Video Nasty #1- Cannibal Holocaust

(1980)
Director: Ruggero Deodato
Writer: Gianfranco Clerici

Cannibal Holocaust is an important film that is not only skillfully made, but socially relevant as well.

Some people (mostly those who have never seen the film) would read those words and think they were a joke. That's a damn shame. But who could blame them? When one hears a title like Cannibal Holocaust, one can't help but picture a mindless, exploitative mondo film. Not that there's anything wrong with the mondo films, but Cannibal Holocaust offers so much more.

I first discovered Cannibal Holocaust probably about 10 years ago. The Blair Witch had come out a few years prior and I enjoyed that (I saw it before the ridiculous amount of hype overtook it), and I had just seen a film called The Last Broadcast. I was interested in the idea of "found footage" films and decided to track down what I could. There actually weren't a whole lot of films in this style back then, unlike there is today, so it wasn't long before I caught wind of Cannibal Holocaust. I had heard the title before and just figured it was another of the seemingly endless cannibal movies of the 70's which never seemed to interest me very much. So when I heard that it was also a found footage film, I asked around about it. I was told by the few people that had seen it that it was horrible, an irredeemable, gratuitously gory mess. I was told not to waste my time. So of course, at that point, I HAD to see it. And let me tell you, I was blown away. That was the end of my interest in found footage films. No other film could compare. I had just seen the ultimate found footage film.

I could seriously go on and on about all the things that make Cannibal Holocaust such a great film. The breathtaking aerial shots, the juxtaposition of the actual slaughter of animals and staged sequences of violence against people which make the movie seem almost real, the building sense of dread and uneasiness, the way the sweeping score by Riz Ortolani lends a sort of beauty to the brutality you're witnessing on screen. Cannibal Holocaust is a film that makes you feel bad for liking it. A film that drives you to ask important moral questions not only of yourself but of society as a whole. Those who have already seen it know these things. Those who have not can only understand once they've seen it for themselves. Some films you watch, Cannibal Holocaust you experience.

It's no wonder then that Cannibal Holocaust is one of the more notorious of the video nasties. The gruesomely titillating video cover (seen above) was practically begging to cause trouble. It was one of the first videos to be prosecuted by the DPP, and to this day I'm not sure that it's ever been released in it's full, unedited form in the UK. It's a shame really, because Cannibal Holocaust is an important and extremely well made film, and should be critical viewing for any students of film or journalism. And that's no joke.

 Enjoyability: 10 1/2 beers out of 12 (Please note that rating is not indicative of the number of beers consumed during film)

Quality:  9 out of 10 skulls