thelegendarywd Reviews

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

An almost equal remake of the greatest horror film of all time

[10/10 · 29 January 2004]

When I first read in Fangoria magazine that there was going to be a remake of my favorite horror film, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", I was more than a little upset. I was downright p***ed. Then I saw the trailer, and it actually looked scary... damn scary. But I didn't keep my expectations too high because this was a Hollywood remake of an independent horror classic.

Man, was I surprised!!! This movie kicked ass! But in totally different - and yet some of the same - ways that the original did. For example; in the original there was practically no gore (with the exception of Leatherface accidentally slicing some meat off his own leg), but the scares came more from the suspense and psychological horror and torture the victims were subjected to. Whereas the remake supplies plenty of gore (not an exploitative amount though) that is used to disturb and scare us. Also there was always an overwhelming sense of dread for what was to become of the victims in the original masterpiece. And the remake keeps that same sense throughout the whole film.

The acting in the first "Chainsaw" was pretty good for an independent horror film in the 70's, but this one's got it beat. Jessica Biel is superb as a scream queen. The supporting cast is very effective also.

All in all, this is a perfect horror film. And while it may not replace the original as my favorite... it definitely places in my top ten of horror. I only hope the "Dawn of the Dead" remake fairs as well (although, with running and jumping zombies instead of slow and lumbering, I have my doubts).

1) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

2) The Evil Dead

3) Dawn of the Dead (1978)

4) Re-Animator

5) Return of the Living Dead

6) Day of the Dead

7) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

8) Zombie

9) Cannibal Holocaust

10) From Dusk till Dawn

The Brainsucker (1988)

I'm actually honored to be one of the six people on imdb who has seen this garbage

[1/10 · 20 September 2003]

I remembered this awful movie I bought at Camelot music store in the summer of 1989 when I was visiting my Grandparents. It was a time when I had just discovered movies like Re-Animator, From Beyond, The Return of the Living Dead, and Dawn of the Dead. I was ready for all the horror/gore genre had to offer.... or so I thought! I was only about 12 years old at the time so I really don't remember it all that well. I remember a psycho running around with a corkscrew killing people, and a couple of cops (I think) who were riding in a car that wasn't actually moving, but being rocked side to side to look like it was... true cinemagic. I also remember it being the worst film I had ever seen up to that point and I promptly threw it in the garbage.

Something tonight made me think of that movie (I can't believe I actually remembered the name), so I jumped on imdb to see if it was listed. To my surprise... IT WAS! And a full other 5 people have seen it.... Amazing. Even though I remember hating the film at the time I sort of wish I had kept it hidden away somewhere because I'd love to check it out again for a laugh (it would probably make a good drinking game movie). Anyway, I'm glad I'm part of the elite few that's seen this little "treasure". I would love to pick it up somewhere for a couple of bucks.... but beware, this is not a recommendation... it is awful... it's just for nostalgia.

Cabin Fever (2002)

It's no Evil Dead....

[5/10 · 15 September 2003]

I was very excited to see the preview for this movie when I went to see 28 Days Later. It seems as if the return of low budget horror/gore films is finally here. Although I was extremely disappointed with House of 1000 Corpses, the fact that I was able to see it in the theater was a plus... Lions Gate Films should be commended. Then I got to see 28 Days Later in the theater... a zombie movie!!! And after reading about Cabin Fever in Fangoria for a while I now got to see that... again, thanks to Lions Gate. Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed with the movie. I guess I was expected some zombie carnage or something... there was none. I was expecting a certain visceral thrill, Evil Dead style... not there either. The film is about a virus that eats it's victims flesh... and that's the only flesh eating... no gut munching zombies or demons. It also takes quite a while before the virus starts to spread to really pick up the pace. This being said, the film does have it's positive points: a decent sense of humor and some great make-up effects, and when the final victim learns he has the disease he gets pretty violent. I might have to view it a second time to appreciate it more now that I know it's not the ultra-violent splatter-fest I thought it would be (I mean it is only rated R). So while Cabin Fever isn't quite up to films like The Evil Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or even the excellent 28 Days Later, it's certainly better the House of 1000 Corpses and more importantly it's a step in the right direction... back to the hey-day of gore MAKE-UP EFFECTS and not crappy, cartoonish, and cold CGI. Hopefully, one day we will see the return of the Unrated horror film to the theaters... like The Evil Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead in their days... HEY... GEORGE ROMERO... YOU GOT THAT? GIVE US TWILIGHT OF THE DEAD... UNRATED!

