For my first non-mainstream film review, I have found a movie that I really wish WAS a major release, or at least one that had the sort of cult following of other brutally disgusting films such as Dead Alive and Evil Dead 2. I’m talking about a little film called Cannibal Holocaust.
Ostensibly a movie-within-a-movie, this 1980 film follows Professor Harold Monroe (Robert Kerman) into the jungle as he attempts to discover what the hell happened to a group of documentary filmmakers. In case his journey isn’t disturbing and disgusting enough, he eventually finds the footage and returns home with it, where a few greedy Hollywood types try to convince him to release the footage. The last half of the movie replays the deceased documentarians’ footage with intermingled reaction and discussion shots from the ‘present day’ cast.
There are two things that make this film stand out to me. First is the incredible amount of violence. “Come on,” you say. “It’s called Cannibal Holocaust, for crying out loud. Of course it’s going to be violent!”
Well, yeah. It’s violent. However, it’s not 1980 violent. In fact, I would argue that such modern day ‘torture porn’ films like Hostel, Wolf Creek and the absolutely shitty Human Centipede cannot even approach Cannibal Holocausts’ level of gross-out violence. While many of the special effects are starting to show their age, they are still good enough make me squirm just a little bit. While you may not think that’s too big a deal, please remember that my favorite genre is Holy Shit This Movie Is Making Me Uncomfortable. From the ‘squirming, hoping your parents don’t ever watch this movie’ films like Happiness and Requiem for a Dream to the ‘why would someone even put this on film’ movies like Visitor Q and Eraserhead, I actively seek out and watch these films. Granted, some of them end up sucking giant donkey dong, but even Teeth had a few good scenes.
What makes this film memorable in the ever-crowded violent film pantheon is its sheer dedication to showing mankind at his worst. There is rape, murder, violence, more rape, more murder, dismemberment and corpses in horrible positions and conditions. The movie was so violent and the makeup so cutting edge when it was released that the director, Ruggero Deodato, was actually arrested and put on trial for murdering his cast.
Though this was all faked and the director had actually paid to hide his cast in NYC, there are several animal slayings that were absolutely real and just as brutal as the special effects. If you have ever wanted to see a live turtle dismembered, the top of a monkey’s skull sliced off while it squirmed or a muskrat cut in half while it tried to bite the knife, then this is the film for you! Also, you’re a sick fucking person. Get some help. Seriously.
The other thing that really struck me was the fact that this movie had what was not only a coherent but an actually compelling plot. The professor really wanted to find out what had happened to these poor kids, and he was actually interested in the natives. When he saw what the documentarians had actually done once they retrieved and reviewed the film, he was genuinely disgusted. Here is a man in a horror film who has morals and takes an actual stance! He acts as if he’s in a courtroom drama, and this actually helps the movie out immensely. When the company that hired him demands that he help them release the film to the general public, he not only refuses to cooperate but demands that they watch the last 30 minutes of film before making any further decisions. While I don’t want to ruin such a fantastic ending, I did really enjoy the businessman’s very short phone call at the end.
(Don’t say “I know how it ended! They all died! Hahahlolol!” That would just make you a total dick.)
All in all, Cannibal Holocaust is a fantastic movie if you’re a fan of the genre and/or have a pretty good stomach for all the disturbing sights that come with this sort of film. I can genuinely say that it’s up there in my WTF pantheon of films like Ichi the Killer and Eraserhead. It is definitely better than the recent crop of shitty horror franchises like Saw and Final Destination.
Check back Friday when I review Avatar: The Last Airbender, the live action one, on a dare. Fortunately I’m taking a few people down with me.
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