Porno Holocaust (1981) User Reviews

Porno in every sense of the word...and a monster.

[ericdetrick2002 · 3/10 · 3 May 2005]

Wow. I felt like I needed to shower off after watching this one, but maybe there were other reasons that I will leave to your imagination. I felt used and abused after wacking, I mean watching this film. Hairy chests, thick mustaches, and well, hairy everything describes this porn/horror movie, but hey, it was 1981, you can't call it "porn" in the 70s and 80s without the hair.

As a horror flick, this bites. But as a piece of exploitation/porn from Italy's rich cinematic history- it definitely has a place in my library. The copy I have is in Italian with English subtitles. I wish it had the really poorly dubbed English, I think it would have added to the sleaziness factor that already existed. The only white guy who gets laid in the movie is "Mark Shannon"- he is the moustache wearing, hairy chested piece of machismo who really does try and give a performance every time he "steps up to bat". This was at the end of an era where porn producers were actually trying to make something artistic. Nothing like panning the camera from a tropical backdrop to a hairy man having "doggie-style" sex with a woman. I can't help but laugh.

This is one of those movies that I pray my future wife and kids never find.

Lame Porno, even weaker Horror film

[carlykristen · 3/10 · 28 March 2007]

As a serious horror fan, I get that certain marketing ploys are used to sell movies, especially the really bad ones. So I wouldn't call it naiveté that I assumed this was softcore horror ripping off Cannibal / Zombi / Jungle Holocaust. Unfortunately, I was completely wrong as this is very hardcore. I should have realized that when I saw the odd "No actual or identifiable minor was used" warning. Notice the identifiable part as though he is daring us to catch him? A group of scientists, half of whom are pretty women in bikinis, are led by a sea captain with a penchant for 69ing on the beach, in search for a mutated native killing villagers. Due to a nuclear bomb detonated on a supposedly evacuated island, the radiation turned this last man into a rapist/ killer.

Writer/ actor George Eastman is the only one trying here and succeeds in keeping his clothes on. The sex scenes are whacked out. Women walk around nude exuding a strange overconfidence and one even asks for rape when her husband turns her down. Well, two chicks slapping each other naturally turns into a lesbo scene because women are horndogs. I saw the chick toss another chicks salad and finger herself.

If there is anything you should know about this film, it is that. Because the rest of this insane movie is just the same. Oh, who am I kidding? There is a ton more to tell here. Like the white "Duchess" that pays for 2 black guys to tag team her in a parlor. Or the "Duchess" taking off her top to use as a bandage when the captain cuts himself. When he refuses her advances, she starts crying. So being the good gentleman he is, he reluctantly lets her pleasure him in front of the other crew members. I was honestly waiting for the pizza guy to show up and the "Duchess" to ask if there is any other way to pay him.

And all of this happens before they depart for the island to conduct their research. Wait, I thought this was a zombie flick? But the zombie doesn't enter until the 73min mark, but by that time everyone else has been "entered" plenty. I found myself hitting fast forward a few scenes…or several. This is my first splatter porn flick and I don't think it does that subgenre any justice. I guess it is the woman in me talking when I say that I would like more plot and less sweaty, slobbering, hairy sex. Funny thing is this could have worked as a decent horror film as the idea of atomic bombing mutating a bitter man and killing his family, was a good one. Even Eastman's character shakes his head and walks away from a couple copulating. It makes me wonder if it was the character or the writer himself that was disgusted.

I don't feel like going into the sound or film quality because you should have already guessed it was bad. This production was shot back to back with 3 other movies including Erotic Nights of the Living Dead, which sports most of the same cast. Eastman has said this was done because everyone wanted a vacation and a paycheck. Nevermind, I feel like talking about the sound suddenly. The sound was weird during the sex scenes because while the cast is speaking Italian, it seems as though they recorded English voiceovers and played that over their dialogue. So while 2 people are boning, I can clearly hear someone in the background say, "No! Yes! Wonderful! Wait!" There was a slightly amusing Italian score that couldn't save this movie. The SFX were minimal at best and consisted of some blood in only a few scenes. And I would like to point out that there were no violent rape scenes as the bright warning label said on the DVD cover (ahem, another marketing ploy), so no fear there. Only fear the bad movie.

