Cannibal Holocaust

[akiratubo]

This movie has quite a reputation.  I had seen Cannibal Holocaust a long time ago, albeit a highly cut version that removed most of the gore and the infamous animal killings, and that version had almost no impact on me at all, perhaps understandably.  Well, I finally bit the bullet and checked out a completely uncut version.

The uncut version of Cannibal Holocaust shocked me ... with how boring it frequently is.  A whole lot of this movie is taken up by people walking around in the jungle.  In the first half, we have a small team walking around in the jungle trying to find out the fate of a lost film crew.  In the second half of the movie, we get to watch that film crew's lost footage, which is mostly of them walking around in the jungle while saying "f**k" a lot.

All that walking around in the jungle is occasionally interrupted with scenes of people killing animals (which is not faked), or people killing each other (which is faked).  The animal killings are what give the movie what punch it has but they also sabotage it.  Compared to the animal killings, the fake gore on display has absolutely no impact whatsoever, not even the movie's most famous setpiece: the impalement of a native woman on a large, pointed pole.  It doesn't help that some of the violence is poorly staged.  Witness the way the natives pull their punches during the scene where they beat a woman to death with rocks.

Along with being sort of boring, Cannibal Holocaust's main failure is in its handling of the lost footage.  When we get to see it, it is shot like a movie, it is edited like a move, and it even has music!  It's not a raw, unflinching documentary of the film crew's savage cruelty, it's just a movie - and kind of a boring one.  Perhaps worse, the lost footage is frequently interrupted by scenes of characters discussing it.  It would have been a far better idea to present the lost footage as exactly that: raw, unedited, poorly shot film depicting the wanton savagery of the film crew, shown without interruption.

For my money, Cannibal Holocaust is just another cannibal movie.  Director Ruggero Deodato's earlier Jungle Holocaust is far superior, as far as these things go.

[retrorussell]

I totally agree about Jungle Holocaust being better.  I love that flick!  But I think Cannibal Holocaust isn't bad.  Certainly not as enjoyable as Jungle (because no one is really likable in Cannibal) but it was better than average as far as cannibal flicks go.

[The Burgomaster]

I also think CANNIBAL FEROX (aka MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY) is better than CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST.

[lester1/2jr]

It's been a while since I've seen it but Cannibal holocaust really blew me away, jus tthe energy of it.

[R-T-C Tim]

An interesting bit of news, the UK DVD company Shameless are apparently working with director Ruggero Deodato to make a new cut of the film which will remove the infamous animal cruelty (which has always had to be censored on the UK DVDs). Likely to be released on SD and Blu-ray later this year.

[Mr. DS]

I have this on VHS I think.  Then again it could be a different cannibal movie.  Either way, it kind of proves that this film could possibly be not very memorable.  Is this the one where a guy's d!ck gets eaten by a cannibal?

[R-T-C Tim]

I have this on VHS I think.  Then again it could be a different cannibal movie.  Either way, it kind of proves that this film could possibly be not very memorable.  Is this the one where a guy's d!ck gets eaten by a cannibal?

Not sure, that seemed to be rather common element, but it is the film with this soundtrack.

[The Burgomaster]

I have this on VHS I think.  Then again it could be a different cannibal movie.  Either way, it kind of proves that this film could possibly be not very memorable.  Is this the one where a guy's d!ck gets eaten by a cannibal?

Not sure, that seemed to be rather common element, but it is the film with this soundtrack.

No.  CANNIBAL FEROX (aka MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY) has the penis eating scene.

[Allhallowsday]

I have this on VHS I think.  Then again it could be a different cannibal movie.  Either way, it kind of proves that this film could possibly be not very memorable.  Is this the one where a guy's d!ck gets eaten by a cannibal?

Yeh, that's in CANNIBAL FEROX (aka MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY) - not only forgettable, but offensive.  Did I mention dumb?  

[voltron]

I agree with these posts. The film has quite the reputation for it's depiction of violence, but overall it was a letdown when I finally saw it.

[Mr. DS]

I have this on VHS I think.  Then again it could be a different cannibal movie.  Either way, it kind of proves that this film could possibly be not very memorable.  Is this the one where a guy's d!ck gets eaten by a cannibal?

Yeh, that's in CANNIBAL FEROX (aka MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY) - not only forgettable, but offensive.  Did I mention dumb?  

Yep thats it.  The cannibal eats the penis uncooked too.   

[Allhallowsday]

Yep thats it.  The cannibal eats the penis uncooked too.   

And I'm glad to know that you don't approve of eating uncooked penis...

[The Burgomaster]

Yep thats it.  The cannibal eats the penis uncooked too.   

And I'm glad to know that you don't approve of eating uncooked penis...

It can give you botulism.

[Criswell]

Oh Cannibal Holocaust, quite possibly the best party movie ever 

[Archivist]

I'm a softie, and Scanners or the Reanimator movies are about as bad as I will watch (maybe Hellraiser), so the various Cannibal movies are not on my watch-list.  But I will say that the mention of the eating of an uncooked penis in Cannibal Ferox made me Google it up, and I came across this wonderful list of 'the 12 most painful movie castrations ever':

http://omghorror.blogfaction.com/article/101237/feature-the-12-most-painful-movie-castrations-ever/

I love the description of a man being emasculated by Bigfoot in "Night of the Demon".