Cannibal Holocaust is a 1980 Italian cannibal film directed by Ruggero Deodato from a screenplay by Gianfranco Clerici, starring Carl Gabriel Yorke, Robert Kerman, Francesca Ciardi, Perry Pirkanen and Luca Giorgio Barbareschi. Cannibal Holocaust was filmed in the Amazonian rainforest with real indigenous tribes interacting with American and Italian actors.
Led by New York-based anthropologist Harold Monroe (Kerman), a team is assembled to search for a missing film crew who had ventured deep into the Amazonian rainforest to film a documentary about tribes still practising cannibalism. Assisted by local guides, Monroe ventures into the unknown and meets with members of the local Yacumo tribe who it seems were greatly upset by the film-makers whom he is seeking. Later meeting with the warring Yanomamö and Shamatari tribes, he gains the trust of the former by immersing himself in their culture, only to find the best they can do to help him find his friends is show him a pile of bones and some film cans.
After securing the tapes by taking part in a rather unpleasant cannibalistic ceremony, he returns to New York to view the tapes and try to piece together what has happened. We learn that the documentary, titled The Last Road To Hell, though veiled under the pretence of being a thoughtful study of ancient rites and culture, is an appalling catalogue of brutality on the part of the Americans to stage footage for maximum effect back home. As such, we see scenes of rape, amputation, the burning of an entire village and numerous scenes of animal cruelty, all with the intention of gaining an appropriate reaction from the tribes to make their film ever more sensational. The final reels show a sudden turn in events, after gang raping a female member of the tribe, they later find her ritually impaled as a punishment for ‘her’ crimes. However, she isn’t the only one to face trial, the cannibals seeking to avenge her fate by hunting down the film crew in merciless fashion. As the final reel finishes, Monroe wonders aloud, just “who the real cannibals are”?
Though, quite rightly, hailed as the benchmark and indeed the last word on the cannibal sub-genre, Cannibal Holocaust was far from the first venture into jungle brutality. The Richard Harris-starring A Man Called Horse (1970) had appeared a decade earlier and, even as a mainstream feature, alerted directors to the potential for shocking but fact-based films as serious money-makers, though earlier explorations in the pseudo-documentary field, classed as ‘mondo films’, beginning with Franco Prosperi and Gualtiero Jacopetti’s 1962 film Mondo Cane (A Dog’s World), had seen many film-makers cutting their teeth using sometimes outrageously exploitative footage.
It wasn’t until Umberto Lenzi’s 1972 film Man from Deep River, that the genre took off, with Italy firmly leading the way. Deodato’s own (excellent) Last Cannibal World (aka Ultimo Mondo Cannibale/Jungle Holocaust) appeared in 1976 to exceptional box-office results. Sergio Martino’s The Mountain of the Cannibal God even featured ex-James Bond bombshell Ursula Andress in the lead role, despite the graphic content, a sure sign of the bankability of the cannibal boom.
With the success of Last Cannibal World and the backing of German investors, Deodato and his producers, Franco Palaggi (whose credits also include working on A Fistful of Dollars) and Franco Di Nunzio (who also produced Deodato’s grimy, relentless House at the Edge of the Park) scouted South America for suitable locations, eventually settling on Leticia in southern-most Columbia, despite the remoteness meaning that getting there involved arduous trekking and boat trips. Armed with a screenplay by the prolific Italian writer Gianfranco Clerici (The New York Ripper, L’Anticristo, Last Cannibal World) they assembled a largely unknown cast but one which spoke English, both establishing a certain amount of credibility in terms of their background and making the film more saleable to foreign markets.
By far the most famous name was Robert Kerman who had made quite a name for himself in the adult film industry using the pseudonym R. Bolla. His most well-known role was in one of the most iconic films of the 1970s, Debbie Does Dallas, though his career in the field stretched well over 100 films. Continuing to act, though hampered by his hardcore career, he has since appeared in Cannibal Ferox, Airport ’79 and even a minor part in Sam Raimi’s Spiderman. The only other member of the cast to have had any sort of career not completely overshadowed by their role in Cannibal Holocaust is the Italian/Uruguayan Luca Barbareschi, who entered politics as part of Silvio Berlusconi’s government in 2008 and gained more notoriety in a filmed exchange with a journalist which resulted in the reporter being knocked out by Barbareschi.