Presented in Widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio. I watched the Region 1 Not Rated version running at 113min released in 2005 by Exploitation Digital. There is apparently a XXX version by Alfa Digital, which is the same running time, so I doubt anything is different. Prices vary, but you shouldn't pay more than $25.00 for a copy. Or as I would recommend, pay nothing and pretend it doesn't exist.

Favorite Quote: Shipmate, "Civilians are bad luck. Women are bad luck. They're scientists too? They must really be monsters." DVD Extras: Original trailer with hardcore shots & kills to make it look more interesting than it is, Trailers for SS Hell Camp, Emmanuelle, & ENOTLD, and a very informative interview with Eastman.

Bottom Line: Lame porno, but even weaker as a horror film. Either get real porn or watch real horror.

Rating: 3/10 by Molly Celaschi www.HorrorYearbook.com

Not as shocking as one might expect.

[Ky-D · 3/10 · 12 March 2005]

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

A Unique Triumph of Content Over Form

[Steve_Nyland · 5/10 · 16 June 2006]

Something strange is going on in PORNO HOLOCAUST. No it's not a particularly "good" movie, but it sure is an interesting one. Here is a film who's content overwhelms the form -- It's not a skin flick in the traditional sense of the word (though it does feature explicit sex scenes) and it's not quite a horror film either (though it does feature a giant, mutated radioactive Penis Monster zombie who is responsible for several deaths). It's exploitation for sure, but what the heck is going on here? Mixing horror and sex is nothing new, but you can usually remove the sex & still have the horror (i.e. all those "covered" versions of Spanish horror films with Paul Naschy that do away with the overt sexuality), and you can also have sex films the involve horror themes but are just excuses for thematic porn interludes (see EJACULA or INTERCOURSE WITH A VAMPIRE if you need more info). The two can usually be separated out without much fuss or detriment to either end.

Leave it to Joe D'amato to weave the two together like a tapestry: Pull one string loose and the whole work falls apart. I had the good fortune to find a German DVD release of this film that had both a "softcore/not rated" version and the "hardcore/X-rated version", and was fascinated to discover that if you omit the explicit sex from PORNO HOLOCAUST you end up with a pretty limp tropical horror flick with no real purpose. Leave in the porno and this emerges as a pretty twisted commentary on race, sex, native taboo lust, science run amok, (sic) Jungal Trash, the dangers of nuclear weapons (is this a message movie too??), nature striking back, and a hint of Beauty And The Beast thrown in for good measure. It's in poor taste to be sure, but then again this is one of those films that is all about being in poor taste, and if you're stupid enough to be offended by it that's not his fault.

What's really weird about PORNO HOLOCAUST is that the porn on it's own isn't very erotic, and the horror on it's own isn't too horrifying. Yet add them together and this becomes one of the most potent low-rent sub tropical exploitation films in history. The scenes it is most notorious for have no substance without the X-rated content, and diluting the porn dilutes the horror. Somehow D'amato and writer/star George Eastman managed to come up with a genuinely original film that is absolutely devoid of any original ideas, except to weave the two themes together in a way that makes them amount to more than the sum of their parts. The film also has an odd atmosphere to it that is quite compelling, the girls are all delightful young strumpets who seem to be enjoying themselves (the movie must have been a riot to make), and the Penis Monster zombie has a kind of sad pathos about him that is kind of unique: He was a victim too, like many of the slasher killers driven insane & homicidal by cruelty. Someone posed the question of just who or what the monster is, and I think that like Deodato's similarly titled CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST the idea here might be that the monsters are us for having polluted his nice little island with nuclear fallout.

Who knows. I don't even know if this is a good film, but it is an interesting one, and a lesson of how sometimes content can overwhelm the form of a work in ways that defeat the purpose of it existing. Porno fans won't much go for the sex parts, and horror fans won't be too impressed by the zombie plot. But when thrown together it makes an oddly compelling juxtaposition, and serves as further proof that Joe D'amato knew exactly what he was doing when he made his films, even if sometimes he leaves it up to us to figure out what it all means. I haven't a clue this time, and that's a positive.