Braindead (1992)

GORE GALORE!!! A true Zombie classic.

[10/10 · 26 August 2003]

This is one of the greatest gore fliks ever made... period! If you want a summary of the plot just check the other reviews. All I'm gonna say is this ranks as my number 5 favorite Zombie film (check out my review for 28 Days Later to see my top ten) ever. It's starts out as a goofy comedy with great gross-out gore (I love the rat-monkey stop motion) and escalates into an all out zombie fest at the end, with our hero, Lionel (Timothy Balme) in full Ash/Evil Dead 2 mode (only instead of a chainsaw for an arm, he slaughters the living dead with an old lawn mower tied around his torso). The zombie baby scenes are particularly funny... and I think they are only in the unrated version because I don't remember them in the far inferior R-rated version... definitely watch this one unrated. Peter Jackson is a God of a director (also watch his Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles and The Frighteners... they are all excellent.... I don't think I have to mention a certain awesome trilogy that he directed).

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

THE BEST OF THE BUNCH... yes, it's better than Raiders

[26 August 2003]

OK, so both Speilberg and Harrison Ford have both expressed that they think this one is to violent and dark. But it's also the most adventurous. I was only 7 years old when I saw this film 4 times in the theater in 1984.... and I feel like that 7 year old each time I watch it again. My favorite part of Raiders of the Lost Ark was the opening sequence... and although the rest of the film was excellent, it never lived up to that opening scene.... In Temple of Doom the whole film is like that opening scene in Raiders... you barely have time to breathe it's so adventure-packed. From the great James Bond style opening scene, to the river-raft out the plane. From the Mine Car Chase, to the Bridge scene (by far my favorite in all the Indiana Jones films). Sure this film is the most exploitive... but it also, BY FAR, the funnest.

28 Days Later (2002)

The return of the "Great Zombie Movie"

[25 August 2003]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Danny Boyle. After waiting so long to see House of 1000 Corpses - and hoping it would be the return to the 70's and 80's heyday of the horror movie - and then being so disappointed when it turned out to be an MTV style piece of excrement, I thought it was over for the TRUE horror film.

Although it isn't your traditional "living dead" zombie flik, it has all the right elements - small group of survivors fending off large number of "infected" - and it's atmospheric, stylish and scary (House of 1000 Corpses was none of the above).

The film had homages to Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead... but at the same time it was totally original. One of my favorite things about the Night, Dawn, Day and other zombie movies of the like is the slow moving zombies stumbling and creeping toward their prey... usually only very threatening in numbers. In this film the zombies don't stumble or creep toward their prey... THEY HAUL ASS. This isn't the first film where zombies have running ability, mind you (think The Return of the Living Dead films, Nightmare City, Zombi 3, Zombie 4... well, it's better not to think of those last two), but the way these zombies attack is so brutal. THEY BEAT THE HELL OUT OF YOU!!!

There are too many great things to say about the film to list and too many great scenes.... the opening scene especially!

In the great zombie movie category this is my top ten list:

1)Dawn of the Dead

2)The Return of the Living Dead

3)Day of the Dead

4)Zombie

5)Dead Alive

6)Return of the Living Dead 3

7)28 Days Later

8)Night of the Living Dead (1968)

9)Night of the Living Dead (1990)

10)Return of the Living Dead Part 2 (yes... I do like Part 2)

Day of the Dead (1985)

THE BEST ZOMBIE MAKE-UP EFFECTS EVER!!! CHOKE ON 'EM!!!

[10/10 · 25 August 2003]

Night of the Living Dead started it all. It was a creepy atmospheric classic about the dead coming back to life and attacking people in a rural farmhouse.

Dawn of the Dead continued the story. An action-packed Zombie-thon that followed a group of humans to an abandoned shopping mall where they set up residence to escape the outside zombie nightmare - where the world is about 50% zombies now - until the amazing heroes vs. zombies vs. bikers climax. This remains my (and a majority of fans') favorite Romero zombie film ( and Romero film period).

