Cannibal Holocaust

The early 1980's, an exciting time. Home video was a new thing and small video companies could release unknown directors work without a theatrical release. This caused panic when it came to horror movies and the obscene publications act was put into place. This marked the era known as the video nasties.

Now, i wasn't around at the time, but i was able to see most of the films on the list. So not to bore you with a history lesson, one movie that caused the most controversy was Cannibal Holocaust. Italian director Ruggero Deodato unleashed this monster of a movie in 1980 to a unsuspecting public. Okay, gore movies have been around as early as the 1960's with Blood Feast being the first, but no one was ready for this gem.

The story starts in new york, with a news report about cannibal tribes in the amazon, and about four student documentary film makers who went missing there. Harold Monroe (played by Robert Kerman) is a famous anthropologist who embarks on an rescue mission. There he witnesses the most unimaginable horror any human could ever experience as he witnesses first hand the rituals of the very primitive tribes.

He then learns of the deaths of the four film makers but retrieves the footage and brings it back to new york. But the horror is just about to begin, as the footage he and his collages are about to see will go beyond their wildest nightmares. The rest of the film is that footage shot Blare Witch Esq (or more likely, Blare Witch completely ripped it off).

Upon its release, director Ruggero Deodato was brought to court accused of making a snuff film. Which he was cleared of as he payed the actors to disappear for awhile once the film was made. However, the scenes of animal deaths were real and were removed from most versions of the movie ( i watched the full uncut version online, and believe me, those scenes are nasty). The most famous scene in the film is the scene where a women is impaled, it looked so real that people at the time thought it was, and Deodato had to get the actress to testify.

So in conclusion, despite being a fan of gore movies myself, i found this movie to be a very rough watch, but still a very good watch at the same time. It makes you question how civilised we are in the Western world and shows how savage in nature the human race really is. Cannibal Holocaust, highly recommended, but you were warned.

9/10