5/10

No more offensive, and slightly less boring, than your typical porno

[lazarillo · 11 July 2006]

This is exactly what I'd expect from trying to cross a hardcore sex movie and a horror film--a crappy horror film but a better-than-average sex flick. The plot, as it were, is heavily borrowed from D'Amato's own notorious cannibal film "Anthrophagus". A group of idiotic European tourists land on an idyllic island and are stalked a shambling monster. But D'Amato breaks up the tedium here with a lot of hardcore sex scenes. And when THAT gets tedious (which it quickly does) the monster shows up and kills off most of the cast. But, of course, a D'Amato film simply CANNOT be tedium-free so he makes the whole thing a frickin' ridiculous 110 minutes long!

Some people objected to the fact that the ridiculously well-endowed "monster" is dark-skinned, but then so is half the cast. Others were offended that the giant monster dispatches most of the women with his, uh, giant monster, but frankly these scenes are pretty hard to take seriously and I doubt the biggest perverts in the world will be turned on by them. The female cast is only marginally more attractive than the monster, but I found it interesting that the prettiest girl (relatively speaking) didn't participate in any of the hardcore scenes but was willing to do the most controversial scene where she is choked to death during fellatio by the monster's obviously fake appendage (Laura Gemser did a similar thing in the companion piece to this "Erotic Nights of the Living Dead" although she was the aggressor there ). This raises the interesting question of what is more "degrading"--dark but obviously simulated fantasies like this or the exploitation of real-life private sex acts? Well, you can't stop men (or women) from fantasizing whether you ban movies or not, and fantasies, however warped, don't give real-life people real-life AIDS.

I also liked that this movie was shot on film on and on island location, which regardless of its incompetence, makes it preferable to today's hardcore "product" shot on video in some producer's condo in the Valley. And as homely as some of the cast are, there's not a silicone breast in sight. In short, this movie is no more offensive, and slightly less boring, than any hardcore porno movie.

this would get a limp noodle if this was a XXX mag

[Quinoa1984 · 1/10 · 11 July 2008]

Joe D'Amato might have made some other notable movies in his very long and very prolific career- prolific, of course, by turns of making VERY cheap Z-grade movies in Italy's big exploitation boom of the late 70s early 70s- but Porno Holocaust isn't one of them, or at least shouldn't be. Granted, I should not expect much from a movie with such a title, but I thought considering the back of the box's description that it might have some fun horror scenes with the "horny, mutant, cannibal zombie". Turns out the zombie doesn't appear until more than halfway into the movie, and at every turn we get instead a tawdry sex scene as hardcore as one can imagine. Which is fine. But it's not very enjoyable, except in the most "what the f*** is this BS" kind of way. There's laughable dialog involving lobsters costing more from mail-order Japan than in Paris, hot, slim women play biologists and zoologists who have particular sexual hang-ups (letting the door be unlocked to be raped, and a bi-polar kind of enjoyment out of getting gang-banged).

It all leads up to the island, where the "main attraction" is a guy who early on just spends an absolutely pathetic (forget ludicrous) amount of time just staring at the newcomers to the radioactive wasteland of the shot-on-Caribbean island, and once revealed has a face like one of the guards in Jabba's palace and has a sweet potato for a main genital. But much dumber than anything before it is the "relationship" that develops between the monster and a dark-skinned lady who has an inordinate amount of time to escape, but just sits there, blank-faced, as the monster brings gifts and for what must be a racially-motivated exploitation move on the part of the filmmakers the monster ONLY rapes and kills the white women, and not her. And it ends, of course, with a "happy" ending. I use quotes, of course, out of a kind of shock that this could have any kind of legitimate ending at all.

