 mil. $ for her performance. Shooting took place from May - August 1996 in Brazil, Las Vegas, Nevada and in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #1 to a 16.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and then another weekend in the top 5 (#3), grossing 65.8 mil. $ (48.1 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 3 notches over this one. 3 sequels and a 2015 crossover movie (with Lake Placid (1999)), all without the involvement of any of the filmmakers and stars of the first film, have been made. Llosa returned with La Fiesta del Chivo (2005). Lopez returned in U Turn (1997); Cube in two music videos prior to his theatrical return in The Players Club (1998); and Voight also in U Turn (1997). Anaconda is rotten at 38 % with a 4.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Anaconda?

The Green Inferno (2015) - Roth - of course - exhumes cannibal horror

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A snarling native Amazonian indigenous man with questionable teeth look positively fearsome on this poster for Eli Roth's The Green Inferno

A searching female graduate student from New York joins an idealistic group of activists, who venture to the Amazon jungle to save an indigenous tribe and some trees from the pending destruction of modern civilization. But the world isn't as they think.

 

The Green Inferno is written by Guillermo Amoedo (Que Pena Tu Vida (2010)) and great Massachusett co-writer/cp-producer/director Eli Roth (Cabin Fever (2002)).

Instead of the direct homage to the cannibal horror subgenre of the 1980s that one may have expected, Roth creates his own entry in the long-dead discipline, effectively unearthing it for a show: He builds a good, very entertaining story around a group of more or less insufferable idealists, (several of whom Roth humorously give Spanish accents.) A lot of typically Rothian, cynicial fun springs from the underlying misanthropy. And the film never pauses or gets dull, which is a feat.

No doubt there is something amoral about the very creation of films like The Green Inferno, (although it may have been more pronounced in the 80s, when real animal slayings were also integral to the cannibal movies,) but it seems fitting for an exploitation movie, which is supposed to be on the border region of what is moral (and not too concerned about stepping over that border.)

The protagonist Justine is played well by Lorenza Izzo (Feed the Beast (2016, TV-series)), SPOILER who in the end prefers to fall back on the tit of political correctness rather than inform the worldviews of the ever-'correct' New-York class with the actual, revolutionizing facts of her trip (about the savage tribesmen.) Richard Burgi (Hostel: Part II (2007)) garnishes in a small part.

Unfortunately the film's photography (by Antonio Quercia (No Filter/Sin Filtro (2016))) and aesthetics are not too exciting, just very contemporary, and another criticism: Ugly CGI-mega-ants instead of a male castration scene or another classic bestiality just isn't okay, Roth!

 

Related posts:

Eli Roth: The Last Exorcism Part 2 (2013) or, The Not So Last Chicken Exorcism (co-producer)
Aftershock (2012) - Extreme tastelessness in one of 2012's worst films (co-writer/co-producer/co-star) 
Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011) - Stapleton's Corman doc. is among the year's best films (interview subject)
Inglourious Basterds (2009) - The Movies take revenge on Nazi scum (co-star)
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]  

2007 in films - according to Film Excess 

Hostel: Part II (2007) - Roth's return to Eastern Europe is a wicked horror blast 
Cabin Fever (2002) - Eli Roth's awesome skin-rash-inspired breakthrough (co-writer/co-producer/director)

Roth gives a five-minute interview about the movie here

Cost: 5 mil. $

Box office: 12.6 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 2.52 times the cost)

[The Green Inferno premiered 8 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 100 minutes. The film is especially inspired by Ruggero Deodato's masterpiece Cannibal Holocaust (1980), which has a film within the film titled The Green Inferno. Shooting took place from November - December 2012 in Peru, Santiago, Chile and in New York. The film opened #9 to a 3.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 7.1 mil. $ (56.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia with 3.8 mil. $ (30.2 %) and Italy with 686k $ (5.4 %). The film was met with praise from horror writer maestro Stephen King and condemnation from indigenous peoples activist group Survival International. A sequel was announced but has not materialized. Roth returned with Knock Knock (2015). Izzo returned in I Am Victor (2013, TV movie) and theatrically in The Stranger (2014). The Green Inferno is rotten at 38 % with a 4.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Green Inferno?