Day of the Dead picks up after the natural progression of zombie terror that began with Night and escalated with Dawn. Now the zombies outnumber the humans about 400,000 to 1. The film follows 12 survivors -soldiers, scientists, a helicopter pilot and a radio operator - who live in an underground military shelter. The soldiers only want to kill the zombies and are at odds with the scientists who want to study, perform tests on, and even train the zombies. The soldiers are led by the psychotic Rhodes, who at one point threatens to have a scientist shot if she leaves the meeting he is holding. The head scientist, dubbed Dr. Frankenstein is also somewhat crazy, but in a much less threatening way. He wants to train the zombies to behave. And is having much success with his "star pupil"... Bub. Bub is zombie who is "rewarded" when he behaves. He doesn't try to attack the humans... nor does he see them as lunch. Lori Cardille stars as Sarah, a scientist who comes across as kind of a Sigourney Weaver Lite and is our main heroine in the film.

Enough with the story... lemme tell ya why this movie rocks... the Tom Savini zombie make-up effects are simply the best ever put on film!!! Not to mention the excellent performances by Howard Sherman as Bub, Richard Liberty as Frankenstein and especially Joe Pilato as Rhodes (who delivers my favorite lines in the film "CHOKE ON 'EM.... CHOKE ON 'EM!!!"... hilarious). The opening sequence in the ghost town is awesome... with a fantastic shot of the sun through a zombies head.

This may not be the balls to the wall action/horror extravaganza that Dawn of the Dead was, but it's a great follow-up and has better make-up effects. And, I feel that it is even more enjoyable than the original Night of the Living Dead.

For those of you who have seen this only once and didn't enjoy it (I was among you)... see it again. It might just surprise you how entertaining it is. 10/10.

Day of the Dead (1985)

THE BEST ZOMBIE MAKE-UP EFFECTS EVER!!! CHOKE ON 'EM!!!

[10/10 · 25 August 2003]

Night of the Living Dead started it all. It was a creepy atmospheric classic about the dead coming back to life and attacking people in a rural farmhouse.

Dawn of the Dead continued the story. An action-packed Zombie-thon that followed a group of humans to an abandoned shopping mall where they set up residence to escape the outside zombie nightmare - where the world is about 50% zombies now - until the amazing heroes vs. zombies vs. bikers climax. This remains my (and a majority of fans') favorite Romero zombie film ( and Romero film period).

Day of the Dead picks up after the natural progression of zombie terror that began with Night and escalated with Dawn. Now the zombies outnumber the humans about 400,000 to 1. The film follows 12 survivors -soldiers, scientists, a helicopter pilot and a radio operator - who live in an underground military shelter. The soldiers only want to kill the zombies and are at odds with the scientists who want to study, perform tests on, and even train the zombies. The soldiers are led by the psychotic Rhodes, who at one point threatens to have a scientist shot if she leaves the meeting he is holding. The head scientist, dubbed Dr. Frankenstein is also somewhat crazy, but in a much less threatening way. He wants to train the zombies to behave. And is having much success with his "star pupil"... Bub. Bub is zombie who is "rewarded" when he behaves. He doesn't try to attack the humans... nor does he see them as lunch. Lori Cardille stars as Sarah, a scientist who comes across as kind of a Sigourney Weaver Lite and is our main heroine in the film.

Enough with the story... lemme tell ya why this movie rocks... the Tom Savini zombie make-up effects are simply the best ever put on film!!! Not to mention the excellent performances by Howard Sherman as Bub, Richard Liberty as Frankenstein and especially Joe Pilato as Rhodes (who delivers my favorite lines in the film "CHOKE ON 'EM.... CHOKE ON 'EM!!!"... hilarious).

This may not be the balls to the wall action/horror extravaganza that Dawn of the Dead was, but it's a great follow-up and has better make-up effects. And, I feel that it is even more enjoyable than the original Night of the Living Dead.

For those of you who have seen this only once and didn't enjoy it (I was among you)... see it again. It might just surprise you how entertaining it is. 10/10.

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

The beginning of a beautiful movie series

[9/10 · 25 August 2003]

All I can say is "Thank you, George Romero". Thank you for creating one of the most influencial horror movies of all time. Thank you for having the guts to be dark. Thank you for trying to scare us. Thank you for succeeding in scaring us. Thank you for continuing to scare us with two superior sequels to this great film. Thank you for creating an entire sub-genre that is still popular today.

I'm not gonna write a real review... you should know the story by now. All I will say is if you haven't seen this film yet or it's sequels, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, rent or buy all three and watch them in order as a triple feature.

And keep your fingers crossed for the fourth in the series (either to be titled Dead Reckoning or the MUCH BETTER and more in tradition of the series title TWILIGHT OF THE DEAD).

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

A film with expectations this high can only disappoint...