Bottom line, this is NOT what you might expect, as possibly being a bloody horror movie with plenty of tacky but cool looking Italian monster-zombies devouring human flesh. If anything what violence is in the film is done on a shoe-string; a log hit to the face is immediately cut to the bloody aftermath, which is like the aftermath of a tomato hitting someone. So really, the last part of the title is meant more for market sake. Yet even as a porno movie it has little to go on except as a reason for the cast and crew to get a paid vacation to the Caribbean (as an interview with George Eastman suggests, this was just one of a few quickies made while on the island). Its got penny-bought schlocky camera-work and similar actors, filled with genitalia about 3/4 of the whole time and with wretched lip-syncing and music like Nino Rota forced at gun-point to make something snappy in a bordello, and it's STILL a piece of celluloid dung all the same; all of this could be an immense guilty pleasure, but it isn't.

Not Really Sure Where the Holocaust Part Come In...

[gavin6942 · 5/10 · 4 January 2010]

A group of scientists head off to a tropical island to study the effects of atomic testing years earlier. The island isn't entirely deserted however -- a large solitary creature, mutated by the radiation, is waiting for them.

That plot does not really explain this film. All I can say is that this film is nothing more than poor attempts at porn, with a bit of plot thrown in. You can watch the clock and literally not go more than five minutes between sex scenes. Which is great if you want to see sex scenes, but awful if you actually care about the story. It's not much of one, and in some people's opinion, not much of a porn either (though I wasn't really going to worry about that).

Italian horror critic Jim Harper says director Joe D'Amato "screws it up pretty badly... the film is a mess." He sees it as a mix that destroys both elements at the same time: "This is unlikely to please fans of either horror or hardcore." Another noted horror critic, Jay Slater, agrees and does not mince words with this one, which he calls "a dismal failure". The "movie is a failure because it alienated both audiences" of sex and gore. The film "is so incompetently directed, scripted and acted that the finished movie borders on tedium and unintentional hysteria." It "is devoid of a lively plot, delirious set-pieces or funky sex." If this isn't bad enough, "the cast are uniformly sexually unattractive." What good can be said of this one?

I think the film has a certain unintended humor, simply because it is unique. There have been newer attempts at horror porn, such as Doug Sakmann's "Re-Penetrator" and "XXXorcist", but those set out to be somewhat funny, whereas D'Amato actually thought he was being serious. Does the humor make it worth owning? Probably not. But you'd sure get a lot of interested people when they scour your shelf and see this one.

For the love of George Eastman

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 31 October 2021]

So yeah, in Germany, Porno Holocaust was actually considered a sequel to Joe D'Amato's Orgasmo Nero (we just called it Sex and Black Magic here) and everyone had to be content to a title that isn't as in your face. Don't worry - this movie is still as repellant as it gets*.

Back in the 50s, governments used to regularly blast an island with nuclear bombs just to see how they blew up and to test the idea that perhaps these weapons would split reality into pieces. Well, all they did was create a place filled with mutant animals and a monster - a giant appendaged monster - that a bunch of stupid, stupid scientists are going to visit and all die.

That creature was once Antoine Domoduro and much like another D'Amato/George Eastman epic - Antropophagus - he was once a man with a family that all died in the atomic bomb blasts and now, all he has are two speeds: fuck and destroy.

D'Amato made Papaya, Love Goddess of the Cannibals and Tough to Kill in Santo Domingo and had such a good time that he returned to make Paradiso blu, Sesso nero, Orgasmo nero, Hard Sensation, Erotic Nights of the Living Dead and this movie all in July of 1979. That's right - five movies in one month.

The first mainstream hardcore film in Italy, this movie ends with Tom Selleck look-a-like - and travel writer when he wasn't making porn - Mark Shannon surviving and making sweet love to Lucia Ramirez on a very small boat in the middle of the ocean, which is more astounding than anything else in this movie, as I wondered how D'Amato was able to get all of his camera equipment onto this boat, shoot this scene and not have anyone fall off.

Italian movie directing at its finest.

*Or maybe not. The German softcore version is Insel der Zombies. Seeing how a full third of this movie is hardcore penetration, I can only imagine how short that movie is.

Einstein's sex monster

[jaibo · 4/10 · 24 July 2009]

D'Amato's hardcore/horror hybrid doesn't really live up to its extraordinary title and intriguing premise, wherein various vapid contemporary types are attacked by a monster on an Atoll previously used for nuclear experiments, but for the most part the film is so slow, the action so dreary and the cast so clearly repulsed to be having to have sex with each other that the film becomes a chore to watch.

