Been on something of a roll with my reviews so I figured I might as well continue...

Well, I just did something I would've never thought I'd do: re-watch Cannibal Holocaust... willingly.

This is the second time I've seen Cannibal Holocaust. The first time I saw it was back around 2004-05, I don't quite remember. My movie tastes at the time consisted of almost exclusively sick retro horror movies and yet Cannibal Holocaust ended up on my top 10 most hated movies of all time. I thought it was just utter filth.

So why watch it again?

Well, at the time, I only knew it as the godfather of violent exploitation. Despite its obvious attempts at social commentary, I didn't buy it as anything more than trashy animal cruelty snuff. If a film is comprised of almost strictly extended sequences of graphic violence shot on scratchy film stock, it kind of lends itself to that label. It wasn't the first of its kind to attempt any social commentary either so it was easy to dismiss.

Now, my tastes have broadened considerably and I go about searching for new films with much different criteria. Yet every once and a while, I'll still come across Cannibal Holocaust. I'll see it referenced in a movie review or hear it brought up in filmic conversation and the things I hear about it now aren't always along the same lines of what I used to hear and read about. This isn't because people have changed their mind about Cannibal Holocaust. I'm simply hearing about it within other filmic circles.

Bottom line: there's a lot of people out there who consider Cannibal Holocaust legit.

Within the past six years, I've revisited a lot of films I didn't care for the first time and have sometimes found my reactions to be drastically different from my initial ones. Not always but sometimes.

Now I really hated Cannibal Holocaust. Above really isn't enough of a reason for me to want to give it another try. But at this point, it seemed like the praise for the film actually matched my hatred for it. This happens once in a blue moon. So I took the plunge back into the green inferno.

...

So what do I think of Cannibal Holocaust after a second watching?

Well, one thing's for sure. It's still Cannibal Holocaust. It's still the cruelest, most brutal, most unrelenting of its kind and surprisingly, still hard to watch. It's just nasty.

The whole question of "who the real cannibals are" is still there. Does it hold any water? I don't know. It somehow seems less exploitative than I remember. The content is absolutely grotesque but the camera doesn't showcase it as much as some other films. And yet, there's still plenty of graphic violence to be found even when the American journalists who are supposed to be the real savages aren't around to perpetrate it. There's about as much emphasis on the violence the cannibals inflict on each other as there is violence inflicted on the cannibals by third parties.

And the animal cruelty. It's still absolutely deplorable. It made me sick and kind of sad. This is the stuff that near negates whatever point the film is trying to make.

This is where it gets strange, actually. I would like to say the film doesn't need animal cruelty to get its point across. I don't think any film does. I don't think any film should have animal cruelty. There's really no artistic merit that justifies it.

And yet, if that stuff weren't there, it wouldn't be Cannibal Holocaust. It's almost as if the film had to infect its real life creators to become what it is. The film has always been recognized hand in hand with its real life controversy. Always. And that's what makes it what it is.

But is that what it takes to get the message across? To make people think? I really don't know. I'd like to say no. But like I said, it wouldn't have the same impact. Cannibal Holocaust is what it is.

One thing I will give the film, however, that I wouldn't have given it six years ago is that technically speaking, it is very well done. I think I had to watch it now to realize this as the found footage/mockumentary subgenre has really exploded since and all of it owes a debt to Cannibal Holocaust. It did it better than all the others. It actually felt real. I mean, animal cruelty aside, I do appreciate the appearance of animals in the film. There were jaguars, crocodiles, snakes in this film for real. They really went into the jungle. Also, the characters didn't feel like they were there to showcase the film's content like in The Poughkeepsie Tapes for example. That really was a movie that just wanted you to get off on torture and murder.

Most of all, I think the film was comfortable with being a narrative film as opposed to tricking people into thinking it was real (that happened on its own). I think it works in its subgenre because it didn't try to be a tour-de-force. It just dabbled in documentary elements. Much of the film is clearly shot from a narrative perspective.

So what did I think. Well, I still don't like it. Surprisingly, I don't hate it now but it is a sick, disgusting film with acts you can't just shrug off because it's a fictional film. It's truly offensive. I will say that I have a new found respect for it but I don't think it fully succeeds in what it set out to do, commentary-wise. Maybe it met halfway. I don't know. Regardless, I can't put it on the same pedestal as its fans. Just can't do it.

It is what it is.

I hated this movie.  In fact, it's probably the worst movie I've ever seen.  

For years I had heard about how controversial it was but the only controversial thing I took away from it was how stupidly horrible it was.  I thought the story was stupid, I thought the plot was stupid, I thought the killing of the animals was disgusting, I thought the acting was stupid, and I thought the director was stupid.  In short, I thought this movie was stupid.  Not gross, not controversial, but just stupid.  I felt my IQ drop a few points while watching this and I don't have that much to give.

The filmmakers in the movie torture the natives, burn the villages, kill animals, act like total douche faces, and gang rape women well aware that the camera is rolling...yet when the lead guy and his girlfriend find themselves being recorded while fucking then OMG THEY FREAK OUT.  Seriously, bite me.  Shit, if my memory serves correctly, the lead filmmaker participated in the gang rape while his girlfriend was there watching.  Wtf??  Again, bite me.

Five minutes of this movie is dedicated to these clowns cutting up a live tortoise.  Another part is where that same lead douche filmmaker shoots a pig and then kicks it when it doesn't die.  It squeals.  And this is a real pig.  James is absolutely right - Cannibal Holocaust wouldn't be what it is without the animal cruelty because that's what helped it gain such notoriety.  Is that saying anything?  No, because it still sucks giant globs of donkey balls.  Without the animal cruelty it would just be a stupid movie...without the cruelty.  

I might watch this again some day just to see if my opinions of it have changed but until then I will still maintain that it's the worst movie I've ever seen.

Greg

I hear you, man. Really, I do.

I really took issue with the animal cruelty more than anything. I almost hoped that all those animals were cooked and eaten and not killed soley for the sake of art or whatever but really, it need not have occurred at all. When I say it's essential to Cannibal Holocaust, I think that's just the truth. But Cannibal Holocaust need not exist either. I won't say it shouldn't exist. I don't think I'd ever say that about any film; someone could easily say that about something I made. I'd rather not take that side of the argument if I can help it (except for the Martyrs remake).

However I wouldn't recommend anyone see it at all or revisit it, especially. My perspective did change but it flat out wasn't worth it in the end.

I refuse to watch this movie. I watched Cannibal Ferox and that was too much for me.

~Zack~

Ferox is nastier. It has even less merit than Holocaust.  

I'm actually a fan of Italian exploitation movies from this period. Some of them are insanely silly fun.

However, I think Holocaust is vastly overated by it's fans. It does have a certain something to say about the human condition, but it's nothing that hadnt been done before in a more subtle way.

These movies were made to make a quick buck. Thats all. Holocaust gets a bit more of a reputation because it might be slightly more intelligient than the rest of them.

On a positive note, the 'found footage' aspect is cool so it does deserve atleast some praise.