Cannibal Holocaust’s title is something of a misnomer, as a more appropriate name for Roggero Deodato’s stomach-churning, banned-across-the-globe exploitation “classic” – what with all the authentic wildlife murder mixed in amongst the staged bouts of rape, mutilation and mayhem – would have been Animal Holocaust. A strong constitution is certainly required for watching this early Blair Witch precursor, which purports to tell the real-life tale of a professor (Debbie Does Dallas porn legend Robert Kerman) who goes in search of missing documentarians in cannibal-infested Amazonia, discovers their celluloid last will and testament, and then watches their filmed demise at the hands (and mouths) of organ-eating tribesman. From multiple sexual assaults and scenes of gratuitous animal slaughter (don’t watch if you want to remain ignorant about what’s under a turtle’s shell) to a healthy pound of gory, make-believe flesh (including an image of a woman impaled through her throat and genitals on a wooden spike), the film truly goes for the repulsive jugular, couching all of its nastiness in a cinema verité aesthetic that heightens the narrative’s escalating ugliness. Riz Ortolani's serene score nicely counterbalances the hideous action, and the film, to its credit, at least attempts a crude satire of the violence-obsessed media (and its status as an unbiased witness to events). Any subtext, however, is painfully facile, such as director Deodato pathetically justifying the unrepentant carnage by posthumously damning his eaten filmmaker protagonists with a “who are the real monsters – the cannibals or us?” anti-imperialism morale. As clearly elucidated by its shocking gruesomeness – as well as its unabashedly racist portrait of indigenous folks it purports to sympathize with – the actual savages involved with Cannibal Holocaust are the ones behind the camera.
Recent Comments