This is a pity, because the film sets up a promising idea. A group of scientists are taken to the Atoll by a naval officer in a small vessel. The scientists – three women and two men – are an intriguing cross section of sexual types, suffering to various degrees from nymphomania, co-dependency and frigidity; there's even an intriguing foray into the world of female sex tourism, where one of the women stops off at a brothel to get serviced by two hunky Caribbean studs for hire. The creature himself – a mangled native Islander with a horribly scarred face and an unfeasibly long pizzle – bears some affinities with the old Creature from the Black Lagoon and is the kind of nuclear nightmare that has hovered over postmodern man since the cold war commenced, despite those of us in the West having retreated into hedonism and relativistic science.

Porno Holocaust certainly is a film which shows the post-sexual revolution Westerners coming across their mirror image in a nuclear monster, yet the torpidity with which it unfolds really lets down the fierceness of the idea. There is a promising interplay of action shots with POV shots, which suggest that the monster (who looks/stalks on as horror monsters from their POV position tend to do) is akin to the voyeur in the audience getting off on the sex between the "beautiful people." The sight of the monster forcing a gorgeous young woman to suck his over-sized member certainly throws the target audience's ugly fantasies in their face. But D'Amato has developed similar ideas better in other films, and Porno Holocaust is a potentially fierce idea let down by the execution (even D'Amato's usual cinematographic skills let him down with much dreary camera-work).

Review/synopsis

[Groverdox · 5/10 · 8 October 2020]

The ridiculously titled "Porno Holocaust" is a strange, potent mix of horror and pornography from the maligned sleaze maestro, Joe D'Amato. D'Amato is sometimes referred to as the "Evil Ed Wood", and it's true that he churned out a surfeit of garbage movies in search of a quick buck, but Ed Wood never made a movie as good as "Buio Omega", and never did he have D'Amato's skill as a lensman (D'Amato worked with both Godard and Jean Renoir behind the camera).

The movie begins with a group of scientists boarding a ship to take them to some far off place where nuclear testing was conducted in the '50s, and "monsters" have been sighted, or some such thing. They have barely gotten off the boat when a wanton young lady among their number tears the clothes off her husband but he leaves her unsatisfied. She is still naked when another young female scientist enters the room. They exchange slaps across the face before tumbling into bed with each other for a prolonged lesbian scene.

Later, the pretty female scientist who just liaised with the unfulfilled one goes to what appears to be a kind of brothel for women, staffed by black men, who sit around chatting in the nude. She has sex with two of them at once, giving blowjobs and doing full penetration, which surprised me. I thought this was a softcore flick, partly because the women in it are too good looking to be full-on porn stars, but maybe I've just been spoiled by the PornHub age.

Another of the crew is a beautiful woman with skin so dark I assumed she were black, but I think she might just have an extraordinary tan. She heads to the beach with the captain and wastes no time in stripping nude in front of him. Of course, they then have sex on the beach.

The captain is played by a guy pseudonymously known as Mark Shannon, allegedly the first Italian actor to have sex on camera.

He puts his tongue straight in her mouth, which is kind of disgusting, and is then shown going down on her in graphic detail. They also sixty-nine, so I guess although the women in the movie might be better looking than your average porn stars, the sex is no less by-numbers. You almost believe the characters have feelings for each other, but then their first sexual encounter probably couldn't have been achieved without an assistant director telling them when to switch to the next position.

The enormous George Eastman, known from D'Amato's infamous "Anthropophagous", is also in the movie, I guess playing a scientist, which is what most of the characters are.

At forty-five minutes in the hypersexual crew finally visits the island, where we finally get some horror movie tricks - ie. point of view shots, deep breathing on the soundtrack. I didn't mention yet that the movie is almost two hours long. I guess all the sex really pads it out.

Despite supposedly being on the island for professional, scientific purposes, the ladies waste little time in stripping down to their bikinis - surprisingly not naked. Sample of their scientific dialogue:

"Does your pussy still hurt?" "More than you know. Those black b*stards really busted my hole. But what a magnificent f*ck!"

