There are many banned films in the history of cinema that are found offensive because of the scenes and stories they contain. In fact, some of these films made so much noise that lawsuits came with them.
One of these banned and terrifying films is Cannibal Holocaust. This 1980 film tells the story of the disappearance of a documentary crew that went to shoot in the Amazon jungle. However, the death, violence, sexual harassment and animal slaughter scenes in the movie are so ‘bad’ that the director of the movie was sued for many crimes such as murder.
Let’s look at the subject of Cannibal Holocaust in a little more detail
An anthropologist and his team were unable to hear from a four-person team who went to the Amazon jungle to shoot a documentary about indigenous tribes. sets out to search for the missing documentary crew. While the anthropologist and his team continue their search, although they cannot find the film crew, they reach the boxes containing the footage taken by the team.
Watching the films, the anthropologist and his team painfully learn that after the documentary crew ‘disturbed’ a tribe, they met with the cannibal face of this tribe…
The controversial story of the film is that the director is accused of many crimes, including murder.
The plot of the movie may not seem that ‘horrifying’ when you just read it. However, when the slogan of the film, ‘the best effect is the real one’, was added to the images containing a lot of blood, violence, murder, cannibalism, sexual assault and animal slaughter, the discussions were not delayed.
As soon as the movie premiered, it was found ‘obscene’ and banned because of the scenes in it. A lawsuit was also filed against the director of the film. The film was banned in more than 50 countries and broke records in this field.
On top of this development, when it came to the knowledge that animals were brutally tortured and killed in all the animal death scenes in the movie, there was a bigger reaction. Immediately afterwards, allegations were made that the actors who died in the ‘impairing’ scene in the movie were actually killed, and a murder case was filed against the director. The images in the movie were so realistic and terrifying.
Why was the claim that players were killed taken seriously?
Of course, the over-realism of the scenes wasn’t the only reason for claiming that the actors died. At the same time, the fact that the actors who died in the movie did not appear for a long time and did not appear in the media strengthened these claims. However, the reason for this situation was an agreement signed with the players. According to this agreement, the actors would not appear in public for a year after the release of the movie.
The reason for this was to make the story of the ‘cannibalistic killing of the crew going to shoot the documentary’ in the movie look more realistic. However, this decision, as you can see, backfired and caused more trouble for the director.
Six animals brutally killed scenes were unfortunately real
Six different animals were brutally murdered in the movie. were slaughtered and unfortunately for these scenes the animals were actually killed.
- Coati, a rodent species, was killed with a knife.
- A turtle killed by decapitation
- A tarantula and boa constrictor were killed by cutting with a machete.
- A pig was killed by a rifle shot in the head.
- A monkey was killed by beheading (two monkeys were brutally murdered because this scene was shot twice)
The movie was accused of being a ‘snuff movie’ because of these allegations: So what is a snuff movie?
After the allegation that the actors were actually killed in the film, the production was accused of being a ‘snuff film’. Snuff film is the name given to illegally filmed pornographic films that result in the torture and murder of actors during a sadistic sex act.
The director had to contact all the actors to prove they ‘lived’. In order to get rid of these allegations and be cleared by the court, the director of the movie contacted all the actors and had to prove that they were not dead. For this, interviews were held with all the actors in the movie who died and the evidence was presented to the court. Then the director’s ‘murder’ charge was dropped. In addition, the director had to explain how they made the ‘pile’ scene in court so realistic.
The shooting of the movie was also eventful and there were constant discussions on set
The making of such a shocking movie it was also eventful. There were constant arguments between the actors and director Ruggero Deodato. The reason was usually the actors’ objections to scenes such as rape and animal killing. However, according to the statements made by the actors in the film, director Deodato did not listen to all these criticisms, he even shouted at his actors and forced them to do what he wanted.
Actor Robert Kerman, who plays the leading role of the movie and plays the role of the anthropologist who goes to look for the crew, referred to Deodato with expressions such as “sadistic”, “no soul”, “brutal”, in his statements in which he talked about the constant fights with the director during the filming and how the director treated the team very badly.
In other words, although the director did not cause the actors to die, we cannot say that the director, who was acquitted of all his crimes, is innocent, considering the animals that died during the shooting of this scary movie, the violence and sexuality in which the actors unintentionally acted.
The movie is still among the ‘cult movies’; Why?
Cannibal Holocaust, which we can refer to as a sub-genre of cinematic exploitation, was evaluated as an innovative structure for cinema culture, especially because of the ‘finding images’ it uses and the method used to clarify events. Later, this method was also used in Hollywood cinema. In addition, the film is known as the “peak production” among “cannibal films” and continues to hold this nickname.
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