Fitzcarraldo (1982) - Herzog's mad Amazonian opera monument

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A colorful, chaotic poster for Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, which captures the heightened fever dream sensation that the film portrays

Don Fitzcarraldo is an Irishman in Peru early in the 20th century, a man with a plan: The jungle around the continent's Amazon river desperately needs an opera! In this imaginary cultural hot-spot his great hero, Enrico Caruso is meant to give a concert.

Fitzcarraldo is the 9th feature from great German writer-director Werner Herzog (Rescue Dawn (2006)), based on real-life Peruvian rubber baron Carlos Fitzcarrald.
Klaus Kinski (Heroes in Hell/Eroi all'Inferno (1974)) shines with madness in the title role and stands out as a prototype of the crazy but visionary, morally unscrupulous imperialist. As fascinating, intriguing and charismatic as Fitzarraldo is, as ruthless, deeply repelling and obviously amoral (rainforest was chopped down and indigenous peoples exploited for his megalomanic project) is he at the same time.
Claudia Cardinale (La Révolution Française (1989)) is surprisingly good as Fitzcarraldo's German brothel owner lover and madwoman. - Kinski's Fitzcarraldo also seems very German, but his announced Irish heritage really doesn't seem too important at all. The last half hour of the film drags in my opinion, which is my only real complaint against it.
Thematically, the drive of intense spite and the baffling extremes of human endeavor radiate from the fantastic images (cinematography by Thomas Mauch (Die Hitlerkantate (2005))) down the mighty river and up the jungle mountain, where Fitzcarraldo orders his colossal steamship to be pulled with ropes. - Just about everyone in this deeply perplexing film seem mad.
Fitzcarraldo also metaphorically stands as a cinematic monument over the destruction that lies behind the development of Western civilization.

Related posts:

Werner Herzog: Jack Reacher (2012) - Highly entertaining, dark hero-vehicle for Tom Cruise (supporting actor) 
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010) - Herzog and Vasyukov invite us to meet a remote, tough Siberian people 
The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans/Bad Lieutenant (2009) or, Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant
Cobra Verde/Slave Coast (1987) - Herzog and Kinski's final work delves into the madness of slavery   
Even Dwarfs Started Small/Auch Zwerge Haben Klein Angefangen (1970) - Herzog teases us to react with uniquely odd experimental drama

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 14 mil. DM
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown
[Fitzcarraldo was released 4 March (West Germany) and runs 157 minutes. The production of the film has become cinema folklore; it is chronicled a bit in Herzog's autobiographical Portrait Werner Herzog (1986), in his Klaus Kinski documentary My Best Fiend (1999) and in most depth in Les Blank's terrific behind-the-scenes documentary Burden of Dreams (1982). Initially proposed star Jack Nicholson was thrilled with the script but wanted too much money to play the lead. Herzog then shot roughly 40 % of the film with Jason Robards in the title role and Mick Jagger as a later deleted character. Robards contracted dysentery and was told by his doctor to not return to film in the Amazon. Herzog also inspired anger from the many jungle Indians hired to the production, who burnt down the set in December 1979. Recasting the lead with Kinski, whom Herzog feared would go bananas in the jungle, the film was reshot from scratch. Shooting took place from January - November 1981 in Brazil and Peru. A Catholic priest urged Herzog to hire prostitutes for the production's hired local men to keep them calm during the ordeal, which was subsequently done. Herzog insisted that the 320 ton steamship be actually pulled over the mountain manually and named himself the 'Conquistador of the Useless'. Cinematographer Mauch's hand was split open during filming of this, and he suffered through a 2½ hour operation without anesthetics. During a scavenger attack on the film camp by the tribespeople, a woman was shot in her abdomen with an arrow. Herzog assisted in the 8-hour emergency surgery and subsequently decided against a revenge attack. Filming of the ship's going through the river rapids was also dangerous, and 6 besides Herzog volunteered for the shoot, of which three were harmed in the mission. The film mixes footage from this endeavor with a miniature ship model shot in a studio. Kinski threw tantrums regularly on the set, screamed and even attacked people, it is said. One famous anecdote is that Herzog was offered by one of the Indians that they would kill Kinski for him, as they hated the actor vehemently. - Herzog declined the offer, as he needed his film in the can. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, equal to a notch better than this review. The film was West Germany's Oscar entry but was not nominated. It was nominated for a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and won Herzog the Best Director prize in Cannes as well as 1/2 German Film Award nominations. Herzog was also accused of exploiting the indigenous tribespeople for his film; upwards of 1,000 of them worked on the film for about 2 $ a day under poor conditions, (which Herzog claimed were worse for them, when they were not working on his film.) Herzog returned with Where the Green Ants Dream/Wo die Grünen Ameisen Träumen (1984). Kinski returned in The Soldier (1982); Cardinale in Bankers Also Have Souls/Le Cadeau (1982). Fitzcarraldo is fresh at 77 % with a 7.4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Fitzcarraldo?

