Nackt und zerfleischt

Yes, this film was banned and heavily censored in a few places for being disturbing. It does have some really well done gruesome scenes but the real censorship came from the cruelty to animals. Let's just say this film doesn't have "no animals were harmed during production" scrolling the end credits. The animal killings include a pig being shot in the head from close range, a muskrat being slit open for no reason, a giant turtle being split open in an overly long scene and a monkey getting his brains bashed in which required two takes so two monkeys were killed during production. These were real killings and not faked. A lot of the actors on the set protested this but the show went on. In fact, one of the lead actors feared for his life thinking this might be a "snuff" film and might meet the same fate. As much as this bothered people, is it really that different then buying meat in a supermarket? At least it made me think. The movie centers around "found footage" of a group of documentary filmmakers. The filmmakers are in South America searching for a tribe of flesh-eaters, hoping that this documentary will win them fame and fortune. The movie was marketed in a way that made viewers believe all the documentary footage shown in the movie was actual footage of a group that really went to South America to do a documentary. Some questionable acting gives it away. And you thought "The Blair Witch Project" was an original idea didn't you!?

A group of documentarians go into the Amazon to film warring cannibal tribes. Unfortunately for them, they don't make it back. An anthropologist is sent in to find them, and is horrified when he sees the grisly images they captured on film.

Let me make a confession. Despite being a serious horror fan and having met Ruggero Deodato twice, engaging in some interesting conversation with him, I had never seen "Cannibal Holocaust" before. I had a fairly good idea of what to expect from it, as I was familiar with Umberto Lenzi's "Cannibal Ferox", which I suspected was quite similar (something I suspected correctly). But I think it's safe to say Deodato went further than Lenzi's imitation did.

Starring Robert Kerman (perhaps better known for his many pornographic films), it's not surprising that this film pushes the boundaries on nudity and cruelty. Men and women naked, some of them sexually brutalized... animals killed, including a monkey who gets his face cut off and the infamous "turtle scene". I was actually somewhat disturbed by this film -- at the very least, rather uncomfortable. One scene where an adulteress is punished was particularly disturbing for me.

I don't think those of you who are squeamish will want to see this one... or those who don't like seeing animals killed (yes, Virginia, the animals killed on screen)... but if you want to see a horror film with some sense of reality in it, this is it. There's also a strong social commentary in it about what makes man civilized or not, but I won't get into that... you'll see it.

It's impossible to talk about Cannibal Holocaust without mentioning The Blair Witch Project. Blair Witch is (wrongly) labelled as 'inventing' the 'found footage' genre, when, in fact it simply 'rebooted' it. Cannibal Holocaust did it almost twenty years previous.

We hear at the beginning how four young film-makers travelled deep into the jungle, only to never be heard from again. A professor, curious as to their fate, retraces their path and finds their footage. What you have here is two stories in one. You have the more 'traditional' Hollywood story-telling of the professor talking to TV executives about showing the found footage on network television and the footage which was retrieved from the jungles (first person, ala Blair Witch).

I only got to see the edited UK version of this film, but the footage, both from the professor who follows them and the film-makers themselves remains as shocking today as it was at the time. Cannibal Holocaust was banned at the time of release and even had claims of being a 'stuff' film (i.e. one where real people are killed on camera). This maybe untrue, but viewers should be warned that, although the people who die are all just covered in fake blood and prosthetics, REAL animals were killed for the making of the film. Those with strong views on this may wish to steer clear.

However, the animal cruelty is only fleeting. What you have are pretty strong scenes of torture which make the Hostel franchise seem tame in comparison. The footage, being shot in the eighties and on 'non professional' cameras, gives the film a deliberately 'raw' feel about it which even the Blair Witch Project can't even match. Plus you have the music which is both creepy and tranquil at the same time.

As you have probably guessed, the film-makers (on film) meet a grisly end at the hands (and teeth, obviously) of the cannibals in the jungle. Although, where we probably felt sorry for those behind the camera in Blair Witch and other such films, here the film-makers were pretty horrible. Some may see that they got what they deserved.

It's hard to 'enjoy' this film in a traditional viewing sense. Yet it remains a deserved lynchpin in the horror genre's history.

Bottom line: for those with strong stomachs ONLY.

http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/

This movie could have easily been a 9 or a 10 because it is truly a disturbing masterpiece and really makes you think about what we consider civilized. The reason I'm rating it so low is that it is ridiculous that the animal slaughters were done using live animals, (7 animals were killed in the making of this video, though only 6 are shown) which was completely unnecessary as they clearly had the skills to depict realistic murder/slaughter/rape/gore scenes as shown by all the gruesome events featuring humans. The only good thing to come out of this is that very few movies afterwards ever used real animals becausr of all the backlash this one received.

"Cannibal Holocaust" is not the campy little horror flick I expected. It's a "serious" and well-made movie and it's an experience you'll hardly ever forget. According to IMDb's trivia section the movie can "only be seen completely uncut in the EC-UltraBit DVD", which means that I've seen a tamed down version and that, my friends, is insane! "Cannibal Holocaust" is easily one of the most graphic movies I've ever come across. The violence is incredibly realistic. It's no wonder that director Ruggero Deodato was taken to court to prove that he hasn't slain real people for his motion picture. (I still think the real animal slaughtering in the movie was unnecessary. Screw you for that, Deodato!) It's hard to tell if there really is a message or if the "moral" is just an excuse for all the gore. In a strange way the violent scenes somehow speak for themselves and do deliver some kind of message, but that's open for discussion.

If ever a movie deserved the label "disturbing", it's "Cannibal Holocaust". It's controversial, but totally worth watching, if you can take some seriously sick images.