[23 June 2003]

...and that's exactly what is does.

I'm a huge fan of the original Matrix and when I heard they were making not only one sequel but a trilogy I was thrilled... I loved the first and I couldn't wait for more.

Then I saw the trailer for Reloaded! It looked AMAZING!!! And the hype was out of this world. So I kept one thing in mind: A movie that looks this great and generates incredibly high expectations can only disappoint. So I anchored my expectations. Little did I know how low I should have kept them.

The original film mixed excellent fight choreography with a Terminator style plot (Machines take over the world and one man is sought after to lead a fight against them) with a fun touch of Zen dialogue ("There is no spoon"). But, unfortunately, once the movie became such a phenomenon and developed such a huge following it seems as if the film makers decided that what followed should be much more "epic" (i.e.; pretentious). What they succeeded in doing is making the film much more boring... there is waaay too much technical computer jargon and that fun touch of Zen dialogue in the original is over the top in this one. Almost every time a character spoke in this film I felt like yelling "SHUT THE F*CK UP!!!!". But, fortunately, this film sports some of the best action scenes ever filmed (the extended car chase scene is amazing), although the scene where Neo is attacked by all the Smith clones goes on far too long. Also, I know this is a trilogy and is "to be concluded", but couldn't the makers have found a better point to end the film... they should have taken notes from Peter Jackson in the way he ends his Lord of the Rings films... Reloaded's ending just felt awkward. Overall I'd say the film is "incredibly average". I say this only because of my expectations and my love of the original. Hopefully, they'll tone down the pretention in Revolutions (although judging by the title and the fact that it's the conclusion, I doubt it).

6 out of 10 for the action scenes.

Hell of the Living Dead (1980)

Dawn of the Zombi 2, part 3... a good Bruno Mattei rip-off

[23 June 2003]

The first time I saw this film I had never even heard of a laser disc, let alone a dvd, and it was called Night of the Zombies. I rented it on VHS around the early 90's when I was about 13 or 14 because I loved zombie movies like the Romero Trilogy, Return of the Living Dead and, yes, even Return of the Living Dead Part II. I have to admit I did not like it back then, but for some reason when I saw the Anchor Bay release of the DVD Hell of the Living Dead (which I immediately recognized as Night of the Zombies) I had to buy it (I guess I'm just a zombie film completist)and to my surprise I loved it this time around. Yes, it's poorly directed and written. But that's par for the course in these ultra low budget Italian rip-offs. Hell they can't even afford their own soundtrack (it's borrowed from both Romero's Dawn of the Dead and Luigi Cozzi's Contamination). But when you combine such great unintentionally hilarious scenes and dialogue with great overacting (by Franco Garofalo, a.k.a. Frank Garfield) and non-acting (the rest of the cast) and cheesy gore fx all together it makes for one hell of an entertaining movie. Hey it's no Dawn of the Dead... but at least it isn't Shatter Dead (the most ridiculously overpraised "zombie" pic of all time). The ending is a hoot. Check it out. 3 out of 5 stars.

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

THE GOLD STANDARD TO JUDGE ALL ZOMBIE FILMS BY!!!

[10/10 · 23 June 2003]

Yes, the excellent Night of the Living Dead started it all and is one of the greatest horror/zombie/classics of all time. But it's sequel, Dawn of Dead, is the pinnacle of the genre. It is the height other zombie films try to reach and few come close. It is a film that proves that classic originals can have superior sequels (along with Aliens, The Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom... in my opinion, and The Road Warrior). This film has everything a zombie film fan could hope for: flesh chomping, gut ripping, head chopping, brain shooting... in other words, true zombie mayhem.

But to only credit this film with the excellent Tom Savini gore effects would overlook the fact that it is an expertly made film. I mean, this is a ZOMBIE film over 2 HOURS LONG!!! If this film were made by someone who didn't know what they were doing it would have gotten old real quick! Romero knows how to frighten us, disgust us, thrill us, disturb us, and even make us laugh occasionally.

The film basically shows the world after becoming more and more infested with the zombies that were introduced in the original. It seems as if the world is about half zombies and half human. It follows a mixed bag of humans searching for a safer place to live in a helicopter. They come upon an abandoned shopping mall and land on the roof. The mall proves to have everything they need to be happy so they proceed to exterminate the zombies that inhabit it and clean them out. All goes pretty well for a while until a motorcycle gang wants the kind of goodies the mall can provide.

