Butcher Block is a weekly series celebrating horror’s most extreme films and the minds behind them. Dedicated to graphic gore and splatter, each week will explore the dark, the disturbed, and the depraved in horror, and the blood and guts involved. For the films that use special effects of gore as an art form, and the fans that revel in the carnage, this series is for you.
Ruggero Deodato’s well-known cannibal exploitation film wasn’t the first in the cannibal film boom of the ‘70s and ‘80s, and it was far from the last. It is, however, the one with the biggest reputation and the most controversial. Cannibal Holocaust is an uncomfortable watch, and the on-screen animal deaths and extreme violence makes it one of the rare films that earned its prosecuted and banned status as a Video Nasty. There’s a surprising depth beyond the shock value, though; Deodato didn’t consider this to be a horror film because his underlying, timeless message of media sensationalism is rooted deep in reality. The wave of found footage films that emerged in the late ‘90s also owes a tremendous debt to Deodato’s film.
Inspired by the sensationalized news coverage of terrorist organization the Red Brigades in the ‘70s, Deodato crafted a narrative that stemmed from a team of documentary filmmakers willing to do anything possible to get their story on the cannibal tribes of the rainforest. That story was told in the framework of found footage; a professor stumbles across the documentary team’s footage while on a mission in the Amazon, and that footage shows what happened to the missing crew. Playing back the footage, the professor (and viewer) discovers the blatant disregard of the indigenous people by the filmmakers as they resort to harsh measures, even extreme sexual violence, to get the story they want until eventually the tribes are pushed to their breaking point.
As the crew winds through the rainforest to the cannibal tribes, they encounter many animals along the way. A number of which were slaughtered on screen. A turtle is decapitated and disemboweled in preparation for eating, various animals are slaughtered with a machete, a pig is shot at close range with a shotgun, and a coatimundi is killed by knife. None of it is easy to watch, especially knowing it’s real, and it affected the cast and crew during production as well. Actor Gabriel Yorke flat out refused to shoot the pig, and the job had to be handed off to actor Luca Barbareschi.
The cringe-worthy animal deaths are a precursor to one of horror’s most harrowing final acts that sees the documentary crew unleash a torrent of violence toward the cannibal people, taking extreme action in manipulating the tribes in ways to shape their documentary narrative. They somehow didn’t account for their violence to be met with equal, disturbing violence. Gang rape, impalement, genital mutilation, corpse defilement, decapitations, and more ensured that the censors would be triggered in a way they likely hadn’t before.
Outside of its ban in the UK as a Video Nasty, Cannibal Holocaust faced bans and censorship issues around the world for its graphic gore, sexual violence, and brutal animal slayings. More than that, the film caused Deodato to be arrested 10 days after the film’s release in Italy. He was charged with obscenity, and murder charges were later added when Cannibal Holocaust came under suspicion for being a snuff film. Because the actors had signed an agreement to go into hiding for a year after the film’s release to promote the idea that the footage was actually real, it’s no surprise that the gimmick worked a bit too well. Deodato had to not only prove that the actors were alive and unharmed, but also to recount how he achieved the special effects on some of the most grisly kills in the film to prove his innocence.
Deodato wanted to make a statement on media sensationalism, and he succeeded. Cannibal Holocaust is a rare film to earn every bit of its infamy, both on screen and behind the scenes. The sexual violence and animal slaughter means that most who watch it never revisit it again. Considered the apex of cannibal exploitation films, Cannibal Holocaust remains high in the ranking of most extreme cinema.
