Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Ruggero Deodato

Writer:

Gianfranco Clerici (story)

Release Date:

19 June 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Horror

Tagline:

Ripout! Barbeque! Devour! How long can you take it?

Plot:

An anthropologist heads a rescue party into the South American jungle to find a missing film team making a documentary on cannibal tribes but can only return with their footage, which reveals their crueler intentions.

Plot Keywords:

Tribe | Cannibal | Professor | Jungle | New York

Cast

Robert Kerman	...	Harold Monroe
Francesca Ciardi	...	Faye Daniels
Perry Pirkanen	...	Jack Anders
Luca Barbareschi	...	Mark Tomaso (as Luca Giorgio Barbareschi)
Salvatore Basile	...	Chaco Losojos
Ricardo Fuentes	...	Felipe Ocanya
Carl Gabriel Yorke	...	Alan Yates (as Gabriel Yorke)
Paolo Paoloni	...	Chief NY Executive
Lionello Pio Di Savoia	...	Executive (as Pio Di Savoia)
Luigina Rocchi	...	Native

Also Known As:

Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

95 min | UK:89 min (heavily cut) | USA:90 min (animal cruelty-free version) | Canada:86 min (Québec)

Country:

Italy

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital (2001 re-release) | Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Norway:18 (re-rating: 2005) (uncut) | Singapore:(Banned) | Norway:(Banned) (1984-2005) | Australia:(Banned) (1984-2005) | Italy:VM18 (re-rating: 1984) | Finland:(Banned) (1984-2001) | Hong Kong:III | Japan:R-18 | Malaysia:(Banned) | Sweden:15 | UK:18 (re-rating: 2001) (heavily cut) | UK:X (self applied: 1981) | Philippines:(Banned) | New Zealand:(Banned) (2006) | Denmark:15 | Brazil:18 | Mexico:C | France:-16 (original rating) | Australia:R (re-rating: 2005) (uncut) | Ireland:18 (re-rating: 2006) | Germany:18 (heavily cut) | Ireland:(Banned) (1984-2006) | Finland:K-18 (re-rating: 2001) | South Africa:18 | France:-16 | France:-18 (DVD) | Canada:16+ (Quebec) (heavily cut) | Argentina:X (original rating) | Argentina:16 (re-rating) | Sweden:(Banned) (original rating) | Germany:Not Rated (uncut DVD version) | Italy:VM18 (1980, cut) | Iceland:(Banned) | Netherlands:16 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | UK:(Banned) (1984-2001) | USA:Open (rating surrendered: 1985) | USA:X (original rating: 1984) | West Germany:(Banned) | Canada:R | Italy:(Banned) (1980-1984) | USA:Unrated | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Amazon Rainforest, Colombia

Company:

F.D. Cinematografica

Trivia:

The actresses used in the scene in which the professor bathes naked in a river were hired from a local brothel.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: When Faye has got a spider on her shoulder, she is screaming and talking at the same time.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Reporter: Man is omnipotent; nothing is impossible for him. What seemed like unthinkable undertakings yesterday are history today. The conquest of the moon for example: who talks about it anymore? Today we are already on the threshold of conquering our galaxy, and in a not too distant tomorrow, we'll be considering the conquest of the universe, and yet man seems to ignore the fact that on this very planet there are still people living in the stone age and practicing cannibalism.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ban the Sadist Videos! (2005) (V)

this frightened me more than anything ever had

What can I say ... I would like to rate this movie a 20 out of 10 for the pure horrofying, shocking, heart devouring impact it had on me and a 50 out of 10 for its attempt to approach the reality of a documentary - because at first that's what I thought it was - but then I read somewhere that in the making of this movie the animals were actually tortured and that this part was no SE work. In total six animals are brutally killed on screen: - A large, screaming coatimundi (often mistaken as a muskrat) is stabbed multiple times in the neck by an actor. - A large turtle (about three feet long) is captured in the water and dragged to shore, where it is then decapitated and its limbs and shell removed. The actors proceed to cook and eat the turtle. - A large spider is killed with a machete. - A snake is killed with a machete. - A squirrel monkey is captured by a native actor portraying a tribesman, who cuts the monkey's face off with a machete while it is struggling and then eats the brains. - A pig is kicked and then killed with a rifle when shot in the head by an actor.

Although I'm the kinda guy that likes to be shocked now and then and have his blood being pumped faster through his veins by a film, this is not quite what I'm looking for when I consult the horror section.

When I found out a couple of years ago that CH was not a real documentary of people molesting, hammer smashing, killing and eating each other, that was a relieving thought and a weight of my chest and heart. However I will not support any film that includes the intentional harming of a creature in order to capture its screamings in pain on tape! Sickening - NO THANKS!