Cannibal Holocaust

This week in the corner we are going to take a look at one of the most controversial films of all time...Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust.  This movie was released in the early 80's and pushes so many buttons it has been banned in over 50 countries at one point or another.  The film has two main acts.  The first act follows a New York anthropology professor who heads into the jungles of South America to search for a missing documentary film crew who were following and studying native tribes called the Yacumo and Yanomamo.  The professor finds both tribes himself and uncovers the remains of the missing the film crew as well as the documentary footage they shot while in the jungle.  Upon returning to New York the professor then begins to watch the found footage which then gives way to the second act.  The latter half of the movie is similar to many of the "found footage" films like The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, or even Quarantine.  So what makes this movie so controversial?  For starters, when the New York professor begins to study the found footage, he begins to realize the documentary film crew was actually staging all of their footage and torturing and mutilating the tribes in the process.   The native tribes eventually get fed up with these documentary film makers and spend the final 20 minutes of the movie, beating, raping, beheading and finally eating the documentary film crew.  There weren't many movies to come out with style of film making at the time and the gritty realism with which much of the footage is shot is frighteningly realistic. Also, there are 5 animals that were killed on camera for the purpose of this movie.  There is a scene in particular when a large river turtle is removed from the water and then beheaded, de-shelled, and cooked and eaten.  It is a tough scene to watch and is really only the beginning of what is to come.  The most infamous scene involves a native girl who is raped and then impaled nude on a large spike on the shores of the Amazon.  Deodato also shows footage from an older documentary within the movie that contains actual firing squad footage from South America and Africa.  In 1980, many people who viewed this movie thought that the "found footage" was actually real, and that Deodato had killed his actors for the movie.  The animal killings were real, the firing squad footage was real, so why not the rest of the movie?  The Italian government actually charged Deodato with making a snuff film and Deodato was forced to subpoena his actors to court to prove that they were still alive.  He also had to demonstrate how he impaled the native girl on the pole with movie FX right in the middle of the court room.  So why would anyone want to watch a movie like this?  For me personally, I have never thought so much about a horror movie as much as I did after viewing Cannibal Holocaust.  Many movies claim to have a message or an underlying social commentary.  Deodato's movie most certainly does.  His critique of media and sensationalism weighs heavily throughout the rough 90 minutes.  His documentary film crew commits horrid acts of violence, rape, and murder, yet they come from the supposed "civilized" society.  The Yanomamo live the deep jungles of South America with no technology, running water, and are cannibals, but are they any more savage?  Many detractors of the movie accuse Deodato of being hypocritical and committing the very same acts of sensationalism with the animal killings and violence that he so harshly critiques.  Cannibal Holocaust is movie for the hard core horror fan.  It pushes boundaries and pushes the envelope in almost every scene.  If you choose to watch it I would love to know whether you think it is a visceral social commentary or an overly violent hypocritical mess.

Next week I will be writing about the creatively shot Silent House.

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