Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

During a rescue mission into the Amazon rainforest, a professor stumbles across lost film shot by a missing documentary crew.

Director:

Ruggero Deodato

Writers:

Gianfranco Clerici (story and screenplay), Giorgio Stegani (additional dialogue: Italian version)

Stars:

Robert Kerman, Francesca Ciardi, Perry Pirkanen

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Robert Kerman	...	Professor Harold Monroe
Francesca Ciardi	...	Faye Daniels
Perry Pirkanen	...	Jack Anders
Luca Barbareschi	...	Mark Tomaso (as Luca Giorgio Barbareschi)
Salvatore Basile	...	Chaco Losojos
Ricardo Fuentes	...	Undetermined Role
Carl Gabriel Yorke	...	Alan Yates (as Gabriel Yorke)
Paolo Paoloni	...	1st Executive
Lionello Pio Di Savoia	...	2nd Executive (as Pio Di Savoia)
Claudia Rocchi	...	Undetermined Role (as Luigina Rocchi)

Storyline

In 1979, intent on venturing into the vast and unexplored areas of the virgin Amazon rainforest, a small American film crew attempt to make a documentary about the region's indigenous cannibalistic tribes, only to disappear without a trace. As the noted anthropologist, Harold Monroe, and his team of seasoned guides embark on a rescue mission to locate the missing documentarians in the heart of the Green Inferno, fearful tribes that no white has ever seen before will soon start to take interest in them. Inevitably, as the professor unearths more evidence about the fate of the film crew by sheer luck, a desperate battle to recover the raw footage that was paid in blood will commence--after all, the world must know the savage and unspeakable atrocities captured on the riveting unedited footage. In the end, what has really happened to the overambitious explorers, and the shocking final two reels?

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Plot Keywords:

actual animal killed | exploitation film | nude in nature | public nudity | running naked | 

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Taglines:

Don't turn away! Look at it! These are men, men like you!

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Genres:

Adventure | Horror

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Official Sites:

Grindhouse Releasing

Country:

Italy

Language:

English Spanish Italian

Release Date:

7 February 1980 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust

Filming Locations:

Guri, Venezuela

Box Office

Budget:

$100,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

F.D. Cinematografica

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min 89 min (heavily cut) 90 min (animal cruelty-free) 86 min (Québec)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System) Dolby Digital (2001 re-release)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor) (uncredited)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

To create "The Last Road To Hell" sequence, Ruggero Deodato watched hours of execution footage. He later claimed that some of the footage he watched showed up in the "Faces Of Death" videos, and that he'd rejected it because it seemed fake.

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Goofs

When Professor Monroe speaks into his tape recorder at the Yanomamo village, the dubbing is obviously out of sync.

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Quotes

[first lines]
PABS Reporter: Man is omnipotent; nothing is impossible for him. What seemed like unthinkable undertakings yesterday are history today. The conquest of the moon for example: who talks about it anymore? Today we are already on the threshold of conquering our galaxy, and in a not too distant tomorrow, we'll be considering the conquest of the universe, and yet man seems to ignore the fact that on this very planet there are still people living in the stone age and practicing cannibalism.

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Crazy Credits

In the end credits: "Projectionist John K. Kirov was given a two-month suspended sentence and fined $10,000 for illegal appropriation of film material. We know that he received $250,000 for the same footage."

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Alternate Versions

The Australian DVD, released by Siren Visual Entertainment in 2005, is the same version as the US Deluxe Collector's Edition 2-disc released by Grindhouse. The film is the complete and uncut 96 minute version, is coded Region 0, and is in PAL format. The DVD also contains the complete Last Road To Hell sequence.

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Connections

Referenced in City Ninja (1985)

User Reviews

Not the campfest I expected

"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.