Cannibal Holocaust

bennyprofane · Post by **bennyprofane** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 12:57 am

Anyone seen it? What do you think? Still haven't made up my mind yet. Masterpiece of cinema verite or rubbish?

MikeE · Post by **MikeE** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 1:07 am

A friend had it on their computer, along with swap.avi.

I honestly don't know which was worse.

echo wanderer · Post by **echo wanderer** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 1:37 am

There's something a slight erotic about that picture...

*scratches chin*

onelouder · Post by **onelouder** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 6:49 am

Meh. All that Fulci/ Italian Zombie stuff sits in the midway for me. I can sorta dig it, but I'm pretty take it or leave it TBH

wub · Post by **wub** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 6:55 am

I can see why it caused a fuss when it was first release, but it's nothing special tbh.

devilstator · Post by **devilstator** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 7:24 am

Pretty hard to watch, but considering the circumstances it was made in, it's pretty good. Gotta love the soundtrack!

Deodato shot himself in the foot with the moral hypocrisy though.

Btw his cameo in Hostel 2 was amusing.

shonky · Post by **shonky** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 7:29 am

I thought about watching this recently in a "let's check out some extreme cinema classics" sort of mood. After having read about though, I decided I didn't really want that sort of thing in my head.

Was interested how this was banned for animal cruelty, yet Apocalypse Now and the water buffalo killing scene seemed to be allowed through

frebentos · Post by **frebentos** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 7:31 am

man! this film is brilliant, i total dig it, up there with "Zombie Nosh"...

wub · Post by **wub** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 7:38 am

Shonky wrote:
Was interested how this was banned for animal cruelty, yet Apocalypse Now and the water buffalo killing scene seemed to be allowed through

That is pretty harsh that bit, made me feel a bit queasy first time round.

If anyone visits a lot of car boot sales, try and get hold of a copy of Mikey on VHS. Along with Childs Play, it was one of the films they banned after the Jamie Bulger killing. Childs Play got it's ban repealed a few years back. Mikey didn't.

bennyprofane · Post by **bennyprofane** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 7:56 am

Devilstator wrote: Gotta love the soundtrack!

No shit, right? It's brilliant. I need to get my hands on it.

Edit: Found the soundtrack online:

http://rapidshare.com/files/76692718/Ca ... Score_.rar

contakt · Post by **contakt** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 9:20 am

Shonky wrote:Was interested how this was banned for animal cruelty, yet Apocalypse Now and the water buffalo killing scene seemed to be allowed through

I see your point, but if you have the misfortune of watching it you will see that it goes far beyond arguments about what constitutes 'art'.

In Apocalypse Now, the scene is shown in flashes in a dramatic climax in the context of a film that has a serious message about war. Regardless of how good you think the film is, it is hard to argue that it is not 'about' something.

The animal cruelty scenes in Cannibal Holocaust are basically animal snuff scenes. The camera lingers, showing the animal in agony. The animal is basically killed in an extremely cruel way for the audience's amusement/gratification. It is not saying anything, there is no metaphor, no drama, just real unpleasantness.

The film as a whole is just pathetic. The worst bit is when we are shown scenes of real human death with an 'emotional' soundtrack in the context of 'look how inhuman man is to man'. In actual fact, its just an excuse to show scenes of real human death.

The whole film is unpleasantness dressed up on a pretext of having some message about how we are all really just savages. Actually, this is just an excuse for the audience to get off on scenes of real torture and killing without feeling too disgusted with itself.

I only watched this because I kept telling my mate what a twat he was for owning it and buying into the whole 'trash art' thing and he challenged me to watch it to make my own mind up. I wish I hadn't seen it because it is not only disturbing and cruel, but it is just a very very shit film indeed.

devilstator · Post by **devilstator** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 9:38 am

bennyprofane wrote:
Devilstator wrote: Gotta love the soundtrack!
No shit, right? It's brilliant. I need to get my hands on it.

Edit: Found the soundtrack online:

Hide that link 'fore the mods see it!

And yeah.... gotta love that smooth acoustic and strings theme, with the camera gently panning over the Amazon rainforest.... and then the title.... CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST

Contakt wrote:The film as a whole is just pathetic. The worst bit is when we are shown scenes of real human death with an 'emotional' soundtrack in the context of 'look how inhuman man is to man'. In actual fact, its just an excuse to show scenes of real human death.

