Cannibal Holocaust (Ruggero Deodato, 1980)
"I already told your friends. In there, the more you carry, the quicker you get tired, the sooner you die"
This notorious classic, still banned, censored & vilified in certain areas of this planet Earth, is very much the definition of a 'Video Nasty'.
Filmed in 1979, and very heavily influenced by the equally notorious Mondo Cane, Deodato's challenging film will always provoke reaction... Especially from vegetarians!
The story centres around a group of four American documentary makers, who go to the wilds of the Amazon in search of 'savage' subjects. Not surprisingly, they go missing, and an American professor, Harold Monroe, goes off in search of the crew. What could have happened? Are they still alive? Will Prof. Monroe survive? And what are THE TREE PEOPLE?*
*people who live in trees.
The first half of the film concentrates on Monroe's search for the missing crew, his dealings with the Yacumo tribe, his partial-discovery of what happened to the film crew, and, thankfully, his recovery of their lost reels of film. The second part of the film shifts focus back to New York, wherein the movie becomes a found footage horror story. An idea that's been copied many, many times since.
Cannibal Holocaust is at times, very very gruesome indeed, and not for the faint-hearted. Or animal lovers. Especially animal lovers. On their journey, the travellers encounter leeches, cheeky monkeys, crazy dubbing, rotting corpses, barbaric savages, sexualized torture, rape and real animal killings. It's the latter that provoked controversy back in 1980, and remains controversial to this very day. The turtle slaughter sequence is notorious, and frankly, completely unnecessary. That said, the Italians in the 1970s & 1980s really were into deep-rooted nasty exploitation films, and Cannibal Holocaust personifies that mentality perfectly.
But is it any good? Well... It's certainly well made. The cast do their best with the (shocking) material, and of course it's authentic exploitation of the highest calibre. Only in Italy, eh? On top of that, Riz Ortolani's soundtrack adds welcome beauty and sufficient menace. I had an old Australian uncut version on DVD (top right), which is pretty much a repackage of the USA Grindhouse release. The 2014 uncut Grindhouse Blu-ray is a substantial upgrade, and includes Ortolani's soundtrack on CD & a large collection of very interesting extras. Well worth a purchase. As with the old DVD, an 'animal cruelty-free version' is included (suitable for vegetarians). But if you're going to dip in to the jungle madness, you may as well go all the way.
Make no mistake Cannibal Holocaust is a nasty, nasty slab of Italian exploitation cinema. It certainly won't be family viewing on Christmas day, but it's still a fascinating piece of work to behold. It also has a distinctly anti-American sentiment... The comparisons with the Yankees' treatment of the tribe people and the similar treatment of Vietnamese prisoners and, more recently, Afghan prisoners is palpable. Cannibal Holocaust throws-up one final attempt at justification: Who are the real savages in this tale?