The Lost City of Z (2016) - Gray's grand, adventurous Amazonia epic

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+ Most Undeserved Flop of the Year + Best Adventure of the Year + Best Jungle Movie of the Year + Best Ensemble of the Year

One of the tantalizing, beautifully realized posters for James Gray's The Lost City of Z

The Lost City of Z is written and directed by James Gray (The Immigrant (2013)) and based on the non-fiction book by David Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Mayhem and Obsession (2010)).

Ambitious, adventure-seeking British officer Percy Fawcett is contracted by London's Royal Geographical Society early in the 20th century for a mission to the Amazon jungle of Bolivia to make surveys for mapping the area. This leads him on a quest for the mythical, ancient city of Z, which swallows up his life.

For every exploration and jungle-fascinated person out there, The Lost City of Z is an offering that should not be passed up. It is a grand work, an epic and a mighty good film.
Centrally stands Charlie Hunnam (Queer as Folk (1999-00)) as Fawcett. An inspiration both for Gray's visual direction and for Hunnam's performance may have been Luchino Visconti's masterpiece Death in Venice/Morte a Venezia (1971)) and Dirk Bogarde's supreme performance in it. Hunnam's incredibly well-shaped body moves with a calm grace, and his character is withheld in a remarkably composed state for most of the film. The story veers off to Fawcett's duty during WWI for a time, and in these scenes, I found myself struggling to believe in the cool composure of the man, coupled with the relatively well-looking company of soldiers he serves with in the trenches, which simply doesn't align with my understanding of the war.
Sienna Miller (High-Rise (2015)) is good as Fawcett's strong wife; Tom Holland (In the Heart of the Sea (2015)) is good and appropriately well-cut himself to be believable as their oldest son; Robert Pattinson (How to Be (2008)) is well cast as Fawcett's exploratory companion, and Angus MacFadyen (Assassins Run (2013)) brings a chill down one's spine as a wolf in sheep's clothing. The impressive cast also has Murray Melvin (Barry Lyndon (1975)) and Franco Nero (Bad Inclination/Cattive Inclinazioni (2003)) in tiny parts, and Ian McDiarmid (Sleepy Hollow (1999)) as a leader in the RGS.
Darius Khondji (Funny Games (2007)) is behind the absorbing photography. There are thrilling jungle scenes that quench the hunger for exoticism and Indians, but I found that the best scenes of the film are those taking place in the RGS in London, where Fawcett's ideas of a civilization among the South-American 'savages', which may well predate Western civilization, raises ridicule, outrage but eventually also makes for a reevaluation of the world and human beings. The epic, incredible story doesn't follow the usual three act structure, as Fawcett travels out and comes home more than once, but especially for fans of epics, this will simply be part of the treat that is The Lost City of Z. 
Gray's film stands in the territory of films such as Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece Apocalypse Now (1980) and Werner Herzog's Cobra Verde (1987), which was also the scene for Ciro Guerra's recent masterpiece Embrace of the Serpent/El Abrazo de la Serpiente (2015). It does not achieve the great or masterful, but it is still very worth seeing and a huge undertaking impressively well done.

