Cannibal Holocaust

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Cannibal Holocaust is essentially a fictitious Mondo film where a small group of American sensationalist sadistic documentarians go into the jungle to “film” an account of cannibal tribes. They never returned to New York and the desire to find them (they had a couple documentaries that were heralded) is of direct interest from a company of television/film executives wanting to benefit from their punch-in-the-gut work. So a professor of anthropology agrees to head into the jungle, a guide named Paco and his associate leading the way, in a mission to find them. The professor realizes that each tribe they encounter fears him, so he tries to secure their trust by behaving humanely and attempting to prove to them that he means them no harm. Canisters of footage are soon discovered as are the crew’s skeletal remains, fashioned into a unified “evil god”, a representation of the evil they brought to the tree people tribe. The professor, with help and guidance from Paco and his assistant, is successful in his mission by trading over his cassette recorder, with a tape of chants that pleases the tribe greatly. What the footage unveils is the ghoulish actions of the crew, the rough cut conveying their monstrous personalities and lengths for which to exploit the people and their culture in horrendous ways.

This is a film that is unflinching and direct in its path to shock and repulse. What is normal and everyday for the tribe is documented such as the treatment towards adulterous women and a member of the tribe that betrays his people. A female body (this is one of the most impressive special effects scenes I’ve ever seen; it is so grotesquely realistic, some believe it was real!) is impaled on a spike and the doc crew are enthusiastic about its power in image (the camera operator has to tell the host he’s rolling so the cretin would remove his look of sick pleasure and replace it with faux disgust!). The rapes and sodomy certainly left me wanting to turn my head and press fast forward. The clubbing of heads happens several times, often up, close, and personal.

The animal cruelty is legend for this film; the blunt force of machete violence towards a snake, spider, turtle, and monkey, and the gunshot to the pig have provided this film with a reputation harshly condemning it by rights activists. The turtle slaying by the doc crew and the beheading of the monkey by a tribe savage, in particular, are grueling, but the squealing pig upon being shot isn’t a walk in the park. The gruesome destruction of the first camera operator as his body is torn to bits and pieces by the tribe who capitalize on his death by a spear while shooting his rifle at them will test the strongest of stomachs. The crew tormenting a tribe, rushing many of them into a hut and setting it on fire, and the following sex scene of the male/female host team (energized by their actions towards the tribe!) reinforce the message regarding “who the real cannibals are” (that collective groan of such a pretentious statement is rather deserved, in my opinion), and Cannibal Holocaust monitors--and casts an appall on--the crew, who are supposed to be civilized but behave as anything but. The opening trip into the Amazon, and the later footage found dictate two separate and completely different approaches towards the tribes, and the respect and treatment of them indicate that the right or wrong method of communication will yield a significant result.

I think the power of the film lies in its “fly on the wall” capturing of tribes alien to “societal progress” and how actions caught on camera circumvent the desire of suits to feature the footage to satiate a television audience hungry for their red meat and shock to the senses. Many consider this film the godfather of found footage and a precursor to The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. Mondo films were already exploiting violence across cultural lines prior to Cannibal Holocaust, but Deodato takes the advantage of that by weaving together a story about demonic souls using the format of a documentary to act as they so wish, suffering the consequences for doing so. The contrast in how the professor is able to successfully mingle with these people while the crew abrasively earns their rage is purposely used as evidence to indict or promote ways to act towards people that come from a totally different set of customs and way of life.

Do I have problems with the way this film beats us over the head with its message? Sure, and I think all that animal violence is unnecessary, but all of this is to prove a point and substantiate Deodato’s message. However, I do roll my eyes at a message that balks at sensationalizing while, at the same time, the film itself does so constantly. I can’t deny this film’s power and the gore effects are incredible (if so intricately detailed they elicited snuff film arrests!), but the message is a sledgehammer.

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