Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

Director:

Ruggero Deodato

Writer:

Gianfranco Clerici (story)

Release Date:

19 June 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Horror

Tagline:

Ripout! Barbeque! Devour! How long can you take it?

Plot:

A New York University professor returns from a rescue mission to the Amazon rainforest with the footage shot by a lost team of documentarians who were making a film about the area's local cannibal tribes.

Plot Keywords:

Tribe | Professor | Cannibal | Amazon | Jungle

Cast

Robert Kerman	...	Harold Monroe
Francesca Ciardi	...	Faye Daniels
Perry Pirkanen	...	Jack Anders
Luca Barbareschi	...	Mark Tomaso (as Luca Giorgio Barbareschi)
Salvatore Basile	...	Chaco Losojos
Ricardo Fuentes	...	Felipe Ocanya
Carl Gabriel Yorke	...	Alan Yates (as Gabriel Yorke)
Paolo Paoloni	...	Chief NY Executive
Lionello Pio Di Savoia	...	Executive (as Pio Di Savoia)
Luigina Rocchi	...	Native
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lucia Costantini	...	Adulteress (uncredited)
Ruggero Deodato	...	Man Outside University (uncredited)
Edward Mannix	...	Harold Monroe (voice) (uncredited)
Enrico Papa	...	TV Show Host (uncredited)
Gregory Snegoff	...	TV Show Host (voice) (uncredited)

Directed by
Ruggero Deodato

Writing credits
Gianfranco Clerici		(story and screenplay)

Produced by
Franco Di Nunzio	....	producer
Franco Palaggi	....	producer

Original Music by
Riz Ortolani

Cinematography by
Sergio D'Offizi

Film Editing by
Vincenzo Tomassi

Production Design by
Massimo Antonello Geleng

Makeup Department
Nicola Catalani	....	assistant makeup artist
Massimo Giustini	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Giovanni Masini	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Salvatore Basile	....	assistant director
Lamberto Bava	....	assistant director (unconfirmed)

Art Department
Rodolfo Ruzza	....	property master

Sound Department
Gianni D'Amico	....	sound mixer
Bruno Longobardo	....	sound mixer
Raul Montesanti	....	sound engineer
Umberto Montesanti	....	boom operator

Special Effects by
Aldo Gasparri	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Ennio Brizzolari	....	key grip
Paolo Cavicchioli	....	still photographer (as Paolo Maria Cavicchioli)
Roberto Forges Davanzati	....	camera operator
Enrico Maggi	....	assistant camera
Luigi Pasqualini	....	chief electrician

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Lucia Costantini	....	wardrober

Editorial Department
Rita Antonelli	....	assistant editor
Luciano Vittori	....	color consultant

Other crew
Vito Di Bari	....	production secretary
Armando Pace	....	cutting room assistant
Rossana Rocchi	....	continuity

Production Companies

• F.D. Cinematografica

Distributors

• United Artists (1980) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Grindhouse Releasing (2006) (USA) (all media) (restored) (uncut) (copyright holder)
• Transcontinental (1985) (USA) (theatrical) (dubbed)
• Jugendfilm-Verleih (1981) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Alan Young Pictures (2002) (Italy) (DVD)
• Alfa-Panorama Film & Video (????) (Finland) (VHS)
• Another World Entertainment (2006) (Denmark) (DVD)
• Another World Entertainment (2006) (Norway) (DVD)
• Astro Distribution (1998) (Germany) (VHS)
• Astro Video (2000) (Germany) (DVD)
• Blackest Heart Media
• Cult Epics (1993-2000) (worldwide) (VHS)
• DMEG (2004) (Sweden) (video)
• Dansk Video Distribution (DVD) (????) (Denmark) (VHS)
• EC Entertainment (2000) (Sweden) (DVD)
• Firebox (2006) (Finland) (DVD)
• Go Video (1982) (UK) (VHS)
• Go Video (1982) (UK) (video) (Betamax)
• JPV Austria (????) (Austria) (VHS)
• Laser Paradise (2001) (Germany) (DVD)
• Manga Films (2002) (Spain) (DVD)
• Mangpong (2000) (Thailand) (video)
• Media Suits (2002-2003) (Japan) (DVD)
• Opening Distribution (2004) (France) (DVD)
• Parc Video (1998) (Ireland) (video) (as "Cosa Nostra") (uncut version)
• Rex Films Home Video
• Roma Lusa (????) (Portugal) (VHS)
• SBP (Argentina) (video)
• Shameless Screen Entertainment (2011) (UK) (DVD)
• Shochiku CBS/Fox Video (SCF) (????) (Japan) (VHS)
• Siren Visual Entertainment (2006) (Australia) (DVD)
• Spike Adventure (2001) (Japan) (DVD)
• Substance Video (2000) (Canada) (DVD)
• Ultra Film (2006) (Hungary) (DVD)
• VL Video (????) (Germany) (VHS)
• Video Instant Picture Company (VIPCO) (2001) (UK) (video)
• Video Invest AB (????) (Sweden) (VHS)
• Viking Video (2004) (Russia) (DVD)
• marketing-film (????) (Germany) (VHS)