The men just leave the women while they go and do their job. Aren't the women supposed to be scientists as well?

You'll never believe what the women do in their absence, aside from that charming conversation. Yes, it's another lesbian scene. Those scientists just can't keep their hands off each other.

Unsurprisingly the captain and tanned girl also have sex again. Their positions look uncomfortable and unpleasant.

The movie finally delivers the horror at about an hour and a quarter in. A guy with a mask that makes him look like a generic zombie attacks the sexually uninterested guy while he is in the ocean, grabbing him by the neck and drowning him. This is a surprisingly non-violent and boring way to off him. But wait!

He then approaches the guy's sex-mad spouse, and forces her to give him a blowjob!

I knew the movie was a mix of horror and porn, but I didn't realise we'd get both in the same scene.

The lady apparently dies from oral sex, perhaps choked by the mutant's penis.

The mutant kills some other guy by hitting him with a rock, and another apparently with a tree branch. These scenes are far more gory than such an injury would probably be in real life. Both men look like they have a plate of meatballs on their faces as a result of a single collision.

The dark skinned girl meets another mutated man, this one clearly a black man that the mutation seems to have exaggerated his Negroid features. His nose is much wider, and the nostrils bigger. He knocks the dark skinned girl out and takes her to a clearing some place.

There's some more lame death scenes, another mutant sexual assault, and then our final boy and girl finally have the bright idea of leaving this island. They're not so traumatised by the experience that they don't have sex on the boat on the way back.

"Porno Holocaust" isn't as bad as it might have been, but that's about as good as I can say about it. The actor Mark Shannon, allegedly the O.G. Italian pornstar, has warts on his scrotum that are visible in all of his sex scenes, if that helps you at all.

The title of the movie says it all.

[sauravjoshi85 · 4/10 · 22 May 2021]

Porno Holocaust is a sexploitation horror movie directed by Late Joe D'Amato and stars Late Mark Shannon, George Eastman, Dirce Funari and Annj Goren.

The title of the movie is more than enough to give you the synopsis of the movie. The director famous for mainly making porn movies has tried to insert story in between the porn.

Hardcore porn lovers and soft porn lovers both will be happy after watching the movie. A must watch if you like any of these genre.

A Must for D'Amato fans

[sculptured117 · 8/10 · 30 March 2000]

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.

some fine moments of sexploitation

[christopher-underwood · 7/10 · 12 January 2007]

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.

Simply horrible

[Leofwine_draca · 1/10 · 9 August 2016]

About the only thing this Joe D'Amato-directed sleaze fest has going for it is an authentic Caribbean setting, given that it was filmed in the Dominican Republic. Otherwise it's a film entirely devoid of merit, a grubby work of pornography masquerading as a sex/horror film. The story is about a group of characters who arrive on a desert island and discover that a radioactive mutant with a penchant for raping women to death is on the prowl.

Admittedly the premise sounds, well, controversial, and this could have been another ANTHROPOPHAGUS THE BEAST had the emphasis been on the horror. But it isn't. The horror elements of the film are almost entirely non-existent and only turn up in the last half an hour, although there are a few P.O.V. heavy breathing scenes in the first hour as an unseen presence watches the proceedings.

Instead this is all about the sex, and D'Amato stages possibly some of the most repellent sex scenes ever. The actors and actresses are all sweaty and dirty-looking and the porno moments are about as boring as you could imagine. PORNO HOLOCAUST is the kind of film that would put people off sex, not arouse them in any way. The cast members include the hard-working Mark Shannon and big George Eastman, who also wrote what little plot and dialogue there is. D'Amato seems to be preoccupied with other stuff while directing this, leaving it a plodding and gruelling watch due to its sheer ineptitude.

Nearly no horror, just porn!

[DJ Inferno · 3 March 2002]

"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!!

Don't expect much horror

[r_pettersson · 4/10 · 1 April 2013]

The reason I decided to see this movie was because of the combination of sex and violence. Personally, this movie is not recommended for the violence because it's not until the ending that the killer actually shows up. Indeed that makes me a little disappointed, maybe it was wrong that I expected something from it.