Though Deodato has claimed that the shocking, visceral nature of the film and its dynamics are a commentary of events in Italy during the early 1970′s when the Red Brigade launched terrorist attacks in an attempt to bring about a revolutionary state through a destabilised country, this echoes slightly of many of his retrospective assertions about the film to paper over accusations over his allegedly tyrannical methods of direction. What is clear is his adoption of Cinéma vérité techniques which used methods including provocation and staged scenarios in order to portray a ‘truth’ and realism to their films; these has already proved popular and successful in the mondo films of the 1960′s and 1971′s. The pops and crackles on the viewed footage (filmed on 16mm to add to the authenticity) in New York and the scratched frames add a genuinely convincing edge due to action.
Adding to the documentary feel is the oft-discussed violence and cruelty inflicted upon animals in the film, ranging from shrew-like fluffy creatures (actually a coati), a large spider, two monkeys (the lopping off of the head required two takes), a tethered wild pig and perhaps most notoriously, a turtle who suffers a protracted death for no other reason than to prompt revulsion and disgust from the audience. Deodato’s views have mellowed significantly over the years, indifference changing to ‘but the locals ate them afterwards’ to complete rejection, re-editing the film to excise the footage in 2011. Recollections from the cast, particularly Kerman who objected throughout the the animal deaths (and also Perry Pirkanen, who apparently cried after the turtle scene, a strange paradox considering his apparent on-screen glee). Viewed over 30 years later, these scenes are still amongst the strongest and most stomach-churning in the whole of the horror genre.
There have long been rumours that the sex scene between Yorke and Ciardi was not simulated, Ciardi already having been admonished by Deodato for her ‘prudishness’ in not wanting to bare her breasts. Real or not, it is another example of the blurring between fact and fiction which permeates the whole film. Deodato was also accused of under-paying his actors (and not paying the locals at all), as well as dictatorial behaviour throughout the shoot, upsetting and alienating most of the cast at one stage or another. The cast had a clause in their contract which stated that they were to give no interviews nor make any appearances regarding the film for a year after its release, so as to create the impression that they had indeed been slaughtered in the film. This backfired badly (or depending on your viewpoint, worked magnificently) as the authorities, convinced by the animal sequences and incredibly realistic gore, arrested Deodato on counts of not only obscenity but also murder.
In order to prove his innocence, the very much alive actors were gathered together to appear in a television program whilst many of the scenes had to be explained in great detail to convince the court that no-one was killed during the filming. The most iconic image in the film, that of the raped cannibal girl having been impaled on the wooden spike was revealed to be an actress sat on an obscured bicycle seat with a small piece of wood held between her teeth. It must be said that all the scenes of death and violence within the film remain as incredibly convincing and impressive as the day they were first screened.
The controversy did no harm to the film’s success, taking an alleged $5 million in the first ten days of release alone. Commercial video releases also did a roaring trade, the UK Go Video release being a mainstay of homely video libraries for 2-3 years before the video recordings act declared it prosecutable to rent or sell. It was also banned in many other countries, including Germany, Australia and New Zealand, but bucked the trend in Japan where it became the second biggest grossing film in the year of its release.
The film’s soundtrack was composed entirely by Italian composer Riz Ortolani, whom Deodato specifically requested because of Ortolani’s work in Mondo Cane, particularly the film’s main theme, “Ti guarderò nel cuore” (also known as “More”). Ortolani was (and still is) known for his rather romantic, sweeping scores, full of large string sections of plaintive melodies. His work on Cannibal Holocaust, perhaps surprisingly, is no different, the main theme being achingly beautiful, a reflection of the stunning settings but a counterpoint to the horrific violence portrayed. The score has become a classic of the genre and helped to elevate Ortolani to the upper echelons of Italian soundtrack composers, his work having since being used by directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Nicolas Winding Refn.
Though the cannibal sub-genre ran out of steam in the mid-80′s, the influence of Cannibal Holocaust is still felt today, the found-footage theme being used in the likes of The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity, whilst also inspiring directors like Eli Roth to forge their own careers. Rather like many of the zombie films of the 1970′s and 1980′s, many films have passed themselves off as sequels to the original film but despite interest from Deodato in his own follow-up, set in an American city, slated to be titled simply Cannibals, this has yet to happen and the film remains as a stand-alone beacon of depravity, gut-churning set-pieces and one of the great achievements of horror cinema.
Daz Lawrence