Related posts:

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 30 mil. $
Box office: 17 mil. $ and counting
= Not certain yet, but looks like a huge flop
[The Lost City of Z premiered 15 October (New York Film Festival) and runs 141 minutes. Plan B Entertainment sent Gray a copy of Grann's book before it was published. Brad Pitt and Benedict Cumberbatch were considered for the lead but both dropped out for other commitments, though Pitt remained onboard with his Plan B Entertainment company, acting as an executive producer. Filming took place in Colombia and in Northern Ireland, UK, including in Belfast, starting in August 2015. The film opened #28 in 4 theaters to a 110k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #10 and in 866 theaters (different weeks), grossing a disappointing 8.5 mil. $ (50 % of the total gross). The international performance was similarly underwhelming; the 2nd and 3rd biggest markets where France with 2.5 mil. $ (14.7 %) and Spain with 1.8 mil. $ (10.6 %). The film enjoyed the luxury of a release in China, its 4th biggest market at 1 mil. $ (5.9 %), a highly unimpressive turnout. The film has yet to open in Australia (24 August), South Korea (21 September) and Argentina (28 September). It looks like it is continuing Gray's long history of flops (none of his 7 films have been theatrical hits), which makes it quite a gamble that Pitt has chosen Gray to direct his coming starring sci-fi movie Ad Astra. The Lost City of Z is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.4/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Lost City of Z?

Embrace of the Serpent/El Abrazo de la Serpiente (2015) - Guerra's Amazon meditation is a towering gift to us all

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+ Best Psychedelic Movie of the Year
+ Best Colombian Movie of the Year
+ Best B/W Movie of the Year
+ Best Poster of the Year

An ethereal poster for Ciro Guerra's Embrace of the Serpent

Embrace of the Serpent is the third film from Columbian master co-writer-director Ciro Guerra (The Wind Journeys/Los Viajes del Viento (2009)), written with Jacques Toulemonde Vidal (Anna (2015)) and based on the travel journals of ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grunberg and biologist Richard Evans Schultes.

A sick German ethnologist arrives with his native guide to an Indian hermit in the Amazon in 1909 in search of a storied plant. 31 years later, an American biologist returns in search of the answers that were not supplied by the earlier expedition.

Embrace of the Serpent is a film that defies words. And yet here I go, trying to write some words to explain a bit about it. From the first to last frame, it is a film that commands your attention and sucks you in as an audience member. It takes us on a powerful, immersive, meditative journey to one of the harshest and most fascinating regions on the planet: the Amazon jungle.
The film transcends the despairing stories of peoples, plants and animals going extinct due to human stupidity and evil, - which, however, also get related forcefully, - and interacts with keen intelligence and depth with themes such as knowledge, the cosmos, humans, nature and religion on a more universal level.

There are few films that compare to Embrace of the Serpent. It immediately joins an exclusive club of jungle adventure/human meditations such as Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo (1982) and Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece Apocalypse Now (1979). Serpent is more in line with the indigenous peoples' culture, losses and point of view than those films, however, and also bring to mind Jim Jarmusch's masterpiece Dead Man (1995). Guerro amazes again and again with evocative scenes, sparse scoring and elegant B/W photography (by David Gallego (Violencia (2015))) that give the story an eternal, timeless feel, and the film is on no accounts lagging behind any of the previously mentioned, grand films.
Awesome is also the acting in Serpent: Belgian Jan Bijvoet (Borgman (2013)) as Theo and Brionne Davis (Avenged (2013)) as Evans, a rational scientist fraught with a deep, recognizable wish to outcast his knowledge and Western luggage in lieu of newfound wisdom, are phenomenal. As are debuting Nilbio Torres and Antonio Bolivar, who play Karamate at the two points in his life with extraordinary integrity and feeling, and Yauenkü Migue as the loyal, smart and good-hearted guide Manduca.
There's a true must-see film out there right now, and if you have any kind of a chance to see it in a cinema, you'd better grab it and fast. That film is Embrace of the Serpent.

