go back

cannibal holocaust ; 1980

tags: rape, murder, cannibalism, gore, animal cruelty.

four explorers go to the amazon to make a documentary on the tribes that people say they still do cannibalism, but after some time they don't return and nobody knows about what happened to them. harold monroe, an anthropologist, joins a rescuer team into the amazon to find the explorers. eventually they find the tapes thanks to the tribe without trace of the crew, and harold returns to new york with the tapes and a broadcast network invite harold to broadcast the tapes, but the anthropologist insists on watching the tapes first. the members of the broadcast sit in a room to watch what is the most vile people on earth, who seem to take advantage of the lack of civilitation and laws the amazonas has to do what they please. the crew are: alan, mark, jack and faye.

the crew are horrible, son of a bitches, pieces of shit who intimidate the yanomamo, the tribe who they meet and deserve what they got in the end. they rape a native girl, and even if it's not said, it's implied that hey killed and impaled the girl. Not much after that the yanomamo kill them for revenge, and all of their deaths are recorded until the end. the broadcast's members decide to destroy the tapes, horrified by seeing them. harold leaves the room wondering 'who the real cannibals are."

okay... ive wanting to see this movie for a long time, but i always been lazy to watch it. i always saw it in tops in youtube, calling it the 'most shocking movie in history.' some people say it was a good movie, some people say it's bad. after remembering this movie in my usual and boring afternoons, i decided to give it a shot.

well, long story short: i have mixed feelings about it; would i see it again? absolutely not. i like a lot the 'documentary type', 'found recording' type of movies, and i guess i have a plus for that in CN, but i didn't like it that much. even less when i found out the animals in it were actually killed in such cruel and inhumane ways just to make the film look 'more real'. wtf, deodato? the animals didn't even had the mercy to get quick deaths, it was a slow process that implied them to be alive trough the ENTIRE PROCESS. an example? a monkey's head is chopped off when it's ALIVE. WTF. AND IT TOOK TWO TAKES. the director much later said he regretted doing that, and even in set he obliged the actors to do as he said. an actor cried after filming the scene with the turtle, and other refused to do a take about killing a pig. you know what? fuck it, i didn't like this movie at all knowing how much the animals suffered just for a fucking film. sorry for venting, but i found that so vile. really man? just to make the film look more real? you suck ass ruggero. for real. there's a difference from reality and fictionโ€” that's why there exists fake blood and materials to fake human flesh. if the animal cruelty wasn't real and it was just maybe off-screen shots, it would have been fine??? but nope, fuck it, ruggero wanted them to be as real as possible for his film and decided to kill real animals for it. sorry this whole paragraph is me bitching about it, but i at least feel my anger it's justified. the actors say ruggero was a son of a bitch on set, and there were many tensions. robert kerman, the guy who plays harold, even TACKLED the director when he knew the animal's death were not fake, storming out of the set. roggero was a son of a bitch, and sorry if i'm getting out of the main point here, but i think it's fair you know these things. even in the 80's there were people who had morals, and then there are people like ruggero who doesn't care about anything or anyone but himself. the actors got yelled at, got unfairly paid, vomited on set, cried, were obliged to kill animals and the natives didn't receive a penny for their help.

there is a lot of nude, rape scenes, animal cruelty and gore. if we ignore the animals' death, i guess this movie is pretty so so. the gore looks real, and even the director went to court because people thought they were watching a real snuff film.

the only character i liked was harold, being the only one showing empaty towards the tribe. the tribe isn't even 'evil' per se. they just killed the crew members because well, they were the first ones to intimidate them and mess with them. even harold was the only sane person to actually think before doing things, telling the broadcasting members to watch the film first before doing something as stupid as broadcasting the tapes without checking them first. imagine what would have happened if these dumbasses went with it.

i guess this is a critic about how humans lose their humanity and commit such horrible and vile crimes when you let them. if the human is horrible in a civilized society, leaving them without any type of restriction would be bad.

the crew is highly responsible about the awful things they had done to the tribe, and just like harold said, who the real cannibals are? if you think about it, the tribe wasn't evil per se. they just defend their home from the enemy tribe and the crew. after all, why would they bear all of the things they are doing? they killed and raped a girl from their tribe, IMPALED HER (because i'm sure they did it), intimidated them. it was just time to see what was going to happen. harold 'befriend' the tribe, letting us realize they were friendly with outsiders, until you got them in their bad side. for real, at first i thought they would met the tribe and they were going to run for their lives, but i was pretty surprised i was very, very wrong after seeing their actions in every tape. even faye, with an excuse about how they will waste tapes recording the rape, tries to save the girl from what they are going to do to her.

mark is a son of a bitch. when faye is being gang-raped and is sure hell going to be killed after that, alan tries to finish the film to save her, but this son of a bitch tells him to keep recording and let her fall into her unlucky fate. like, even mark's father said he didn't care about his disappearance and he was a fucker lol. and i'm not saying alan is a sweet cake, he's horrible as mark is.

this film is... disgusting. it has a lot of controversy behind it. i mean, i know a lot of movies are fake, do stereotypes just as we saw with the tribe, and for me, i know what i'm watching is fictionโ€” i mean, there are plenty of scenes that are uncomfortable to watch. i believe deodato used these shocking scenes only to, well, shock the audience. it may be a critic about humans losing their humanity, but even the director didn't have any when doing it.

this movie is not scary at all. if you watch it, it will only repulse youโ€” i mean, i can recommend it for people who like gore??? a version without animal cruelty exists, so that's that. for me, i wasn't enjoying watching it. i don't know why people call this 'art' at all. when i finished watching it i was... just staring at the screen. it's horrible, vile, the death of the animals are completely unnecesary, and i got bored knowing what would happen in the end. you know what? i don't recommend it to anyone lol watch it if you are curious and can see heavy stuff, but you are just going to waste your time. i guess without the controversy behind, this film is just another one of many.