Cannibal Holocaust: Deluxe Edition
                                      (1979) 
                                         review by Head Cheeze
 

There are movies that are disgusting, but at the same time hold some entertainment value, and then there are movies like Cannibal Holocaust, Ruggero Deodato's cruel and unflinching second foray into the Italian Horror cannibal sug-genre. This is a film that repels on every level, yet remains a favorite amongst many gore-hounds and for good reason.

It's fucking sick.

However, it is not completely without merit.

Cannibal Holocaust is the story of a group of documentary filmmakers who go missing in the Amazon while on a mission to film a group of lost cannibal tribes. When the television station that funded their journey fears the worst, they send anthropolgist Harold Monroe (Kerman) in to investigate. Monroe follows the groups trail and finds that they had become dinner, but he does manage to salvage the film of their journey and returns to New York, where he is offered the job of putting the "lost" footage together and hosting a special broadcast of this intrepid group of adventurers lost footage. When the footage is developed, however, Monroe discovers that the team of filmmakers were not very scientific in their approach, and that the true savages in this documentary were those behind the camera.

Cannibal Holocaust is really two movies in one. For the first half of the film, it is the story of Monroe and his quest to find the lost filmmakers, and it is very much an effective and engaging tale. Monroe's interaction with the lost tribes is handled beautifully by Deodato, and, while there is obviously buckets of gore, the film is actually more of a skillfully handled drama than exploitation piece.

The second half, however, is where the movie stops being entertaining and just turns ugly. The remainder of the film is presented through the cameras of the documentary crew, and while it is a very effective and realistic, Deodato goes overboard with several animal killings, senseless and explicit rape scenes, and flesh-eating sequences that seemingly last forever (making them as boring as they are shocking).

While a film like Umberto Lenzi's Cannibal Ferox also features animal deaths on film, they are presented with a wildlife documentary style that is actually used in REAL wildlife documentaries in which the filmmakers stage encounters between animals and the "trials of life" unfold. Deodato, however, has his ACTORS killing animals, and it appears as though the are enjoying it! They shoot a piglet for no reason at all, hack apart a turtle (as the natives in Ferox do) , but then play with it's severed head and
limbs while the camera leers at the creatures still kicking remains as though this were somehow funny. It's not funny, nor is it even remotely neccessary in most of the cases.

This also holds true for the rape scenes, of which there are MANY. I can understand a rape scene if it is used as a method with which to create a motivation for the characters, make us hate someone, or simply to be the cause and effect of a revenge scenario, but Holocaust just seems to have rapes occur for no reason at all other than to see naked woman suffer humiliation for a sick audience who enjoys that sort of thing. Even when a rape scene that DOES motivate the plot occurs, it, like almost everything else in this film, is done with lurid excess.

Now, while I obviously dislike this movie, I know there are also those who count it amongst their favorites of the genre, and I can appreciate the fact that Cannibal Holocaust is what it wants to be, which is disturbing exploitative cinema. One also has to give scribe Gianfranco Clerici kudos for an excellent narrative idea that pre-dates The Blair Witch Project by two decades. The "through lost footage" storytelling of the second half DOES truly disturb, even without Deodato's raging excesses.

I give Cannibal Holocaust two skulls for it's excellent first half, and for the innovative narrative of Clerici's script, but as for the rest of the film it's definitely an acquired taste that I won't be acquiring any time soon.

This Region 1 DELUXE EDITION DVD from EC comes pretty light in the extras department. Aside from a short interview with Deodato, the only other extras are a stills gallery and a bio and filmography section. Not exactly "DELUXE" stuff, and certainly not worth the exhorbitant price tag ($30 dollars or more, depending on the
source).

It's funny, because the cheaper Region 2 disc, also from EC, is only a lowly "Collectors Edition", yet features a much nicer package including two Deodato interviews, a fold out cover, a booklet, and two rare trailers. If you're a fan, and happen to either live in Europe, or own a multi-region player, the Region 2 disc is the way to go.