Cannibal Holocaust

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“During a rescue mission into the Amazon rainforest, a professor stumbles across lost film shot by a missing documentary crew.”

My sister asked me why I was reviewing this movie. She had to ask me that because this movie is something I actually had a hard time even watching once. And if I do a review, I watch it again.

This movie was actually banned after its release. And the director had been taken to court because they thought the actors had really died.

That’s right. Even before “The Blair Witch Project” or “UFO Abduction,” this movie put a solid stamp on the found footage sub-genre. That may be one of the only things that made me watch this movie in the first place.

I don’t even really know what to say about the so-called “plot.” This movie is just one take on gore or violence after another. Also, while the deaths of the people are theatrical, the actual abuse of the animals is 100% real. The turtle scene actually gave some of the cast forms of PTSD.

So why does this movie exist? Why has it survived this long? Perhaps the answer is best put by the director. He had been watching to news at his house when his son asked him to turn it off because it was so horrific. That’s when Ruggero realized that the media showed horrors day after day while fiction was being held back.

That may be his inspiration but that doesn’t justify this movie to me.

Watch at your own risk.