All people except the black girl are killed and I won't complain about the effects because I know it is low budget. The movie ends happy after all so they can have some nice time together once again.

This is nothing for a horror fan. Watch it for the horny parts because that is what this movie is about.

Overlong and dull porno!

[The_Void · 4/10 · 24 September 2007]

Well, since it's called Porno Holocaust and directed by Joe D'Amato, I went into this film expecting sleaze...and while I somewhat got it, Porno Holocaust was a massive disappointment as it's just so damned BORING. The title suggests that the film will feature porn, and that's not wrong - Porno Holocaust is pretty much just porn, and most of it is just the same stuff over and over again, I was fast forwarding before the end. The first sex scene is between two women and it got my hopes up, but after that it just degenerates into normal porn, and the rest of the film (for the first hour!) is made up of talking, and you can imagine how much fun that is to sit through! The plot focuses on a deserted island where, believe it or not, something strange is going on. Naturally, it's not long before a group of people - made up of a few men and some scientists, who all happen to be sexy women, land on the island. They have sex a few times and some strange things happen, then over an hour later they're attacked by a mutant zombie creature with an eye for the ladies...

This must have seemed like a good idea for an original porno - a zombie who likes to get it on, but unsurprisingly it doesn't work well at all. The film clocks in at just ten minutes short of the two hour mark, and that is far too long for a film like this. I have no idea why Porno Holocaust is as long as it is; if they'd just snipped one minute out of every sex scene, the film would have been under ninety minutes, and that would have made it much more tolerable! The zombie takes what seems like an eternity to appear (it's quite a long time before there's a sex break long enough for them to actually travel to the island in the first place), and when it does finally appear, it's a huge disappointment! I realise that this is low budget B-movie trash, but D'Amato surely could have tried a bit harder and come up with something better than this! I'm not even going to bother mentioning the acting, atmosphere etc, there's no point. Porno Holocaust is basically just your average dull porn flick with a slight sprinkling of horror, and I can't recommend it!

masterwork

[jdbmjf · 10/10 · 18 November 2008]

I have spent many years studying all the great directors, like Kurosawa, Lean, Fulci, Lenzi, Deodato, Peckinpah, Kubrick and admire them greatly. My favourite film is Once upon a time in America.

I have only recently become a fan of D'Amato, and while he was no horror master, his films were extreme whether it be soft core, hardcore or extreme.

Porno Holocaust is now one of my favourite films, the way its shot is brilliant and the music is catchy.

Joe D'Amato, wasn't a horror master, he's no Fulci or Bava, but however he was a master of erotica, no other director could shoot erotic films like him, he also never tried making any films outside of these genre's either.

Long live Joe D'Aamto-Master of Porn and Erotica!

Nearly Identicle To EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD...

[EVOL666 · 6/10 · 25 December 2007]

Sleaze-maestro Joe D'Amato serves up another exploit ho-hummer with PORNO HOLOCAUST. Shot with much of the same cast as EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD (with the exception of a noticeably missing Laura Gemser), on the same island, with the same type of "zombies" strolling around. My copy is Italian language only, so here's what I got from it.

A group of people go to the aforementioned island, bone a lot, and then get attacked by pug-nosed zombies. Said zombies must be horny too, cuz the highlight of the film is a zombie-rape scene. Most of the group of non-zombies is killed off, but two survive, and start boning as soon as their little canoe gets off the island...

No real idea what was going on in PORNO HOLOCAUST other than what was mentioned above. There's quite a bit more hardcore sex in this film than in EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD, and the films end differently, but other than that (and the exclusion of Gemser...), I doubt I'd be able to tell the two films apart if I hadn't seen either in a while. Worth a look to fans of D'Amato's sleazy romps, but not one of his more notable films either...6/10

Genius Ending

[bjfazz · 7/10 · 16 August 2010]

Many criticize this film on the basis of pornography, poor acting & script, and the lack of a "holocaust" plot, but there is another way to approach this film. In light of the other "holocaust" films, such as Cannibal, etc., it seems that D'Amato was fully aware of what was happening in the genre with Franco, Deodato, Lenzi, etc. at the time and decided to create a satire with those other movies in mind. Yes, this film is almost entirely porno, but that is the satire in the film. Instead of cannibals it is sex. So, picture Cannibal Holocaust with its unforgiving and repeated scenes of cannibalism and animal cruelty and apply those to porno. What is the end result? A Porno Holocaust. It is an exploitation of porno in general and if any one could do it successfully, it's D'Amato.

It seems the last scene of the film gives all the intent of the film away. D'Amato was certainly a skilled enough film maker to notice the huge mistakes in the final scene. It's almost as if he's saying "I Gotcha!" at the end. The couple immediately having sex once they escape the island, then waving toward the shore while a camera man's head comes out the canoe, all of this portrays the genius of D'Amato.

So, what's the point he's making? I feel he is simultaneously taking a slap at the exploitative industry while at the same time participating in its excessive characteristics, almost like saying here it is, good or bad, this is what we do in this field, enjoy! Other D'Amato films display his skill in film making, this isn't necessarily one of them, but what it does do is make you think about why you are watching the film and if it should be titillating or not.

D'Amato shagathon with a randy mutant thrown in for good measure.

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 18 December 2014]

A scientific expedition to an island used in nuclear testing results in the discovery of a mutated being with a huge appetite for killing and sex.

With packaging promising a 'horny, mutant, cannibalistic zombie' on 'an island exposed to nuclear fallout', the wonderfully titled Porno Holocaust, directed by king of Italian sleaze Joe D'Amato, should be an unmissable exploitation classic; however, with its run-time of nearly two hours, and nary a plot to string the endless scenes of bumping and grinding together, the film couldn't help but be rather tedious and something of a disappointment.

As a porn film, I guess the movie does its job well. The sex is hard and frequent and the cast give it their all, performing the standard roster of XXX movie sex acts with sufficient enthusiasm. The three female adventurers (Lucia Ramirez, Dirce Funari and Annj Goren) are hot and willing, whilst heroic Captain O'Day (Mark Shannon) is THE atypical 70s porn star: all 'tache and mirrored sunglasses (and looking more than a bit like Magnum P.I.).

Unfortunately, those looking for a bit of horror to go with the humping would be recommended to try elsewhere. Except for a couple of brief, and not overly gory, death scenes, the film is pretty much blood free.

Had D'Amato split the action 50/50 between the nookie and the nastiness, I reckon Porno Holocaust would have been an unmissable treat for fans of extreme cinema; as it stands, the film is nothing more than an average hardcore sex-flick that will find few fans outside of the dirty mac brigade.

Awful

[Michael_Elliott · 29 February 2008]

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.

Title tells all.

[haildevilman · 6/10 · 15 May 2007]

Big Joe takes his two best genres and throws them together. And he NEVER lets up on either of them.

Sex, rape, gore, blood, all of it in grand amounts.

Ship goes to desert island. People get raped by creature with radioactive "loads" if you see what I'm saying. Ka-Pow! Joe made this for fun. Had to have. No way was this an attempt at seriousness.

7 and a half feet of George Eastman take the lead here. With Italian XXX vet Mark Shannon (or whatever his real name is) lending his talents as well. The ladies were all sex-film queens as well.

Gotta be a D'Amato fan to see this. No one else will be able to handle it.

Infamous D'Amato Porno Horror Flick

[ray-121 · 6/10 · 23 March 2000]

There has been a lot of rumour about this one, considered the severe cuts the film has suffered in a variety of VHS versions. The uncut version is a very funny and edwoodesque porno horror flick with the Mark Shannon/Manlio Cersosimo (he looks like Harry Reems). The Santo Domingo locations are beautiful as usual all the character walking almost endlessly up and down the small island gives the film an hypnotical aura. Lucia Ramirez is simply beautiful and Dirce Funari has a great scene (if you like extreme cinema). As usual, don't watch this one if you're easily offended, but if you think you're an exploitation fan don't miss this Joe D'Amato masterpiece.