"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 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.
This film contains examples of:
- 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: The first half of the film centers around finding the final footage of the film crew, the other half is the footage itself.
- Are We Getting This?
- Ax Crazy: Alan Yates and, practically all the crew is this.
- 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 Film
- Captured by Cannibals: The entire second half of the film.
- Chased by Angry Natives:
- Covered in Gunge
- Crapsack World
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Obviously.
- Deadpan Snarker: Dr. Harold Monroe.
- Documentary Of Lies
- Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Cannibal Holocaust is known for criticizing sensationalism while being highly sensationalistic.
- Enemy to All Living Things
- Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted. At first it seems that Faye, one of the crew members, objects to a young native woman being gang-raped. However she actually is just upset about wasting film footage for it.
- 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.
- 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.
- Found Footage Film: One of the most infamous of the genre.
- 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: Averted. A wound cauterized with a hot machete, doesn't work.
- Horrible Camping Trip
- 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.
- In-Universe Camera: The second half of the film.
- Kill 'em All: Although a Foregone Conclusion already, by the end of the film footage, every crew member of the documentary were killed off.
- Mad Artist: Yates shows strong signs of this.
- Made of Plasticine
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: Basically most of the cast. Carl Gabriel Yorke (Alan) flew down to the Amazon having no idea what the movie was about, and became convinced after a while they were filming a real snuff film. Perry Pirkanen (playing the despicable Jack) was traumitized by having to actually kill animals and cried uncontrollably after they filmed him killing the turtle.
- 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 Really Fast: The title of this movie.
- National Geographic Nudity
- No Animals Were Harmed: 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 women.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Faye is upset at the rape of a native woman... because recording it is a waste of film footage.
- Peek-A-Boo Corpse
- Psycho Strings
- Rape and Revenge: While the film crew had done plenty of ugly things to the natives, the Yanomamo tribe finally get fed up with their shit when one of their women is gang-raped by the crew, leading to one of the most horrific revenge scenes ever filmed.
- 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.
- It was this for six animals, however (such a thing is known as a crush film).
- 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 and 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 sensationalistic?
- Artistic License - Film Production
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