Director: Ruggero Deodato
Starring: Robert Kerman-Francesca, Ciardi-Perry Pirkanen
The whole cannibal genre started with Umberto Lenzi’s rather tame Man from Deep River, in 1972. From there it either progressed or digressed, depending on your point of view, to what would become the ultimate cannibal genre classic, Cannibal Holocaust. After the film made its mark on the genre, there really was no where else to go with this subgenre. No higher level of degradation could be reached. People have tried (Umberto Lenzi’s Cannibal Ferox comes close) but none have been able to surpass Cannibal Holocaust.
Cannibal Holocaust is a film that is not only beautifully crafted and executed, but also manages to be uniquely disturbing and repulsive, all at the same time. This juxtaposition is what makes Cannibal Holocaust such compelling viewing. It is very easy to dismiss Ruggero Deodato’s classic piece of cinema as trash. But if you look beneath the obvious exploitation elements, and the low budget nature of the feature, there is an extra layer to this film. This extra depth is what makes it a classic of the genre, whether some people like it or not. The question really is, “Who are the monsters?”, and by the time the film is over, trust me, you’ll know the answer.Four well respected and talented documentary film makers have been missing for two months after venturing into the Amazon jungle in search of cannibals. It is now the job of anthropologist Professor Monroe to follow their trail into the dangerous wilderness, and to hopefully find them alive.
When Professor Monroe arrives in the Amazon he is met by a lieutenant of the army and given a couple of guides (as well as a recently kidnapped native) to help them get where they need to go. When the Professor asks his guide their chances of finding the film makers alive, the guides response is, “All I know is that we are going to risk our lives to save those fucks”. So it appears there might be some danger involved, eh?
Once on their way we are quickly introduced that what is perhaps the most disturbing element of this, and many of the cannibal movies; scenes of animal murders. Animals are plucked from the wild and mercilessly killed on camera, often in horrendous fashion. Who cares if people are ‘killed’, but it’s never nice seeing animal killed.
As they trek through the jungle they find the bug eaten remains of a guide who knew the jungle extremely well (we later realize that is was the film makers guide). We aren’t truly introduced to the natives until they stumble on a ritual sacrifice of an adulteress. The woman is penetrated by a phallic rock and then beaten about the head, her body placed in a boat and left to drift away. The group makes use of this situation, scaring off the native so they can follow him to his tribes village.
They manage to get themselves invited into the tribes’ village and quickly see that something bad must have happened here. The chief is somewhat disturbed and does his best to describe what happened, but through grunts and groan more than anything. He shows them that part of the camp is burnt down and that there are human remains in a ruined hut. That’s all well and good though, but they find no real answer as to the location of the film makers, so are forced to continue on their search.
They eventually come across two warring tribes, so they decide to intervene to help a tribe of tree people in order to be accepted in to their village. They are welcomed but the people act distant towards them, so the only way around that seems to be getting naked. It works and they are suddenly face to face with the remains of the film crew, along with their unopened film.
Back home in New York there is documentary to be made so they begin going through the recovered footage. While looking over the footage they hope to find out what happened to the four adventurers on their fatal expedition, and it’s far from pretty.
This is the point where the film gets really impressive. The studio that is putting together the documentary wants the Professor involved in the project. He agrees only if he can look over the footage before it airs. So we are shown pieces of footage at the same time that the professor is seeing them. Some pieces of footage aren’t even complete, they don’t even have sound, or have had stock sound added “to spice the footage up”.
From the footage that we see it quickly become apparent that the four film makers (Faye Daniels, Jack Anders, Alan Yates, and Mark Tomaso) don’t really deserve the accolades they have gained through their previous work. The main motivation seems to be fame, rather than breaking an important story. And they’ll do whatever it takes to get the shot.
There are a number of scenes where the filming is the most important thing, a lot of those are later on in the film, but there are a few in this early stage of the expedition. One of these occasions has Faye suddenly finding a spider crawling on her shoulder, she screams for help, but before they’ll knock the spider off they have to get some footage of it.
As they journey through the jungle in search of cannibals, they find time to get in on the animal cruelty gig. They find a beautiful giant turtle to dismember. Interestingly though, the cast did actually eat the turtle, so it wasn’t a complete waste. And at one point Faye vomits after they cut the turtles head off, the actress isn’t acting, and rightly so.
Things quickly start going bad for the four adventurers when their guide gets bitten by a snake that was in his boot. They try and bleed the bite, but are ‘forced’ to cut off his leg before the poison spreads. The guide dies, and they are left to find their way on their own, but also a little freer to do as they please.
When they finally find a native they shot him in the leg, letting him led them right to his tribe. When they arrive in the village they get started on creating themselves some footage. They round up the tribes people and force them into a hut, then set it alight with all the tribe inside. A “tribal massacre” they call it, but this extreme act doesn’t abate their appetites. The total disrespected they show each tribe member they come in contact with is appalling. Each violation seems to out do the last.
They invade the space of a diseased and dying old woman who crept to the river banks to die in peace. They push their camera as close as can be for the abortion of a baby and the murder of its mother. In one particularly impressive, almost comical, moment they find a woman who is completely impaled on a spike. The spike enters through her nether regions and is coming out of her mouth. Alan is amazed, and excited, but when reminded that he’s on camera he fakes disgust and distress at the site before him.
It is not until they gang rape a native girl that they go too far, and their ride in the jungle comes quickly to an end. And, oh what an end! There’s nothing quite like being delivered the end we’ve been waiting for this latter half of the movie. They film makers find their cannibals alright, just in time for lunch, they are dinner!
Jack is the first member dispatched, and rather gruesomely. They are surrounded by the tree people and happily open fire on them, but Jack quickly receives a spear to the chest. The others don’t bother to help him, they just film him being carried off and dismembered. His penis gets lopped off (it is okay to cheer about now) and blood erupts from the wound in a glorious final ejaculation. They then cut off his head and proceed to tuck in – tastes just like chicken!
Faye is next. While fleeing after Jack is well and truly dead she is captured and raped. All the while they film the pretty horrific event, until her head of chopped off. Their insatiable need to capture every piece of footage doesn’t die up to the very end. It is because of this need to stay and record each death that they well and truly doom themselves to their ultimate fate. They are wasting valuable escape time! We don’t see the others deaths, the camera can only capture so much, but what you can imagine if far worse!
Cannibal Holocaust is not for the weak of stomach, or even the mildly weak of stomach. It needs to be watched with a certain detachment that only the “true” horror film fans can muster. As we play the voyeur, our senses become numbed during the course of each atrocity. But if you can stomach it, there is much to enjoy in this grimy film: from the nice presentation of the “recovered” footage, to the small moments of magic in the form of the heinous actions of the film makers themselves.
After almost 30 years, Cannibal Holocaust is one of the few movies that still manage to make you feel uncomfortable after repeated viewings, but that’s what a good exploitation movie should do. As with all cannibal movies of this ilk, and many others genre films, this is definitely an exploitation movie. The film might have a “Who are the savages?” slant so that it can claim it’s above that, but it’s not. It’s exploitation through the through, but that’s not to say it can’t be good cinema, or even great cinema. Films like The Blair Witch Project might garner respect from mainstream critics, but those of us with any real knowledge know full well where the respect should be laid.
