Cannibal Holocaust is a 1980 Italian movie directed by Ruggero Deodato. It is considered the grand-daddy of the found footage genre and one of the most disgusting and controversial movies of all time. After the movie's original release, the film was seized until the director could prove to a court of law that he didn't kill his cast.
The first half of this movie focuses on anthropologist Harold Monroe leading an expedition into the South American jungle to rescue a lost group of an American documentary film crew. They really drive home the point in the intro that the film crew is American. The second half is Monroe watching the footage of the original crew that he recovered and discovering why the original crew was brutally murdered and displayed like a grotesque christmas ornament.
The movie is famous for its anti-exploitation message and contains a form of the iconic "Who is the real monster?" line.
This movie is sick. It is gross. It is disgusting. It would be difficult to watch if I hadn't had my soul removed from years of internet shock memes. The effects are quite good when they're used correctly, but often look like bad paper maché. What helps the gore effects out is the use of actual gore. One of the controversies of this movie is that the animals that were killed by the cast during the found footage portion are really being killed on film. It's so undeniably real that it lends credence to the effects used to simulate the human murder and dismemberment. Unfortunately, these scenes are actual slaughter. It's disgusting and it makes me hate the characters.
...Crap, I'm supposed to hate the characters. The original film crew are raging assholes, we're supposed to hate them and be satisfied by their eventual death and dismemberment. It works. Between the senseless animal murder, the sadistic treatment of the natives, and the rape I honestly felt the characters deserved to die.
Cannibal Holocaust isn't what I'd call a good movie. It's disgusting and morally reprehensible, and the characters deserve their gruesome deaths. Really the only thing that makes this worth watching is the horror cred you get from having watched Cannibal Holocaust
Move along.
Tomorrow night, found footage continues with Apollo 18.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment