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:

The mother of all cannibal films.

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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

After seeing the film, director Sergio Leone wrote a letter to Ruggero Deodato, which stated, "Dear Ruggero, what a movie! The second part is a masterpiece of cinematographic realism, but everything seems so real that I think you will get in trouble with all the world."

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Goofs

Near the beginning, Oliveira is killed by a poison dart. When Professor Monroe flies in, Oliveira is standing behind the lieutenant.

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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 2-disc French Collector's Edition from Opening Distribution is uncut, but is also missing several seconds from The Last Road to Hell.

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Connections

Referenced in The Cinema Snob: Conquest (2017)

User Reviews

Better than NATURAL BORN KILLERS, could do without the animal slaughter

Political correctness is not something I usually expect to see in an Italian cannibal gut-muncher flick, and there's none to be found in CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. But the filmmakers would like you to think there's some in there, and that, in a way, actually hinders what could have been a really powerful movie.

Not that CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST isn't outrageously violent and extremely disturbing at times, but like so many other "serious" exploitation movies (e.g. SALO, MEN BEHIND THE SUN), the filmmakers go so far over the top depicting the spilling of blood and guts that whatever points they purport to want to make are drowned in their own gruesome sensationalism.

This is especially counter-productive in CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST because it is the very thing that director Ruggero Deodatto claims to be satirizing. The movie lacks the sophistication of George Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD or Stanley Kubrick's CLOCKWORK ORANGE, two similar movies which tackle their social commentary with wit and style.

It's similar to (and better than) Oliver Stone's NATURAL BORN KILLERS, in that it claims to be a satire of the media's passion for presenting violence and depravity to audiences who eat it up, while it's really just an exploitation of it. Deodatto, like Stone, smacks you over the head with a bludgeon, making his points so obviously and self-righteously that they go right out the window, and the movie winds up being little more than a freakshow of eye-popping special effects and nauseating live animal slaughter.

The animal slaughter in CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST is especially offensive, more so than any other of this odd subgenre, because most of it is perpetrated by the explorers and not the (supposedly real) native cannibal tribe. In CANNIBAL FEROX and JUNGLE HOLOCAUST, one can make an attempt to condone the violence against animals only because it appears to be committed by jungle dwelling people as part of their natural routine. One cannot make the same excuse for CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST.

But if you're looking for outlandish sleaze and carnage, look no further than CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. It's definitely a must-see for any self-respecting cannibal movie fan. Everyone else should steer way, way clear.

It was obviously an inspiration for both THE LAST BROADCAST and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT.