Editorials
Before ‘Green Inferno,’ There Was ‘Cannibal Holocaust’
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.
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.
We’re now officially in the back half of 2026 now that July is here, but what a year it’s been for horror so far. The sequels and reboots are still holding strong at the box office with films like Scream 7 and Scary Movie, but it’s also been a year where new voices are shattering records in unexpected ways.
Markiplier eschewed conventional production and distribution channels with his feature adaptation of Iron Lung, for example. We’re also still in the midst of Backrooms and Obsession-mania, with the former back in theaters with bonus footage and the latter extending its box office reign. Liminal horror has exploded, and low-budget indie horror is seeing just as much, and sometimes even more, success as big studio-backed fare.
All of which to say that 2026 has been a hell of a year so far for the genre, and it’s only getting warmed up. Still on the way are Evil Dead Burn, Insidious: Out of the Further, Resident Evil, Clayface, Whalefall, and Werwulf, just to name a few.
Also catch up with the Best Horror Books and Best Horror Games of the year so far.
Here are the ten best horror movies of the year (so far).
10) Chime
Horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa is back with one of his most haunting yet, though one that’d likely be higher on this list if it were more accessible. The 45-minute feature was initially produced and distributed as an NFT before receiving a theatrical run earlier this year, with no plans to distribute digitally or on home media. It spins a somewhat cryptic tale, introducing a culinary teacher, Takuji Matsuoka (Mutsuo Yoshioka, Never After Dark), whose classroom becomes disrupted by a strange sound that leads to violence. It’s a quiet but haunting unraveling, one that leaves no aspect of Matsuoka’s life untouched, in true Kiyoshi Kurosawa style. That it defies any easy explanation also ensures Chime embeds itself under your skin.
9) Send Help
Sam Raimi’s splatstick return to form is a delightfully deranged two-hander that doubles as infectious catharsis for anyone who’s ever had a bad boss. Rachel McAdams (Doctor Strange) and Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner) face off when their characters are shipwrecked on an island, prompting a bid for survival in more ways than one. While O’Brien often matches her, It’s McAdams who shines as she deftly handles everything that Raimi, working from a script by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift (Freddy vs. Jason), throws at her. Send Help is full of vibrant personality, packed with all of Raimi’s signatures, making for one of the most entertaining films of the year.
8) Mārama
New Zealand filmmaker Taratoa Stappard’s gothic tale begins in familiar fashion, with Mary Stevens (Ariāna Osborne) arriving in Yorkshire upon invitation to learn more about her parents, only to find the remote manor haunted. Just when Stappard’s period horror story feels doomed to succumb to familiar gothic trappings and jump scares, though, its true horror emerges. The more Mary uncovers about her heritage and her Māori culture, the clearer it becomes that this grim home is built on violence and exploitation. Stappard’s vision comes into its own when it leaves behind its gothic influences and embraces its Māori identity; few scenes are as powerful as when Osborne’s Mary performs a haka in response to her vile oppressors, heralding in a righteous bloodbath.
7) Touch Me
Writer/Director Addison Heimann draws from retro Japanese horror, exploitation cinema, and perhaps even hentai for his campy, psychosexual sophomore feature. A toxic friendship plagued by trauma, codependency, and addiction gets tested to the extreme when Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci), a hip-hop-loving, tracksuit-sporting alien, gets between them. Olivia Taylor Dudley and Jordan Gavaris have an easy rapport and play off each other well as directionless, depressed Millennial besties prone to ignoring their problems until they become insurmountable. But it’s Pucci’s inspired, childlike take on the chicken nugget-loving extraterrestrial with tentacled secrets of his own that steals the show. Heimann has a lot on his mind with his sophomore feature and neatly condenses it all into a quirky, eccentric psychosexual camp odyssey that leans heavily into humor.
6) Backrooms
Director Kane Parsons translates the vast liminal labyrinth of his web series to the big screen in his feature debut, one that instills existential dread with its atmospheric horror and narrative. The ‘ 90s-set horror movie introduces a protagonist with a serious chip on his shoulder over life’s many disappointments, who then discovers his furniture store harbors a hidden door that leads to an endless labyrinth. It’s not just the incredible production design that instills a disorienting sense of doom and terror, but the lead characters’ palpable and profound sense of loneliness and isolation. Parsons exudes impressive confidence and control as he methodically entrusts his quiet worldbuilding and talented leads to carry the dramatic weight. While Backrooms does deflate by the film’s cryptic, cliffhanger-y end, it’s arguably the most effective and scariest yet at capturing the uncanny valley of generative AI.
5) Leviticus
Writer/Director Adrian Chiarella uses an It Follows-like supernatural entity that relentlessly stalks its prey as a launchpad to immerse audiences in the horror of constantly living in fear for simply existing. A conversion therapy ritual among a deeply conservative community plunges a pair of erstwhile lovers into a nightmarish bid for survival when it summons a force that takes the shape of those whom the afflicted desires most. Chiarella refines the horror mechanics and metaphor with much sharper precision, ensuring that the scares and emotional gravity of the young couple’s terrifying predicament reach their intended impact. It’s the central layered performances by Joe Bird (Talk to Me) and Stacy Clausen (Thrash) that clinch emotional investment in their heartbreaking plight, ensuring that the social horror cuts deep.
4) Redux Redux
The McManus Brothers, writer/director duo Matthew and Kevin McManus (The Block Island Sound), dials up the intensity of a classic revenge story by setting it within a multiverse, where Irene Kelly (Michaela McManus) seeks to snuff out every single iteration of her daughter’s murderer, Neville (Jeremy Holm). The more she stalks and slays every world’s Neville, the more she risks losing her humanity entirely. Through a narrative foil in Mia (Stella Marcus), Redux Redux smartly bypasses repetition as it explores the moral complexities and vulnerabilities of Irene’s extremely violent quest. Holm becomes utterly terrifying in the climax, ensuring that no matter whether Irene loses herself to vengeance for good or not, it’s justified if it means ridding the world of this sick maniac.
3) 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Director Nia DaCosta takes the reins in the second entry in writer Alex Garland and original director Danny Boyle’s trilogy, picking up from the previous conclusion that saw Spike (Alfie Williams) fleeing from the infected straight into the welcoming arms of Sir Jimmy Crystal (Sinners’ Jack O’Connell). From here, DaCosta presents a stark contrast between humanity’s best and worst. The former sees the tender studies of Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) make poignant strides toward humankind’s future, while the latter unleashes more pain and bloodshed courtesy of the Jimmies. The dual paths of light and dark collide in one epic conclusion, an inspired confrontation between good and evil on a stunning set piece of heavy metal insanity. Yet it’s DaCosta’s handling of both extremes that impresses most, teeing up one epic conclusion to this trilogy.
2) Obsession
Sketch comedian turned horror filmmaker Curry Barker (Milk & Serial) wrings blood-curdling terror from a classic Monkey’s Paw wish fulfillment scenario in a way that no one could have ever anticipated. To say that it’s taken the box office by storm would be a massive understatement; Obsession is the top horror movie of the year in terms of gross. It’s not hard to see why, either. While Monkey’s Paw scenarios often yield predictable outcomes, and this outcome is practically telegraphed from the start, Barker manages to surprise with the journey itself. And it’s one insane journey paved with blood-soaked violence and no shortage of nightmare fuel. What truly sets it apart, though, is leads Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette as the central pair undone by one vicious wish. Expect to see a lot more from breakout Navarette.
1) Hokum
A surly, traumatized writer must break free from his self-imposed shackles of guilt when confronted by a wicked witch haunting a quaint Irish inn in the latest by writer/director Damian McCarthy (Oddity). Adam Scott’s Ohm makes for an atypical but rewarding protagonist, and his complicated emotional journey gives way to a deeply moving story of a man so thoroughly broken by personal trauma that he constantly dwells in darkness. In true McCarthy style, expect the creepy as hell witch to dole out some supernatural retribution for crimes committed, but never in the way you’d expect. The filmmaker has a way of making whimsy pure nightmare fuel; Hokum distorts a kids’ show into eerie, uncanny valley-induced terror in its torment of Ohm. Channeling Stephen King, this creeper plays like a traditional campfire tale in mood and style, infusing genuine scares with a sense of magic and heart.
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