Release Date: June 19, 1985
Director: Ruggero Deodato
Starring: Robert Kerman, Francesca Ciardi, Luca Barbareschi, Carl Gabriel Yorke, Perry Pirkanen
Favorite quote: “I wonder who the real cannibals are.”– Professor Harold Monroe
In looking for a movie this week to highlight for this ongoing series, I knew I wanted to do something obscure that I remember enjoying in my teenage years. I was also looking for something different. I’ve done quite a few comedies and a few sci-fi staples, but I haven’t really delved into the horror genre outside of An American Werewolf in London.
Of course, I wanted to look beyond cheesy horror. There were many titles that fit that description; my favorite go-to is 1986’s Night of the Creeps, a movie I adore despite the fact that it’s cheesier than a Velveeta potluck. But I wanted to get a little more disturbing than that.
So I figured, why not write about a movie whose violence was so graphic, its director was hauled into an Italian court on fears that he actually had his cast killed onscreen?
Such is the story with Cannibal Holocaust. Originally released in its native Italy in 1980, it would not see a North American release until 1985. In the interim, the film was seized by Italian police ten days after its Milan premiere. The movie’s director, Ruggero Deodato, was arrested and charged first with obscenity, then murder. Facing a life term in the pokey, Deodato summoned the movie’s actors, who had signed contracts demanding they stay out of public sight for a year, to the courtroom proceedings. Only then did the court truly believe he didn’t release a snuff film!
The story is almost inconsequential considering the imagery, but it bears mention. A film crew heads to the Amazon rainforest of Colombia to film a documentary about cannibal tribes there. When they go missing, a second crew, led by New York University professor Harold Monroe (Robert Kerman), is sent to find out what happened. The second crew comes across a tribe that the first crew met and spot a reel of film belonging to them. After convincing the tribe’s leader to give them the reel, they return to New York, where a screening of the reel reveals the fate of the missing crew.
I’m not a fan of gore as a substitute for horror. Movies that throw gore in as a way to horrify look stupid to me. As examples, just watch a Rob Zombie-directed movie. But as a sixteen-year old seeing Cannibal Holocaust for the first time, I was truly horrified. This wasn’t gore just for the sake of grossing out or scaring. I really thought people were being killed onscreen!
The movie was the product of 1980’s effects work, so there isn’t any overly-fancy prop work here. But they filmed some of the later gorier parts in a found footage shaky-cam style that is all too common now, but was novel back then. It’s real effective here. Certain scenes where people are being killed look a little too real at first glance. The final scene on the reel is especially unnerving. I’ll just say that you may rewind the scene a couple of times to verify no one was killed.
One thing that is not faked – and will really horrify you – is the butchering of animals in this movie. I get that this is a primal tribe of cannibals, but seeing them kill and rip apart animals is beyond the pale for me. Many objected to the animal cruelty, even Deodato himself in hindsight.
A total of seven live animals were killed during the filming of Cannibal Holocaust. I can’t stand behind that, cannibal or no. And I say this as a proud meat lover. Hey, I may like to eat a good hamburger, but I don’t wanna see an animal get slaughtered Faces of Death-style so that I can gnosh on the meat.
In the end, the only attraction Cannibal Holocaust has is in its animal and human gore. There is very little substance to the movie in my eyes; it’s pretty much a gorefest. Some of its more macabre scenes have become infamous, such as the scene with the woman at a beach. I will not describe it further; seek it out if you are curious and have the stomach for it.
This movie’s gore was enough to get its director hauled into court on murder charges. It was enough to get the movie banned in several countries, as well as landing on the UK’s infamous “video nasties” list. Curiously, it’s also gained a cult following, with some seeing a powerful critique of social commentary underneath the gore. I picked the quote up top as an example of said commentary. Though it does try to get a little deep in some areas, it’s hard to get past the animal cruelty and near snuff-film levels of violence.
Look up the image of the woman at the beach and see if you can get past it. There ain’t much social commentary there.
