Didn't care for the animal death scenes
The animal scenes were hard to watch, but over all, it was a fantastically disturbing “shock” film. I liked it.
It's a masterpiece of shock cinema, but damn is it hard to sit through. Especially most contemporary audiences, they're going to have a hard time accepting it. It's a repugnant movie that packs a hell of a wallop. If you have a week composure, you should probably stay away. The soothing, dream-like music also magnifies the horror on screen. I've seen it a few times now, and still it's like a punch in the gut.
Wait. What? I've never described a movie this way before but here it is: appalling.
the most disgusting and useless piece of crap that was made in cinema history.
Creppy
:heart:x2
This was just a very bad piece of film making. The missing documentary crew were truly despicable horrible people and deserved what they got in the end. The animal cruelty is probably the most horrifying and disgusting thing in this movie, because it appears to actually be real.
The biggest reason this movie got some traction back then, was due to Italian authorities seizing and destroying the prints seemingly believing what they saw in the film was real. It was not.
How I rate:
1-3 :heart: = seriously! don't waste your time
4-6 :heart: = you may or may not enjoy this
7-8 :heart: = I expect you will like this too
9-10 :heart: = movies and TV shows I really love!
There's a snake in my boot!
If you're on the fence, just don't. Some things you can't unsee. If you've seen it already, enjoy your newfound trauma and possibly new favorite soundtrack.
A true home video cult classic that has lost its shock value, unless you're blissfully unaware that the animal cruelty scenes are actually real. Which, by the way, makes the film's message tragically hypocritical. Still, it's nice to be able to watch it in a resolution higher than 480p. The faux found footage is executed with a certain flair, and the change in perspective in the second half remains intriguing nonetheless.
I can see why, at the time, this got the issues it did with people thinking it was a snuff film. I thought a lot of the effects were relatively convincing. With that said, I found the rape scenes unappealing and could have done without the multiple scenes.
I watched it for the historical aspect of film in general, and will never watch it again.
It is the first to use 'fake documentary' and 'found footage' style indeed, but the good things stops there. Absolutelly bad acting from everyone, bad directing, the storyline its preety blend... The gore is ok, but they used real animals, so...
Its just a bad made movie with a little gore and bizzarre.
A film that founded the fake documentary genre, Cannibal Holocaust comes across as a film that is not easy to watch and certainly not for everyone.
As already mentioned by many other reviews here, the presence of animals that are really killed is something that surely does not escape the eye : I understand Ruggero Deodato's intention to give as much credibility as possible to the splatter scenes afterwards (and he succeeded in his intention as well) but I find that it was not necessary to have to kill real animals.
Despite the big stir it made, even making people believe that it was a snuff movie (and this shows the stupidity present in some people), Cannibal Holocaust still remains a beautiful film, a very important cult film. Well edited, shot all by hand, the film makes us think, even with the final sentence, about the cruelty of human beings, and I am not just talking about the tribe, but also about those we consider "normal" people.
I consider it a must-see film, but again, I am aware that it is not a film for everyone and that some people would refuse to watch it.
7/10
I thought I had seen this already…except as Cannibal Ferox, released in the USA as Make Them Die Slowly. It turns out that, although they are very similar in the basic story and several scenes, the two films are not the same. I watched Make Them Die Slowly years ago when it was released on VHS (that was during the same time all the Faces of Death videos were hugely popular and I was fascinated with the ultra-violent, truly sickening movies that were lining the shelves of the video stores at that time) and then watched it again not so awful long ago because I didn't remember much about it. Neither film is worth watching, as a "story". I have to confess that I was surprised at the infamous "turtle" scene here in Cannibal Holocaust that so many expressed their discomfort and squeamishness about. I didn't particularly enjoy seeing an animal being killed and cooked but hey, that's what we do. (HINT: If you're a vegetarian, don't watch anything remotely resembling these films.) I saw (that particular scene) as nothing more than a bunch of hunters that found a source of food. In my opinion, the movie semi-glorified the killing of an animal, and went overboard on the butchering scene. It added nothing to the story and only served as "Hey let's see how gross we can make this..." fodder. All in all, I wouldn't recommend either of these films - Cannibal Holocaust or Cannibal Ferox to anyone because there's simply no story. It's just a bunch of supposed "found footage" reels of white people infesting the jungles of South America, brutalizing the native tribes, and getting their just rewards. Although the "gore factor" was considerably high, it was (for the most part) ineffective because it served no purpose other than shocking the viewer. To reiterate, watch either of these (they really are virtually the same movie with only slight changes) only if you're into shock factor gross movies. If you're expecting a real "story" with a bunch of horrific scenes, you won't find that here.
UPDATE 10/06/2023 Just watched it again (why do I do this to myself?!!!) just because I was really bored and wanted to watch something that I halfway "knew". (I've wasted a LOT of my time recently on movies that I've not watched before, and sadly been hugely disappointed in most of them. I watched this one again simply because I knew going in what to expect.) Again, this was piss-poor in all regards. Even by today's standards, the "gore" is mostly tame as it's more "implied" than actualized. The animal killing is very real, so if you've got a hangup with that (it will make some people squeamish) then don't waste your time on this. The "people" killing and violence is mild compared to what CGI and special effects can do today. Granted, this is not "tame" by any stretch, but it's (again) far more "implied" violence rather than actually seen. As a tradeoff for the incredibly awful acting, dialogue, storyline, etc there's absolutely no tradeoff value whatsoever. The script is terrible, the acting is awful, and the dialogue is even worse. There is absolutely no reason AT ALL to waste 92 minutes of your life on this. It was "fun" (shockingly, "oh my god I can't believe this movie!!!!"-type, wide-eyed, never-been-to-the-movies-in-my-life "fun") back in the mid-1980s when I discovered it in a video store (anyone else remember those?) but by today's standards... what an utter waste of time.
PS: You can read my review of this film's "successor" (not a sequel, not a prequel, and in no way related to this film) Cannibal Ferox here: https://trakt.tv/comments/606293
I have so many questions after seeing this film.
This is the real shit. Intense, vulgar, extreme. There is a darkness inherent in Cannibal Holocaust that most other pre-slasher horror films of the late 70s / early 80s don't know how to manufacture (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre being an obvious exception). Not only are the practical effects believable (the film is extremely controversial because of its genuine depictions of animal deaths), the found footage elements create a sense of reality other horror films can only have nightmares of. It is a brutal depiction of journalistic sensationalism using sexual assault and animal cruelty as lenses. Viewers be warned.
Shout by Greg YurkovicBlockedParent2012-04-16T23:40:45Z
A heart-warming family adventure