Cannibal Holocaust (1980) is considered one of the first found footage films. It was so convincing in 1980 that the director, Ruggero Deodato, was tried for murdering the cast. Here's the story according to the Film Facts Blog:
Deodato had been charged after the film's premiere in Milan in February, 1980. The film is a pseudo-documentary about a film crew who go to make a film about cannibals in the South American jungle. A rescue team finds what's left of their bodies and the footage, which forms the basis of the film. The last moments show the supposed capture and murder of the missing crew.
This was 20 years before The Blair Witch Project. The Italian judiciary wasn't familiar enough with the 'found footage' genre of horror films to think the film was fiction. One scene in particular, which seemed to show a woman bloodily impaled with a pole, was nauseatingly realistic. Plus, all the actors had disappeared.
Deodato had to cancel the actors' contract. A cunning publicist, he had stipulated they 'disappear' for a year and do no promotion for the film, to encourage fears they were really dead.
He asked them to renege on the deal, and save himself from life in prison. He also had to explain the impaling scene, which was done by getting an actress to sit on bicycle seat and hold the pole in her mouth while covered in blood.
No people were hurt during production. The same wasn't true for animals. The deaths of a monkey, spider and a pig in the film are scenes of genuine slaughter. Actually, two monkeys died in production. Why two? Because Deodato decided two takes of the monkey death scene were necessary.
The film makers had to prove how they created this scene by demonstrating before the court that the indigenous woman had to sit on a bicycle seat with a rod in her mouth.
Deodato later said that he felt guilty about making the film and that some of the things they did in making the film were reprehensible.
He says in an interview with the Guardian:
"In my youth, growing up, I spent a lot of time in the country close to animals and therefore often seeing the moment of their death," he says. "The death of the animals, although unbearable – especially in a present-day urban mindset – always happened in order to feed the film's characters or the crew, both in the story and in reality."
The Guardian article goes on:
More troubling, though, is the treatment of humans in Cannibal Holocaust. Despite Deodato's avowed support for indigenous peoples (he shot the movie on the border between Colombia and Brazil), none are credited, and there's little evidence of interest in their actual tribal customs. He is often accused of racism and exploitation, but he insists they were intelligent, co-operative collaborators. "Of course they understood they were being portrayed as cannibals," he says. "But it's part of their tradition. It's an ancestral thing. When they had a battle, the leader of the losing tribe would be killed and eaten by the winners. It's part of their past. They don't deny that."
This is one of those films that disturbingly transcends the border between fantasy and reality. It was filmed unethically and you even feel a little guilty for watching it. The film is thrilling and emotive, but should you really be watching it? Maybe it really is wrong.
For any genre fan this film is a must watch. Still, it perhaps does go to far.
The disclaimer before the version that we watched states:
The following motion picture contains intense scenes of extreme violence and cruelty.
As distributors of this film, we wish to state with absolute sincerity that by no means do we condone the artistic decisions employed by the makers of this film.
However, as firm believers in the constitutional right of free speech, we do not believe in censorship.
To quote Thomas Jefferson,
"It behooves every man who values the liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions fo it int he case of others."
Therefore, we are presenting CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST for the very first time in its uncut, uncensored original form, with all sequences photographed by the filmmakers, however offensive or repugnant, presented fully intact.
What you will see will definitely shock and offend you.
Nonetheless, it should be viewed as a disturbing historical document of bygone era of extreme irresponsibilty which no longer exists, and hopefully, will never exist again.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
- George Santayana
Basically, it is an example of how not to make a film.
In the film there is a television broadcast where they introduce a dramatic reenactment of historical events entitled the Green Inferno. In 2013 modern day horror auteur Eli Roth would make a film entitled The Green Inferno (2013) as an homage to Cannibal Holocaust.
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