4/5 Babes in the Woods
  by Thomas H. Fields (Washington, DC)
This was the original inspiration for the cult favorite The Blair Witch Project. It's far better. It deals with a theme that comes up in other movies, such as Southern Comfort. A student film crew ventures deep into the upper Amazon rain forest in search of a mysterious tribe of alleged cannibals. They're never heard from again. A professor goes in search of them, and discovers the tribe. The natives still have all the film that the students had shot, right up until their deaths. He brings it back to New York.

It tells their story, and it's not a pretty one. As it goes on, one can see the chain of events that led to their unpleasant fate. This movie is not just another gorefest. Its lessons are timeless.

3/5 good, i think
  by William R. Nicholas (Mahwah, NJ USA)
I am not sure what to make of this movie. Basically, it is in two parts. A group of college kids go to South America with a camera to film a caniballistic tribe. There must have been something in the water down there, because before they even introduce themselves, they rape a little native girl, and begin terrorizing the local tribespeople.

Maybe the water was fine. Maybe the film students were sadistic little SOBS to begin with. They seem to be making up their story instead of documenting it, burning huts and yelling Vietnam---getting off on brutality as well as filming it. The sociopathic little creeps become the stars of their own horrormentry. Two of them get so excited, they have to go have sex during the rampage.

Needless to say, they soon, litterally, get their heads handed to them--the female student is savagely raped-and then their hosts have them for lunch. Not easy to watch, but you can't work up much symapathy for the brats, either. Their stupidity alone makes you think they had it coming. What did they think would happen?

Soon, a professor goes to find the kids. He, unlike them, actually knows what he is doing. Obeying the customs of the tribe, he and his party are well treated. The professor is able to recover the canisters of films--this was the late 70s, no cell cams or digital chips to hold footage--and he brings them back to New York. He discovers both the activites and the fate of the students.

What to make of this!?: Obviously, the film documents violence, and few are innocent. One cannibal rapes his wife to death for adultery, but when we see the students behavior, it is just as maddening. You obviously get to ask the question "who are the real savages?" but this is a hackneyed question that goes back to the crusades. Unlike a Pechenpah or a 1990s Clint Eastwood film, Cannibal Holocaust does not have a lot of moral ambiguity or complexity to its violence.

The scenes are also horribly graphic. When the kids are killed, you do get some sense of vindication as a viewer, but it is not a strong catharsis and the killing is brutal. Would they have lived if they had conducted themselves differently? Hard to say. The professor came back unscathed, but it is immpossible to know if it is because of his repect for the natives or his expertise in their culture that saved him.

I can't decide whether this is sensationalist violence or a study in behavior that does not pose enough questions to make it high art. I also don't understand why it is termed as a horror film--it does not contain suspence or use the dramatic devices most movies of this genre do.


Still, this does have cult status and thinking about what Cannibal Hollocost means is interesting. If you are not overly upset by this type of film, it is gripping enough to take a look.




1/5 utter disapointment
  by rob damage (Los Angeles, California United States)
cannibal holocaust

cannibal holocaust has me torn. CH goes beyond b-movie gore, shoots right past grindhouse and touches upon the land of snuff. i believe that CH was the first film to be shot documentary style, and also the first film to be banned by everyone on planet earth. graphic depictions of rape, torture, & mutilation are par for the course in this film. worse still, CH features REAL depictions of animal torture & decapitation for the juvenile sake of simply shocking the audience.
CH starts with a professor hired to locate some missing documentary filmmakers that had gone to shoot warring cannibal tribes in the "green inferno" (amazon). the first half of the film is shot like a regular movie: the professor finds that the filmmakers are obviously dead, locates the reels of footage they took, and then heads back home to New York. the second half of the film sees the professor reviewing the film, then trying to convince some tv execs not to air the material due to the fact that the content is far too graphic and cruel. he shows the footage to the tv execs and we (the viewers) are also subject to the documentary. right of the bat, the film crew leaves much to be desired: it seems that their cruelty knows absolutely no bounds: the first footage is of a turtle being utterly mutilated. to compound the degradation of the animal, one of the filmmakers starts playing with the twitching & severed head of the animal. the turtle's body goes into shock and then begins to convulse. it's legs are then systematically severed and then its shell is torn off. after that, the turtles internal organs are removed and thrown, played with and then eaten. i suppose this is to show the audience the film crews ability to survive in the wild- yet the cruelty to which the animal is subjected is all that is apparent. this is shock cinema at it's most gruesome and depraved. next, the group finds a tribe of natives. they gang rape one of the women, then proceed to herd most of the tribe into a straw hut where they then burn them alive. the only reason given for this barbarism is to show the tribe that they are dominant and that they should be feared. more terror, forced human abortions & animal torture continue, finally finding the filmmakers captured by another, this time cannibal, tribe. the filmmakers are then mutilated and eaten. the female filmmaker is raped, then mutilated, then eaten. after seeing all the footage, the execs agree to not air the film and instead, to burn all the footage. finally, the professor asks a question to the audience, "who really are the savages? us or them?"
again, this film has me torn: on one level, what a breakthrough in film narrative. simply put, a documentary within a film posing a compelling question about modern man. genius! on another and far more personal level: i hope everyone who had a hand in the creation of this film burns in hell. how dare you torture & kill animals in the name of 'art'? in 1985 a film called cannibal holocaust crossed a line it had absolutely NO REASON to cross! without the real animal cruelty, the film would have been shocking and disturbing enough. instead, the creators wanted to get their rocks-off by torturing animals in hopes that it would take their film to another universe of realism. sad and desperate, CH only succeeds in being a vehicle made to shock when it could have been so much more.

5/5 Great Buy
  by Daniel B. Rambo
Product was a good price and exactly as described. Great movie for those who enjoy the genre.

2/5 Cannibal Hype
  by Grace A. Cooney (California)
Wow all this hype for this movie. I read the reviews saying how the animals were killed and how real the deaths looked. Ok well its a film you want to see once unless your wanting people so be so oh shocked then you can show them. There was the tortoise seen but the guys cut off the head and yes then messed his organs up but they did cook some of it also then yes a little monkey had its head cut off also a wild bore was shot too, well its called "cannibal Holcaust" the director wanted to make something that would shock people not a comedy not a love story this is suppose to be horrible. The death scenes did look real and shocking too its pay back time for those film crew. What really bugs me is that if you to to certain web sites you can see animals be treated with cruelty or if you want to see REAL dead bodies you can but this is not that bad I seen horror films with death scenes that ar worst then this. So I feel it fits the movie and no I wouldn't watch it again its boring actually and yes the little animals did die but others make it seem like a animals feast you would think it was left and right but its not the bad. I like animals but I care more for humans if we look at the world humans are suffering also. So don;t buy the hype remember its "Cannibal Holcaust".