Cannibal Holocaust (1980) on Netflix
NR19801h 35mAdventureCrimeHorrorMystery
A documentary crew vanishes in the Amazon while filming cannibal tribes. Harold Monroe, an anthropologist, leads a rescue mission into the rainforest and returns with their footage.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb5.7/1067,931 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes67%
Trailer
Plot summary
A film crew disappears into the Amazon rainforest while shooting a documentary about cannibal tribes: Alan Yates, Faye Daniels, Jack Anders, Mark Tomaso and their guide Felipe. Harold Monroe, who teaches anthropology at NYU, takes charge of the search for them. He lands by floatplane, and Chaco and Miguel join him as his local guides. Soldiers stationed in the rainforest have already raided the Yacumo and seized a young man to bargain with the tribe. Monroe's team heads deeper into the jungle, where the Yanomamo and the Shamatari, two tribes, are at war. They follow Shamatari warriors to a riverbank and save a smaller group of Yanomamo from them. In gratitude the Yanomamo invite the team to their village, though they stay suspicious of the foreigners.
Cast
- Perry Pirkanenas Jack Anders
- Mauricio Rodríguez
- Ricardo Ramírez
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- During the film's French run, the magazine Photo suggested real deaths were shown and Cannibal Holocaust might be a snuff film; director Ruggero Deodato said magistrates suspected him of murder and he avoided charges by having cast members appear in court, at least Luca Barbareschi.
- Six animal deaths appear on screen in Cannibal Holocaust, but seven animals were killed: the scene of the monkey's death was shot twice, so two monkeys died. Both monkeys were eaten by the indigenous cast members, who consider monkey brains a delicacy.
- When his character was scripted to kill a pig on camera, Carl Gabriel Yorke refused and Luca Barbareschi did it instead; Yorke had bonded with the pig, botched a monologue when it was shot, and there were no retakes because the production had no other pigs.
- Carl Gabriel Yorke's first payment arrived in Colombian pesos and was less than agreed, so he refused to keep shooting until he was paid in United States dollars; the indigenous extras went unpaid despite being forced to stay inside a burning hut for a scene.
- A scripted scene in which Ya̧nomamö cut off a Shamatari warrior's leg and fed it to piranhas was abandoned by Ruggero Deodato because the underwater camera malfunctioned and the piranhas were hard to control, leaving only photographs from the setup.
- Italian courts banned Cannibal Holocaust over its genuine animal slayings, and Ruggero Deodato, Franco Palaggi, Franco Di Nunzio, Gianfranco Clerici, producer Alda Pia and United Artists Europa's Sandro Perotti each got a four-month suspended sentence for obscenity and violence; Deodato fought three more years to lift the ban.
- Cannibal Holocaust's plot structure, in which the filmmakers' recovered footage is brought back and viewed to learn the crew's fate, was later popularized in Hollywood by The Last Broadcast and The Blair Witch Project, which use the same lost-film-team device.
- The film's soundtrack was composed entirely by Italian composer Riz Ortolani, whom Deodato requested because of his work on Mondo Cane; Deodato was particularly fond of the main theme, which gained lyrics and became a worldwide pop hit under the title "More".
