Forums Horror Movie Reviews
Cannibal Holocaust: When a Film Goes Too Far

WARNING: This review contains pictures from the film and could be condered extremely shocking for the squeamish. If you have a heart condition, please get away from this review. Thank you. Few films have gained as much notoriety as Cannibal Holocaust (1980). A few have come close (Cannibal Ferox, lent Night, Deadly Night) but none have succeeded. There's a persting rumor that it is still banned in over fifty countries, and if this is true, it is the most abolished film in the world. Going into it, I knew I was going to witness some heavy material bearing down on me. Even with this realization, I wasn't prepared for what I saw, and I'm still haunted by this movie to this day. Unaware and unprepared, I eagerly pressed, "Play".

Words cannot describe how much I hate this movie. It can mply be described as evil in its purest form, even if it does have that stereotypical "we're the savages not them" message, but Cannibal Holocaust drives that point deep. It's depictions of cannibalism is astoundingly realistic, even if I have (thankfully) never encountered them myself. It's goal is to test your limits; to see how much utter depravity you can handle, and it accomplishes this with a vengeance. If you enjoy hearing animals squeal and shriek as they are killed, by all means, buy this movie; you'll love it. I'd say every horror fan should see this, but once you see it, you'll never want to watch it again (at least, that's the case for me). If you want to be entertained by a cannibal movie, check out Holocaust's more campy brethren, Cannibal Ferox (Make Them Die Slowly, 1981).

Yeah this is one of the most gruesome movies I've ever subjected myself to, definitely sticks with you for a while after viewing and not in a good way.

I have been wanting to see this film for awhile especially after making a short film for the halloween horror nights contest and finding out that Eli Roth is one of the judges. That being said, I am not a big fan of animal deaths in film, especially real ones so now I am conflicted.

Huge fan of the movie. Doesn't bother me, though the animal stuff was a little hairy for me. I didn't mind so much the ones were you knew it was an instant death, because that's as humane as any slaugherhouse, hell more humane than some, but the turtle really did bother me a bit.But as I said, I'm a hug fan, I even dropped 40 bucks for Rotten Cotten's Cannibal Holocaust Work Shirt lol.

Words cannot describe how much I hate this movie. It can mply be described as evil in its purest form, even if it does have that stereotypical "we're the savages not them" message, but Cannibal Holocaust drives that point deep. It's depictions of cannibalism is astoundingly realistic, even if I have (thankfully) never encountered them myself. It's goal is to test your limits; to see how much utter depravity you can handle, and it accomplishes this with a vengeance. If you enjoy hearing animals squeal and shriek as they are killed, by all means, buy this movie; you'll love it. I'd say every horror fan should see this, but once you see it, you'll never want to watch it again (at least, that's the case for me). If you want to be entertained by a cannibal movie, check out Holocaust's more campy brethren, Cannibal Ferox (Make Them Die Slowly, 1981).

I have to agree with you to an extent. I do like this movie in the sense that it succeeds as a horror movie to be a) horrible and b) able to inflict fear/disgust/horror/shock to the audience.

However I really wish they didn't do the whole animal cruelty thing. It was disgusting and there was nothing clever about it, it was just horrible. I had to actually look away during the turtle scene.

I don't think i'll ever see this. I don't mind seeing humans (even children) get killed in horror, but something about seeing animals get killed really hurts my feelings. The fact that its real in this film makes it all the more difficult for me to stomach. Thanks for the read @Obscure. I've always been on the fence about seeing this, and i think you just made up my mind.

im in the minority here, but the animal shit doesn't really bug me, shock me, or climb under my skin. Maybe I've seen a few too many gruesome incidents in my lifetime, maybe I'm just strange, but it doesnt really bother me. What does bother me, is that I always seem to forget about this damn movie (how?)

::heads over to netflix::

I actually like this movie .. in college we started a movie club that showed this movie at our 3rd viewing and the turn out was great!

People were warned about the content and some were still offended but it lead to a great discuson afterwards.