Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

Apparently banned in over 50 countries, this movie is often brought up in discussions about the most controversial films of all time. It is also generally cited as the most graphic and horrifying. It is really hard to argue with the controversial title since the director was jailed for 10 days and brought up on murder charges. In order to save himself he had to produce the actors to prove it wasn’t a snuff film and even demonstrate how he did the effects for one of the gags in court. As far as graphic and horrifying it does pretty well here too but it is maybe a bit oversold. The reason it is banned so many places is mostly because the film depicts the killing of several real animals including a sea turtle, a coatimundi, two spider monkeys, a pig, a snake and a trantula. The sea turtle and coatimundi are the wost to watch but all of them leave a bad and lasting taste in your mouth if you care about animals at all. The human deaths in the movie are very graphic and the effects are well done. The use of pig organs really helps to sell the effect since they most closely resemble human organs. Of course, the bottom part of a corpse is used for a crucial penis severing scene which looks very real mostly because it is. There is kind of an emotional disconnect that took place for me that kept the deaths of the ‘documentary film team’ as by the time the cannibals cut, beat and rape them to death we’ve watched them be such evil insufferable bastards that figured fair is fair. They did plenty of killing and raping themselves on their way through the jungle and they really just got what they deserved. I am on the fence about recommending this movie because of the animal death but it is certainly and experience and it stays with you for at least a week afterward.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8