Cannibal Holocaust
Leave it to the Italians to show us the way on how to make horror.
A new movie came out in 2015 called Green Inferno, I decided to look into the original, called Cannibal Holocaust (1980) with the firm opinion that the original films are usually superior films, even if the technology feels dated. General rule of thumb, if the movie is classified as a horror and made in the 70s it’s probably awesome. Yeah we have fancier gadgets and can make things look shiny, but give me a good story over looks any day. Yeah I’m looking at you Zack Snyder.
Cannibal Holocaust is on Shudder, the AMC produced streaming service for $5/month with ALL horror films and shows. I said, what the heck, I’m doing a community service here, so I just bought into it for the month.
This is a true Grindhouse type of exploitation film. Made by the Italians and banned by a number of countries, if you want to see something raw and visceral, this is it. It’s NOT for the mainstream horror fans, and even the gore-fans that like all the Eli Roth fans might think it’s too much. In it you will see real live animals killed (like they do in the real world jungles) so if that turns you off, don’t see it. It’s part documentary, part found footage film.
They shot this in the Amazon jungles and used real indigenous people which is awesome.
I actually think this is a very good film. It’s not Good fellas or anything, but for the genre, the time and subject, I think it nails it. It has an unusual structure to it, with entering the jungle with a crew that finds footage from a previous crew of journalists and then we see the original footage and what dark fate befell them. I think we might have spent too much time with the first team and maybe showed too much, but other than that it works..
If you like horror, I say go see it. But again I warn you, there is real footage of animals getting killed.
Andres Salazar writes a horror graphic novel called Pariah Missouri, you can learn more at www.pariahmissouri.com