Are you talking about the documentary footage (Descent to Hell or whatever) or what?

shonky · Post by **shonky** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 9:44 am

Contakt wrote:The whole film is unpleasantness dressed up on a pretext of having some message about how we are all really just savages. Actually, this is just an excuse for the audience to get off on scenes of real torture and killing without feeling too disgusted with itself.

Right, not a go-er for me then. Think these things are a bit like Pandora's box for the mind - once opened the images are always in there.

stanton · Post by **stanton** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 9:46 am

Contakt wrote: The animal cruelty scenes in Cannibal Holocaust are basically animal snuff scenes.

Completely, that scene with the monkey tied to the stake is horrific. It's a fucking awful film, the final scene when they get back to New York and the "hmmmm, are we the real savges?" makes me want to take the director and tie him to stake and chop his limbs off with a machete. As if that justifies what was done in the making of the film. Fucking tnuc.

frebentos · Post by **frebentos** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 9:56 am

hmm i dont recognise anything yous are talking about...

is it not about zombies...on an island....??

stanton · Post by **stanton** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 10:02 am

frebentos wrote:hmm i dont recognise anything yous are talking about...
is it not about zombies...on an island....??

That's Zombie Flesh Eaters

EDIT: Actually that might be Cannibal Ferox, I forget.

devilstator · Post by **devilstator** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 10:52 am

stanton wrote:
frebentos wrote:hmm i dont recognise anything yous are talking about...
is it not about zombies...on an island....??
That's Zombie Flesh Eaters

EDIT: Actually that might be Cannibal Ferox, I forget.

Nah, he's talking about Zombi 2/Zombie Flesh Eaters, which is an awesome zombie flick.

Cannibal Ferox is another cannibal film set in South America. It sucks overall. The music is, once again, great though.

reverendmedia · Post by **reverendmedia** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:06 am

stanton wrote:
frebentos wrote:hmm i dont recognise anything yous are talking about...
is it not about zombies...on an island....??
That's Zombie Flesh Eaters

EDIT: Actually that might be Cannibal Ferox, I forget.

It's Fulci's Zombi 2. It was renamed 'Zombie Flesh Eaters' for whatever reason.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_Flesh_Eaters

Cannibal Ferox or Make Them Die Slowly was essentially Lenzi's update on his Paese del sesso selvaggio (Deep River Sacrifices) from 1972.

re: Cannibal Holocaust is actually shit because it has gratuitious violence.

Yes, it is gratuitous, but I'd argue that that isn't a valid reason for saying that the film is shit.

Deodato explicitly set out to make a film that shocked. In the same fashion that Haneke made Funny Games deliberately vicious in order to highlight/call into question American audiences' attitudes to on-screen violence, so too (it can be argued) does Deodato, with on-screen animal killings in the thematic context of civilisation/savagery, play with the audiences' relation to such a distinction. (The main difference between Haneke and Deodato of course being that Haneke shys away from actually depicting the violence on screen, although this difference has little if any consequence for my point except perhaps to make Deodato's efforts an easier target.)

Cannibal Holocaust has excellent music, some (not all

) of the performances stand out and it is fucking chilling. I can understand that it's not for all tastes but I thought it was very strong and very good.

This isn't an art film, or 'art-horror' or whatever, but nonetheless, as a film, i'd argue that it does qualify as art. I'm not going to compare it to Bosch or Bacon, but insofar as film is a quasi-art ('pseudo'?), then Cannibal Holocaust ought to be considered a landmark exercise in terror/horror filmmaking.

reverendmedia · Post by **reverendmedia** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:12 am

PS - @ BennyProfane: Thank you VERY much for the soundtrack link.

reverendmedia · Post by **reverendmedia** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:20 am

Devilstator wrote:
Contakt wrote:The film as a whole is just pathetic. The worst bit is when we are shown scenes of real human death with an 'emotional' soundtrack in the context of 'look how inhuman man is to man'. In actual fact, its just an excuse to show scenes of real human death.
Are you talking about the documentary footage (Descent to Hell or whatever) or what?

Yeah - i think it's the 'Road To Hell' scene (or whatever it is supposed to be called).

I remember the R.E. dept. at school had a copy of Executions that was apparently part of the cirriculum. My class was never shown it but we heard the stories. My school wasn't exactly one of those liberal, hippy commune things, but if an R.E. dept felt there was sufficient cause to include a video of nothing but real life stonings/beheadings/firing squads in a religious eduction then surely a director might be permitted some academic justification for an inclusion of similar material in his film?

Cannibal Holocaust

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