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Before ‘Green Inferno,’ There Was ‘Cannibal Holocaust’

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As we gear up for the release of Eli Roth’s highly anticipated Green Inferno I thought it would be fun to take a look at the film that served as Roth’s greatest inspiration. Of course I’m taking about Cannibal Holocaust, which may very well be the most controversial film of all time.

Before diving into Cannibal Holocaust, I think it’s important to look at the cinema landscape of 1980, which was a very good year for the movies. The Empire Strikes Back, The Blues Brothers and Airplane! all dominated the box office. While the horror films from the year didn’t bring in as much cash, they were still incredibly good and successful in their own right. If you were a genre fan in 1980 you were presented with such treats as The Fog, Maniac, The Shining and Friday the 13th.

Italian horror in particular seemed to really thrive in 1980. The best of the best in terms of Italian filmmakers graced the big screen. Dario Argento returned with Inferno, a film that received little love upon release but has since risen to cult status. Lucio Fulci took us all to the City of the Living Dead. Not one to be outdone by Fulci, Umberto Lenzi invited us to the City of the Walking Dead, more commonly known as Nightmare City. A young Lamberto Bava began to hone his craft with his solo directorial debut, Macabre.

Ruggero Deodato may very well have been the busiest man of 1980. He ended the year with The House on the Edge of the Park, a film in which Deodato considers too violent, even by his standards. However, it was Deodato’s first film of the year that really ruffled some feathers and quite frankly pissed people off.

When Cannibal Holocaust was released in February of 1980 it certainly wasn’t the first cannibal film in existence. It wasn’t even the first cannibal film from Deodato. By this time the cannibal genre as we know it had been rolling along for almost a decade. I’m not sure what it was about 1980, maybe there was something in the air, but nearly 10 new entries would hit the subgenre with Cannibal Holocaust leading the way.

Cannibal Holocaust is a splendid display of exploitation. It’s gory and extremely brutal. It contains some of the most disturbing, disgusting imagery you’ll ever see and is honestly hard to watch at times. The film goes far beyond it’s gruesome surface with a depth most films lack. Cannibal Holocaust serves as a social commentary on the modern world at the time, which just so happens to be pretty relevant these days. It really is a terrific movie, but the basic structure, the meat and potatoes, that’s all pretty standard cannibal fare.

A group of tourists head out to the middle of a rainforest where they encounter a tribe of cannibals. 

Is this the plot to Cannibal Holocaust? Maybe it’s Lenzi’s Deep River Savages? Perhaps it’s the story to Roth’s Green Inferno? In a way it’s all three.

When you really break it down all cannibal films, including Cannibal Holocaust, can be summed up with a fairly generic plot synopsis like the one up above. This isn’t a bad thing or a knock on any cannibal movie. Within any genre, or in this case a subgenre, films are going to share characteristics and more often than not they are plot related. If Cannibal Holocaust wasn’t the first cannibal film, then why was it so special? Why didn’t any of the cannibal films from the eight years prior result in a public outcry? Why hasn’t any cannibal film since had the same impact?

There’s likely a number of answers to this question that you could easily build a case for. It could simply be that Cannibal Holocaust is the best of the genre. Maybe it’s the social commentary, but truthfully I think that’s present in most cannibal films, and horror films in general for that matter. Roth has already gone on record saying that Green Inferno takes a few social jabs. For me, the answer is easy. There’s one thing that rises Deodato’s masterpiece above the rest.

Presentation.

Cannibal Holocaust actually falls into two different horror subgenres – cannibal and found footage. It’s presented as a documentary. Passed off as if it’s real and some people thought it was! In fact, Deodato wanted people to believe it was real so much so that he had the actors sign agreements saying they would basically disappear for a year. They weren’t allowed to be in movies, television shows, commercials or any type of ad. This was to maintain the belief that they had been murdered on screen.

Cannibal Holocaust 2

Just think about how crazy that is for a second. Cannibal Holocaust was released on February 7, 1980. That’s 13 years before Man Bites Dog and 19 years before The Blair Witch Project. This was some serious next level thinking from Deodato. He may not have realized it at the time, but the impact this approach had has been astronomical. Since 2010 alone, there have been nearly 80 new entries into the found footage subgenre. An argument could be made that next to Jaws, Cannibal Holocaust is the most important film of all time.

A week and a half after the film premiered in Milan, Italian authorities seized it and quickly arrested Deodato for making a snuff film. Giving that the deaths look pretty damn real and the actors had not been seen or heard since can you really blame the authorities? Deodato had to demonstrate some of the special effects for the court and locate the actors to appear on his behalf. He was able to avoid life in prison but was still in some hot water.

The animal murders in Cannibal Holocaust are 100% real. Because of this the film was banned due to animal cruelty. Deodato defended his actions at the time, spending three years in court fighting for his film. In 1984 the court finally ruled in his favor and the ban was lifted. Of course numerous other countries around the world would continue their ban on the film, but this was a major victory for Deodato nonetheless.

In a 2010 interview with Electric Sheep Magazine, Deodato further stood by his actions. He argued that people have no problem eating animals so what’s wrong with seeing them killed?

“They don’t make the connection between the food on the table that mummy has cooked from the supermarket, and the fact the animal has actually been killed,” Deodato told Electric Sheep. “When you go to a Third World country people kill animals. I saw pigs and rabbits being killed growing up on a country farm when I was young. My son has not seen this because times have changed, he hasn’t had the experiences I have, for him it all comes pre-packed.”

Agree with him or not, you must admit Deodato makes some excellent points. We live in a society ripe with hypocrisy. I could certainly do without seeing the murder of animals on film, but then I willingly eat meat so who am I to say they shouldn’t be there?

35 years after it’s initial release and Cannibal Holocaust is just as relevant and groundbreaking as ever. Aside from being highly controversial, Cannibal Holocaust is extremely influential and that influence stretches far beyond the cannibal subgenre. The previously mentioned Blair Witch Project owes just as much to Cannibal Holocaust as the Green Inferno does. Hell, it’s not even subject to just horror films these days. David Ayer released a crime drama that likely wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for Cannibal Holocaust.

Deodato paved the way for these films. It’s time we stop looking at Cannibal Holocaust as merely an outrageous movie intending to shock and stir up controversy, and instead see it for it truly is as one of the most important pieces of cinema to ever exist.

Chris Coffel is originally from Phoenix, AZ and now resides in Portland, OR. He once scored 26 goals in a game of FIFA. He likes the Phoenix Suns, Paul Simon and 'The 'Burbs.' Oh and cats. He also likes cats.

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

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leprechaun returns

The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.

The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.

LEPRECHAUN

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).

It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.

The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.

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Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.

Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.

Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Leprechaun Returns movie

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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