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[Dr Giggles]

Cannibal Holocaust UNCUT (1979) Ruggero Deodato

In the beginning of this film we meet a documentary team of three young men and a young woman. They are heading for the south-American jungle to search for real cannibals. After a while the crew is reported missing and a rescue team is send from the US. This team gets in touch with an amazon tribe called the Tree-people. The tree-people gives them the only remains of the first crew - the filmrolls containing the material this crew shot during their search for real cannibals. Back in the US we get to see these films. We now get to see exactly what happened to the first crew.

This movie is almost unbearable to watch in many ways. I wasnt expecting anything this unsettling. Apart from the vulgar graphic violence of the cannibalism and sexual violence, the animal killings in this movie were actually real. On top of that, the reporters were the real anti heroes of the story, as for some reason, they thought that showing dominance over the two cannibal tribes was something they should do. So they decide to burn down one of the tribes villages, and have sex on the ashes.

And if that wasnt enough, they capture one of the women of the tribes and gang rape her. This part of the movie had me baffled.

So needless to say the tribe get there revenge on the group of reporters.

Shot as a flim within a film, this movie would've been the inspiration for the blair witch project, and was really quite effective.

As for the real animal killings, well they made my stomach turn. I was expecting the animal killings to be done by a tribes person, showing the lifestyle of such people. But it wasnt at all, the reporters were the ones killing the animals, and it was sickening to know that they were real.

I know its hard to imagine that they were real, but if you've seen it, you'd appreciate that for a 1979 movie these scenes were way too realistic. Especially the turtle scene.

I was dissapointed seeing that aspect of the movie, as it really detracted from the impact of the fictional violence and story, which is what I came to see. So it really spoiled it for me.

Although I think Ruggero accomplished his mission on unsettling the viewer, but perhaps didnt need to go to such lengths to achieve full realism and impact.

This really is the most gruesome movie I've ever seen, and in all its madness, its quite a good horror film.

What are your thoughts on this exploitation shocker?
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walking on air, up from the wheelchair,

I'll find the suicide, that I deserve.

[Michael Scrutchin]

I hate Cannibal Holocaust. Some of its supporters praise its "depth" and "sense of morality" (the bullshit "who are the real savages?" theme) but I'm stunned that they fail to see its inherent hypocrisy. As Phil Hardy notes in The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Horror:

"As in so many movies of this nature... the film pretends to condemn what it exploits: the pseudo American film-makers are presented as the villains who shouldn't have filmed the very images which the Italian Deodato and others offer for sale."

It's a sick, dishonest film. It's an intense experience at times, yes, but is that in and of itself praise-worthy -- especially when much of what makes it so intense is real-life animal torture and death?

So, yeah, who are the real savages? That's easy: Deodato and company.
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Michael Scrutchin
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