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Review

This limited-edition release of one of the most notorious horror/exploitation films in cinema history trumpets this Italian grind house staple as “the most controversial movie ever made.” It’s questionable whether a film with a comparatively limited international release (of course, some of this was due to actual censorship factors) could legitimately qualify for that title…but it’s undeniable that director Ruggero Deodato’s notoriously confrontational and exploitive shock fest is that rare film which threatens to challenge (read: offend) even the most hardened of horror sensibilities.

While the film is justifiably infamous for its actual scenes of animal cruelty (this DVD presents the option of viewing the film with these “mondo” moments of bestial brutality excised for more audience-friendly viewing), Deodato’s (hypocritical, self-loathing) critique of media manipulation is rough going for its harrowingly realistic and wildly grisly set pieces of simulated human massacre. While the film is often cited as the influence for The Blair Witch Project (for the record, I interviewed the Blair Witch filmmakers for a Fangoria article on their film, and they claimed to have never seen Deodato’s film…and I’m inclined to believe them), the concept of utilizing a faux-documentary “found footage” approach is largely only utilized in the final third of the film: Cannibal Holocaust (one of a series of anthropophagous Italian-ite cine-vomit-inducers of the era) purports to be the chronicle of a group of documentary filmmakers who venture into the rainforest jungles of Columbia to document cannibal tribes, who then fall victim to these same “savages” when they decide to cruelly torment the natives for cinematic shock value. Their “found footage” is then examined by an anthropology professor in New York (porn actor Richard Bolla), and presented as authentic material…which, unfortunately, is the case with the turtle, pig, snake, muskrat, et al, who are actually sacrificed on film.

Deodato’s film is undeniably semi-mandatory historic viewing for horror and exploitation fans, but they should also be aware that this is not a pleasant cinematic journey. Oh, and for the record: this individual reviewer appears on an “Easter Egg” supplementary feature on the elaborate second disc of this admirably assembled package.

 -- Travis Crawford