Related posts:

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Estimated 1.4 mil. $
Box office: 2.9 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say (but as of yet a flop)
[Embrace of the Serpent premiered May 15 (Cannes) and runs 125 minutes. Filming took place in the Columbian part of the Amazon for around 8 weeks. The film won the Art Cinema Award in the Directors' Fortnight section in Cannes. The film opened #49 with a 50k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked in 93 theaters and has grossed 1.3 mil. $ (44.8 % of the total gross to date). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets are Columbia with 1.2 mil. $ (41.4 %) and Argentina with 121k $ (4.2 %). It was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, the first Columbian film ever to achieve that honor, but lost to Son of Saul. It was also nominated for the Best International Film Independent Spirit award and a host of other awards, many of which it has won. Embrace of the Serpent is certified fresh at 99 % with a 8.4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Embrace of the Serpent?

Cannibal Holocaust II/Natura Contro/The Green Inferno (1988) - Climati's outrageous jungle adventure

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Barbarism and adventure exudes from this original Italian poster for Antonio Climati's Cannibal Holocaust II, [the Italian title means 'against nature']

QUICK REVIEW:

A professor gone missing in the Amazon must still be alive! - A sensationalist reporter and a group of adventure-seeking fellows set off on a danger-filled rescue mission.

Cannibal Holocaust II is a totally unrelated follow-up to Ruggero Deodato's original masterpiece Cannibal Holocaust (1980). This film is even missing cannibals!
Unsurprisingly, co-writer/cinematographer/director Antonio Climati's (This Violent World (1976)) original Italian title doesn't include any mention of the non-existing cannibals, and indeed the Cannibal Holocaust II-title was devised solely for the (somewhat appropriately exploitative) distribution-purpose of cashing in on the notorious earlier film.
Still, the English nonsense-title is actually somehow well in line with the entire film at hand, which is impressively produced with vicious animals of all kinds (a panther, crocodiles, piranhas, snakes galore etc.) and plenty of exotically presented adventure.
The film also has a bizarre 80s-style score (by Maurizio Dami (Top Line (1988)) in the jungle-context and extremely irregular editing.
Cannibal Holocaust II is silly, funny and not-so-disgusting. It is sometimes referred to as the film that ended the Italian cannibal exploitation sub-genre.

Watch a funky, short original trailer for the film here that showcases some of its many qualities

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertainty

What do you think of Cannibal Holocaust II?
Other such nonsense-titled films that you can think of?

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) or, Gill-Man Begins!

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One of the colorful, sexually charged posters for Jack Arnold's Creature from the Black Lagoon

QUICK REVIEW:

A rock mission on the Amazon river gets altered dramatically, when they discover that a local legend, 'the gill man', is not merely a legend but a real, strange, strong, homicidal creature!

Creature features neat photography (by William E. Snyder (The Conqueror (1956))), including underwater footage, but it is a severely dated movie.
Its heavy motif score gets repeated almost in eternity to the monster's hand, rising up... Score by uncredited Henry Mancini (The Square Jungle (1955)), Hans J. Salter (Red Sundown (1955)) and Herman Stein (The Mole People (1956)).
The film is not really scary, but often involuntarily humorous and also not exactly wild in, for instance, its character inventions, (script by Harry Essex (Dragnet (1947)) and Arthur A. Ross (The Great Race (1965))).
Creature from the Black Lagoon is directed by 50's sci-fi champ Jack Arnold (Tarantula (1955)); it is an entertaining but essentially overrated monster horror sci-fi.

A wonderful PR still for Jack Arnold's Creature from the Black Lagoon

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 1.3 mil. $
= Uncertainty
[The film premiered in Detroit in February and then opened on a regional basis on different dates, in 'flat' form as well as in 3D in larger downtown theaters, although the 50's 3D phenomenon was already dying out at the time. Fans of the film have been dreaming of seeing it in decent 3D for decades, which seems to have been realized in 2012. The film has two initial sequels, and a reboot has been ricocheting around Hollywood for decades now without happening.]

What do you think of Creature from the Black Lagoon?

Cannibal Holocaust (1980) - The uncompromising, violent, sensationalistic cannibal debate masterpiece

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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.

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?