Review: Cannibal Holocaust

Robert Kerman stars as a professor venturing on the request of studio executives to the Amazon to retrace the steps of a documentary crew (Carl Gabriel Yorke and Francesca Ciardi among them) who have gone missing. He finds their documentary footage, and after getting back to the US, he views it. He becomes shocked at the gross violence and depravity by not just the native tribes, but the doco crew, who seem to have lost their minds out there in the jungle and pissed off the natives in the process. Things deteriorated to the point where the difference between the natives and the crew seems awfully murky at best.

Directed in 1980 by Ruggero Deodato (the not-bad “Cut and Run”) and scripted by Gianfranco Clerici, this is one of those infamously controversial films with such extreme content that a great many people will loathe it or might not even be able to finish watching it (Though with that title, what are you expecting?). In fact, of all those films (which include such infamous titles as “Cannibal Ferox”, “Last House on the Left”, “I Spit on Your Grave”, and several others you’re probably casually familiar with) this one is probably the most ‘uber’ controversial. I’m not going to give this film an awful score and certainly can’t say it’s a badly made film, because it’s really not. The cinematography and scenery are really nice, ugly film or not.

However, there came a point where as far as I’m concerned, Deodato crossed a line not only into bad taste, but to senselessly slaughter a real animal before the camera for the sake of making a schlocky fictional jungle adventure film...it offended me. You can’t just do something like that for something of such little artistic or higher merit. Hell, I’m not even sure there’s any justification at all (Apparently the animals were fed to the locals, but still, that wasn’t the original purpose) and I wholeheartedly support the director being charged with animal cruelty in that regard. And that’s a shame, because if Deodato had been able to refrain from his rather more questionable ‘shock’ tactics (that somewhat negate the point he is trying to make about media violence and bloodlust, I might add), there’s a not-bad film here. But when you factor in the truly disgusting (and real) slaughter of a live turtle (among other animals), and add in the rather foul scenes of simulated sexual violence towards women, it becomes far too tough to take, and just entirely unnecessary. In fact, the simulated stuff probably offended me more (some of the sex, by the way, is apparently non-simulated. Not the rape, though), because although not ‘real’, I guess I’m more sensitive towards the poor treatment of humans than animals (Being a meat eater, I find this to be a bit of a murky area to begin with- I’m pretty sure animals don’t like being eaten for food and yet we do it, don’t we?).

The director is clearly talented but he becomes his own worst enemy in the pursuit of going ‘all out’ to shock us (I hear he since regrets making the film, especially the animal killings. That’s awesome, dude. Glad you found your moral compass). There’s something here, but...Deodato ruins any chance for praise from me because it becomes indefensibly cruel and disgusting. I think that everyone involved with this film, so long as they knew what was going on, should be ashamed of themselves. Like “Cut and Run”, this isn’t horror, just a seriously violent jungle adventure movie that will only appeal to gore or exploitation aficionados, and even then, only a select group of them who can see past the grossness.

This is the movie that was “Blair Witch Project” before there even was a “Blair Witch Project”. Except that this film doesn’t do the pseudo-doco thing nearly as well. That isn’t to say it’s badly made (given its reputation you’d be excused for assuming it would be, though), just that it doesn’t manage to keep up the illusion. It’s never boring, and whatever its flaws or merits, it will get you thinking and talking. I’d say that “Cut and Run” is the better and far more accessible film, however, and the acting and dubbing in this film are rather poor. This isn’t a boring film (and don’t even get me started on the director being charged with murder...later acquitted of course), but it’s an ultimately indefensibly disgusting one that I can’t see any replay value in whatsoever. If there were someone on-set with something of a moral compass, this might’ve been something worthwhile. Oh well.

See it if you must and make up your own mind, but I’m not going to recommend it despite its reputation and crazy on-screen and off-screen goings on. It’s certainly not for someone with a weak stomach or sensitivity towards the ethical treatment of animals. You’ve been warned. No, I’m seriously not fucking kidding.

Rating: C