On Cannibal Holocaust

            I have seen a lot of gory films throughout my life and most never made me twitch.  I would just watch, laugh and cringe with other people around me but for the most part there haven't been may gore fests that have turned my stomach.  So when I first heard about Cannibal Holocaust my first reaction was “Whatever.  I've been watching slashed movies since I was eight.  Doubt it's something I haven't seen before.”  Oh my God!  How wrong was I!  I don't admit this too often, but this was a film that freaked the shit out of me!  I'm not even going to bother trying to give a review on this but just give my general thoughts on it.  This is the Illusive One's Thoughts on Cannibal Holocaust.

            I went into this movie not entirely sure what to expect but doubted it could lash out anything I hadn't seen before and for a while I was fairly sure I was right.  The film revolves around a scientist who goes into a South American rain forest, where some of the few cannibal tribes left in the world exist, trying to find out what became of a handful of film makers and the second half revolves around them viewing the footage the filmmakers shot.  As I said the first half of the film didn't really faze me.  There was one scene where they killed a muskrat, (apparently this was one of several animals killed during the making of the film), but that didn't bother me.  There was another scene where a man kills his wife for adultery which was a little weird but still didn't bother me.  What I didn't know, however, was that this was barely a sample of what was to come.

            When they start to review the footage, it's where things get disturbing.  At first it's fairly straight forward; the crew just moves along the forest with nothing special happening until they kill a turtle, (the next animal to die in this film).  They drag this poor thing kicking out of the water and just decapitate it and start removing the shell and meat within it all with that eerie music playing.  While this is going on they actually show a shot of the turtle's mouth opening and closing and its eyes moving!  What the fuck!?  It's bad enough that you killed the poor thing to make this film but now your showing us that its brain isn't dead yet?!  What the fuck is wrong with you people!?

            Anyhow, you get your first real look at the blood in this film not long after.  The filmmakers' guide gets bitten by a snake in the foot.  So how do they try to help him?  They cut his leg off and, my God, did it look real and with that music playing made it all the more worse.  Then after, you had these ass holes doing horrible things to the natives.  One tribe in particular they actually round up, put them into a hut and set it on fire and tried to keep them from escaping.  What the hell is wrong with these people!?  They keep going into the forest and it just keeps on getting worse as they record a group of tribes people perform an abortion, (or something of that nature), bury the child or fetus, (not really sure which), in mud and bash the mother's head in with rocks.  Who thinks up this shit?!

            Then you had the final act of the film and this was where I nearly puked my gut out.  The filmmakers, being the sadistic pricks they are, repeatedly rape a girl, who is in turn impaled by her tribe, and the entire tribe goes after the filmmakers in response and makes for one of the most unsettling finally I have ever seen in a film that just left me speechless and my stomach curtailing.  But this is something I won't dare spoil or go into detail because I may be going over the line, (and this is coming from the guy who curses on his blog all the time).  If you want to find out, watch it for yourself.  But that is somewhere I will not go.

            In the end I am not sure what I think of this film.  I hesitate to use this word, but the closest word I can think of for my thoughts toward it is disgusted.  It's probably the only film I have ever seen that only used sheer gore and nearly made me puke my guts out.  I mean it's just one fucked up movie!   To tell you the truth, I'm honestly not surprised it was banned in so many countries, nor why the makers were charged with making a snuff film.  The fact that there are parts in it I won't dare to describe should tell you all that you need to know.   I mean it's just one fucked up movie!  And I'm honestly not sure if I despise it or love it.