A film I said I would never review, well I lied and with so much to talk about let's get this bit over with. Ruggero Deodato's notorious Cannibal Holocaust.

Starring: Robert Kerman, Francesca Ciardi, Perry Pirkanen, Luca Barbareschi (as Luca Giorgio Barbareschi), Salvatore Basile, Ricardo Fuentes and Carl Gabriel Yorke (as Gabriel Yorke).

Renowned among gorehounds and exploitation fans the world over, predominantly for it's savagely nihilistic depictions of cannibal tribes, human survival and the killing of innocent animals. It's certainly not a film intended to be seen by everyone, especially the fainthearted but, in my opinion Cannibal Holocaust is a cut above every other cannibal film produced throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. Unlike his contemporaries: D'Amato and Lenzi, Deodato utilizes a unique and jarringly realistic approach to his film's narrative structure. Using what is essentially a 'film within a film' (not to forget the "Last Road to Hell" sequence, which is best saved for a separate paragraph), Deodato successfully constructs a believable split narrative running along separate timelines.

Wherein one segment, a crew of documentary filmmakers disappear whilst filming in the jungles of the Amazon. The crew is comprised of Alan Yates (Yorke), the director; Faye Daniels (Ciardi), Alan's girlriend and scriptwriter; and two cameramen, Jack Anders (Pirkanen) and Mark Tomaso (Barbareschi).



In relation to the aforementioned "Last Road to Hell" sequence, the entire segment is essentially stock footage of real-life executions of prisoners by a militant group, supposedly in Nigeria. It is an example of a 'Mondo' documentary film. According to Deodato, he included it to draw a comparison between Cannibal Holocaust and the 'Mondo' films of Gualtiero Jacopetti. In my opinion it can be interpreted as either a criticism or homage to the 'Mondo' film genre.

The other segment deals with one Harold Monroe (Kerman), a New York University anthropology Professor, who has agreed to lead an expedition in search of the missing documentarian crew. He flies to the amazon to meet his guide, Chaco (Basile). The pair, along with Chaco's assistant Miguel and a captured member of the Yacumo tribe travel deep into the green inferno in search of the missing crew. Whilst making their way through the thicket they come to a clearing, wherein they witness a female member of the Yacumo tribe being punished for adultery. After allowing the male Yacumo member to finish his ritual, they scare him off by firing warning shots into the air and follow him to another clearing. Here they negotiate the release of their hostage, in return, being taken to the Yacumo's village.

Following their arrival to the village, the group is greeted with much hostility, it soon becomes known that the 'missing' film crew caused unrest within the native's settlement.
Monroe and his companions take off once again in search of something more conclusive, regarding the missing the crew. Conclusive is certainly what they discover. After another long trek, the trio locate two warring cannibal tribes known as the Yanomamo and the Shamatari. Coming to the aid of the Yanomamo, the group are invited back to their village, however here too they are treated with suspicion. In an attempt to gain their trust, Monroe strips down and bathes in a river. A group of Yanomamo girls find his act amusing and frolic with him in the water, before leading him to a shrine made from the skeletons and equipment of the missing crew. With Monroe's fears confirmed, he returns to New York with the missing crew's canisters, he along with the Pan American Broadcast Company sit down to view what the team shot and it is only here they begin to understand the true atrocities and devastation caused by the nefarious documentarians.



Cannibal Holocaust is nothing short of a masterpiece. A convincingly realistic exploration into the heart of the Amazon, all the while remaining completely fictitious (aside from the animal killings and the previously mentioned "Last Road to Hell" vignette).
Deodato's usage of shaky camera work combined with a change in film stock gives the medium an authentic documentarian ambience.
The unsettling soundtrack provided by Riz Ortolani, is a mix of orchestral and electro/synth and serves as a melancholy undercurrent.

Definitely one to watch whether you're a gorehound or cinephile.