Eaten alive! The ultimate terror movie...
Cannibal Holocaust (1980) is a controversial
exploitation horror
film directed by Ruggero Deodato, telling the tale of four documentarians who journey deep into the Amazon rainforest to film the indigenous tribes. When they fail to return, anthropologist Harold Monroe leads a second expedition to rescue the first group. He ultimately finds their lost cans of film, through which he ultimately learns of their grisly fate.
Controversy followed this infamous "
video nasty''; after its premiere in Italy, the film was seized and Deodato arrested on obscenity charges. He was later accused of making a
snuff film due to rumors that actors were killed on camera. While he was cleared on all charges, the film was banned in Italy, the UK, Australia (where it was eventually passed uncut), and several other countries due to its graphic depiction of gore, sexual violence, and the inclusion of six genuine animal deaths.
In 1981 a rip-off was made by Umberto Lenzi called
Cannibal Ferox.
- An Aesop: "I wonder who the real cannibals are?"
- The Amazon
- Asshole Victim: To quote one review, "[the film crew] more than earned their fate."
- Apocalyptic Log
- Are We Getting This??
- Ax Crazy: Alan Yates.
- B-Movie
- Banned In China: And a whole lot of other countries. The most notable exceptions were Japan, where it was slapped with an R-18 rating, and the United States, where the only penalty for its depiction of gore was the dreaded X rating (issued by the MPAA). Eventually, a few more countries (most notably Australia) passed it uncut. As of May 2011, the UK's only problem with the film is the turtle, monkey and snake being killed onscreen (though a cut version has been released with the highest UK rating).
- Based on a Great Big Lie
- The young documentarian's work is an in-universe example.
- Black Dude Dies First: Felipe, the South American guide, is the first member of Yates' team to die.
- Cannibal Tribe
- Captured by Cannibals: The entire second half of the film.
- Chased by Angry Natives: Averted. The natives do chase the film crew, but instead of missing them so the crew can fight another day they kill them brutally.
- Covered in Gunge
- Crapsack World
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Obviously.
- Deadpan Snarker: Dr. Harold Monroe.
- Did Not Do the Research: Virtually everything surrounding the native tribes. Could be justified as it is an exploitation film, not a documentary.
- Also a bit of an in-character aspect as well. The film crew doesn't understand the faux pas of any of the tribes they terrorize. Not that they particularly care, of course, as they're intentionally adding their own details. They just want to make the natives look as savage as possible.
- Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Cannibal Holocaust is known for criticizing sensationalism while being highly sensationalistic.
- Enemy to All Living Things
- Euroshlock
- Even Evil Has Standards: Faye, one of the crew members, objects to a young native woman being gang-raped.
- Everything's Better with Monkeys: Horribly subverted when a monkey gets its face chopped off with a machete.
- Which is made even worse when you realize they killed a real monkey.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: "Holocaust" means "destruction by fire;" there's a scene of Yacumo herded into a hut at gunpoint which is then burned down...
- Exploitation Film
- Extreme Melee Revenge
- Fantastic Racism
- Fan Disservice: Oh so much.
- In-Universe Camera: The second half of the film.
- Fate Worse than Death
- Forever War: The Yanamono and the Shamatari, the Tree People and the Swamp People respectively. These tribes have been going since the dawn of time and are still locked in a fierce war of rape, murder, and cannabalism.
- Genocide Backfire
- Gorn: Many scenes were believable enough (at the time) to result in the arrest of the director on suspicions that he'd made a snuff film.
- Gory Deadly Overkill Title of Fatal Death
- Groin Attack
- Heal It With Fire: A wound cauterized with a hot machete.
- Horrible Camping Trip
- Horror Films
- Humans Are Bastards: The main message of the film, conveyed with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Guess.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: One of the more famous images from the film shows a native girl impaled lengthwise so the point of the stake comes out her mouth. No points for guessing where it went in.
- Kill 'Em All
- Made of Plasticine
- Mighty Whitey: Yates' team are arrogant enough to believe the natives fear their 'powers'. This doesn't stop them from being killed and eaten by the Yanamono tribe.
- Mockumentary
- Ms. Fanservice
- Names To Run Away From - The title of this movie.
- National Geographic Nudity
- No Animals Were Harmed: Brutally Averted; six genuine animal deaths are shown on-camera.
- Averted twice, in that the scene where they cut off a monkey's face with a machete was actually shot twice. You read that right.
- A coatimundi (mistaken as a muskrat in the film) has its jugular veins cut open by Miguel.
- A large turtle (about three feet long) is captured in the water and dragged to shore, where it is then decapitated and its limbs, shell, and entrails are removed. The turtle is then cooked and eaten.
- A large spider and a snake are killed with machete.
- A pig is kicked twice and then shot.
- Noble Savage: While not exactly the prime example of this trope, the natives are certainly not evil. They allow the search party to look for the film crew and as soon as they follow the rules and show respect to the tribe, they're welcome and accepted. The only reason they killed and ate the film crew was because they killed many of their tribesmen and raped one of their girls.
- Psycho Strings
- Peek-A-Boo Corpse
- Rape and Revenge
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn The film crew burning down the Yacumo village to stage a scene for their documentary. In fact, all of the film crew's actions; in a literal way, they managed to score each of the three.
- Revenge
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The Yanomamo tribe in the end.
- Satire
- The Savage South: Cannibals, dangerous animals, and diseases, oh my!
- Send In The Search Team
- Snuff Film: The filmmakers were put on trial for murder until they could prove that, yes, the actors in question were still alive and well. In fact the producers had had it written in the main actors' contracts that they stay in hiding for an entire year to keep the illusion that they had indeed died as a publicity stunt.
- The Sociopath: Alan Yates and, likely, the rest of the film crew.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The lead motif is disturbingly serene and cheerful. And it is played during the burning of Yacumo village.
- The Hunter Becomes The Hunted
- This Is My Boom Stick: A spatial, rather than temporal, example.
- Torture Porn
- Tribal Carry: Jack & Faye in the end.
- Unbuilt Trope compared to the many MANY horror films it inspired.
- Video Nasties: One of the better-known examples.
- Viral Marketing: The movie advertised itself as a true story, and the actors were contractually bound to avoid public appearances as to keep people think it was real. Remember anything? It worked too well since the director was arrested for multiple murder until he could prove that it was just a movie - which he had to void the original contracts of the actors to accomplish.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Then, all discretion is averted.
- Wacky Wayside Tribe
- Western Terrorists
- You Bastard: Isn't it convenient that every film that comports to be a critique about sensationalism is generally wildly sensationalist?
- Artistic License - Film Production
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