Porno Holocaust

Porno Holocaust (1980)

1/2 (out of 4)

Joe D'Amato's notorious porn/gore flick about a zombie with a very large "member" who chokes women to death with it. Um....yeah. I watched this film once a few years ago and hated it but I watched it in Italian without any subs so I gave it another try with subs but they didn't help. Needless to say this is a very disgusting film that really doesn't have anything going for it. The idea is an interesting one but the 110 minute running time really kills this. D'Amato could be a great director but this here wasn't one of his high points. The follow up Erotic Nights of the Living Dead is better.

I've heard a lot about Porno Holocaust and its twin film Erotic Nights Of The Living Dead. Both films are interchangeable and were filmed at the same time on the same location with the same actors changing clothes for each film (and taking them off). If you are expecting the D'Amato genius displayed in films like Buio Omega or Death Smiles on Murder, you won't find it here. Nonetheless this film has a charm that exploitation fans will not be able to resist. Where else will you see hardcore sex mixed with a zombie/monster and his enormous penis that strangles and chokes women to death? Only from D'Amato. There is some amount of gore in which many of the men are bludgeoned to death. The film is set on a beautiful tropical island. As far as I know there is no subtitled version, so if you don't speak Italian you wont know what is going on...but who cares right? In all honesty, Gore fans will probably fast forward through the hardcore sex. And if anyone is actually watching this for the sex only, will for sure be offended instantly. I can just imagine modern day porn fans tracing back through D'Amato's output and coming across this atrocity! Out of the two I find Erotic Nights Of The Living Dead far superior. But, don't bother watching either if they are cut. Porno Holocaust is extremely low budget as expected. Even the monster looks no where as good as George Eastman's character in Anthropophagus. The film is worth watching for laughs and to complete your D'Amato film quest.

"Porno Holocaust" is the sister movie to "Erotic Nights of the Living Dead", what means in other words that both films were casted with the same actors (The inimitable George Eastman is not missing!) and shot a the same locations in the Dominican Republic. Typical for a porn the plot is minor matter: A group of male and female scientists travel on a lonely island to investigate a mysterious phenomenon of radioactivity and soon they´ve got a horny, killing and raping sex monster on their back... If you are looking for something great or even shocking, forget it: this is nothing else but a normal hardcore porn with some scanty horror elements! Compared to D´Amato´s usual standard it´s a really tame flick: the great gore of a splatterfest like "Buio Omega" is almost not existing. The sickest scene is when the monster rapes the dead body of a woman, but beware: this shot is not as sick executed as it maybe sounds..! However, a great laugh riot is the sequence when one of the girls has sex with two natives and one of the guys obviously has serious problems with the erection! Cheesy fun! I have this film in my collection and I really must say that I like it, but after all I only would recommend it to the inveterated fans of director D´Amato! All others should check out "Erotic Nights of the Living Dead" what is still the better film in my opinion!!

Purportedly made back to back with 'Erotic Nights of the Living Dead' with the same cast and setting but for certain this one does not have Laura Gemser. Much derided by all I rather like this movie. Sure enough the storyline and dialogue are codswallop, but this is so beautifully filmed in such a marvellous setting and I actually like the hardcore. I find it at once naturalistic and exotic, and that doesn't just mean there is a black girl and some limp penises! I find the numerous and varied sex scenes very believable, even if two are set upon a tree trunk at the edge of the ocean with the waves constantly splashing around. The creature does not deign to appear until half hour before the end and is, it has to be said, a disappointment. Still, in the time remaining he manages to kill off all but two of the expedition and in the case of the girls having sex with them first (or afterwards in at least one case!) and this film is not as slow as some maintain. Moreover there are some fine moments of sexploitation, not least the lady scientist and her urge for two 'natives', and the glorious finale when the two survivors speed off in their boat, gaze back at the island they have escaped from, and find there is still time for one last act of copulation.

It's strange, while the film features full X-rated sex scenes and violent murders, it never feels as shocking as it ought to.

A group of scientists go to an island in the Caribbean to investigate a radioactive incident. Upon their arrival, a mutated islander goes about the happy business of murdering the men and having his way with the women. Doesn't it always seem to work out that way.

Among the sored acts we find a some lesbian encounters, a three-way with male prostitutes, assorted heterosexual couplings and the rape of an already dead body. Even though it's all fully explicit, it fails to ever shock or stir as it is meant to. As soon as the sex goes fully pornographic it just loses it's edge; the suspension of disbelief is broken and we realize we are just watching people having sex.

There is some blood and gore with the murders, but given that this is a D'amato flick it's really tame. For a much more rounded experience watch the similar 'Erotic Nights of the Living Dead'.

2/10