Also Known As:

"Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust" - USA (complete title)
"Cannibal holocausto" - Argentina (video title), Venezuela
"Holocausto caníbal" - Mexico (imdb display title), Spain
"Το Ολοκαύτωμα των Καννίβαλων" - Greece
"Canibal Holocausto" - Brazil (festival title)
"Canibal Holocausto" - Peru (imdb display title)
"Cannibal Holocaust" - Hungary (imdb display title)
"Holocausto Canibal" - Portugal (imdb display title)
"Kannibaalien polttouhrit" - Finland (video title)
"Kannibal massakren" - Denmark
"Nackt und zerfleischt" - West Germany
"Nadzy i rozszarpani" - Poland
"To olokaftoma ton kannivalon" - Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title)

Runtime:

95 min | UK:89 min (heavily cut) | USA:90 min (animal cruelty-free version) | Canada:86 min (Québec)

Country:

Italy

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System) | Dolby Digital (2001 re-release)

Certification:

Norway:18 (re-rating: 2005) (uncut) | Singapore:(Banned) | Australia:(Banned) (1984-2005) | Norway:(Banned) (1984-2005) | Italy:VM18 (re-rating: 1984) | Hong Kong:III | Japan:R-18 | Malaysia:(Banned) | Sweden:18 (video rating, cut) | UK:18 (re-rating: 2001) (heavily cut) (2011) (cut) | UK:X (self applied: 1981) | Philippines:(Banned) | New Zealand:(Banned) (2006) | Denmark:16 | Brazil:18 | Mexico:D | France:-16 (original rating) | Australia:R (re-rating: 2005) (uncut) | Germany:18 (heavily cut) | Ireland:18 (re-rating: 2006) | Ireland:(Banned) (1984-2006) | Finland:K-18 (2001) | South Africa:18 | France:-16 | France:-18 (DVD) | Canada:16+ (Quebec) (re-rating, uncut) | Argentina:X (original rating) | Argentina:18 (re-rating) | Sweden:15 (uncut DVD version) | Germany:Not Rated (uncut DVD version) | Italy:VM18 (original rating) (cut) | Chile:18 (X-Rated) | Portugal:M/16 (uncut DVD version) | Portugal:M/18 | Czech Republic:18 | Iceland:(Banned) | Netherlands:16 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | UK:(Banned) (1984-2001) | USA:X (original rating) (rating surrendered) | USA:Unrated | West Germany:(Banned) | Canada:R | Italy:(Banned) (1980-1984) | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Amazon Rainforest, Colombia

Company:

F.D. Cinematografica

Trivia:

The in-film-documentary, "The Last Road To Hell", which features several executions, consists of authentic footage supposedly from Nigeria and South East Asia.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the cannibals begin to mutilate Jack, his pants are down to his ankles (as to castrate him). However, once they lay him on the ground, his pants are pulled back up.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Reporter:Man is omnipotent; nothing is impossible for him. What seemed like unthinkable undertakings yesterday are history today. The conquest of the moon for example: who talks about it anymore? Today we are already on the threshold of conquering our galaxy, and in a not too distant tomorrow, we'll be considering the conquest of the universe, and yet man seems to ignore the fact that on this very planet there are still people living in the stone age and practicing cannibalism.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover (1989)

Terminal cinema

The second word in the title is important. Ruggero Deodato's 1979 meta-snuff movie, far more than a chichi trinket like THE NIGHT PORTER, is the real Holocaust porn. Here the trigger is not frights, or even shocks, or even splatter. Atrocity is the name of Deodato's game--and the genius of this monsterpiece is that Deodato horrifyingly delivers the goods at the same time he coruscates his audience and himself.

This is a hard movie to recommend to any but those who would find it anyway; but it must be said that Deodato here created the most rigorous, critical, almost philosophical movie in the Italian horror canon. The audience's lust for Third World exoticism and envelope-pushing violence are gratified and held up to the painful light of day--and not necessarily in that order. The overwhelming feeling of this picture is of a pornographer pleading, "Stop me before I shoot again."

The conceit of the movie--an academic's journey into the Amazon to find the remains of a Western film crew devoured by cannibals--permits Deodato more Pirandellian boxes within boxes than a double bill of BLOWUP and THE PLAYER. But the atmosphere of the movie, despite scenes of cruelty so extreme you sometimes want to put out your eyeballs, is relentlessly elegiac--capped by Riz Ortolani's theme music. (It can be said with certainty that no romantic ballad was ever used underneath what Deodato stages here.)

CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST is the farthest edge of Extreme Cinema--as in Extreme Sports. It feels stuntlike, yet the combination of amplified bloodlust and world-weary regret is unique. Like Lucio Fulci's even more personal CAT IN THE BRAIN, it's an affecting enactment of an exploitation artist's conscience tearing apart.

It might make good viewing for Y2K Eve: it puts together the century's two salient words--holocaust and entertainment--as no other film did before or since.