I don't want to give too much away for the people who haven't seen this EXCELLENT classic... but I will hint at some of my favorite scenes:

• The entire opening SWAT sequence in the housing project building (very suspenseful... very gory). - The zombie children attack. - The zombie vs. helicopter blade scene. - The mall shopping spree & zombie clean up scene. - The semi-truck moving scene. - The motorcycle gang vs. protagonists vs. zombies climax.

There are many more reasons to watch this film but the best reason is that it is totally entertaining. Also don't forget to check out part three of the Romero "Dead" films, Day of the Dead (another excellent film) and let's all hope that he is able to make the fourth... Twilight of the Dead (a title I think is much better than the updated title Dead Reckoning)! Also, for more excellent Zombie carnage I would recommend Lucio Fulci's Zombie (aka Zombi 2, semi-sequel to Dawn, which was released in Italy as Zombi), Return of the Living Dead, and Peter Jackson's Dead Alive. I've also got my hopes up for 28 Days Later to be the return of the true zombie movie... and let's keep our fingers crossed that the Dawn remake next year is not a piece of garbage.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

The single best and scariest horror film EVER!!!

[10/10 · 23 June 2003]

A group of teenagers on a road trip... OH BOY!!! HERE WE GO AGAIN... the typical horror movie set up. But wait.... something sets this one apart... IT'S SCARY... to be more precise, IT'S TERRIFYING!!! And I'm not just talking about the horrible 70's clothing and hairstyles. This film is one of the very few films I consider scary. Let me list a few reasons:

1) The gritty documentary feel the film has.

2) The excellent performances by Edwin Neil (the Hitch-Hiker), Jim Seidow (The Old Man), and Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface) as the psychos (in a film this low budget and grainy, performances this real feel all the more scary) and Marilyn Burns (Sally) and Paul A. Partain (Franklin) as the victims (we truly believe and feel their fear).

3)The atmosphere (the skeleton bone art... the freaky metal door in the farmhouse... Leatherface's mask and demeanor... even the way the sun sets in this film is spooky along with the sound of the farmhouse generator).

4)Relentless Horror (Leatherface RUNS not speedwalks after his victims with a live chainsaw... there's no time to trip and fall or your booty is chainsaw bait)

5)The ability the film has to scare you with almost a complete lack of gore (the only "gory" scene is when Leatherface accidently cuts his thigh with the chainsaw). The scares lie within the performances and atmosphere and pacing.

In closing... this is truly the greatest horror film (and one of the greatest films period) ever made. 15 out of 10!!!

House of 1000 Corpses (2003)

CRAP-TASTIC... makes me weep for the future of horror

[7 June 2003]

First off let me list a few of my favorite horror films: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1 & 2, Re-Animator, Bride of Re-Animator, Night of the Living Dead (1968 & 1990), Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Return of the Living Dead 1 & 3, Dead Alive, Zombie, The Evil Dead Trilogy, Basket Case, Near Dark, The Howling, Cannibal Holocaust, Jungle Holocaust, From Dusk Till Dawn, Jaws, Dagon, From Beyond, Society, The Excorcist, Burial Ground, The Ring, Signs, The Pit & the Pendulum (1991), Mountain of the Cannibal God, The Silence of the Lambs, Ed Gein, Last House on the Left, House on the Edge of the Park... etc., etc. The list goes on. My favorite directors include Sam Raimi, George Romero, Lucio Fulci, Ruggero Deodato, Brian De Palma, Alfred Hitchcock, Dario Argento, Stuart Gordon, and Brian Yuzna. Now, after reading some of my choices for favorites, you can judge if we have somewhat of the same tastes in horror.

Some people claim that they are true horror fans just because they watch films like The Evil Dead Trilogy or are fans of Lucio Fulci. And while I also fit into those categories I know that only the original Evil Dead film was TRUE horror and that Fulci has made some incredibly awful films (Demonia and Aenigma are just a couple of examples). I drove 40 miles to see the 25th Anniversary of Night of the Living Dead and get George Romero's autograph on my 100th issue of Fangoria and paid Tom Savini $20 to sign my Dawn of the Dead poster magazine... does that make me a true horror fan? NO!

What makes me a true horror fan is my love of getting scared, or disturbed, or shocked by a film (something House of 1000 Corpses fails miserably at). The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the scariest films I've ever seen... yet surprisingly almost completely lacking any gore. Cannibal Holocaust is one the most disturbing and goriest movies of all time because it feels REAL.

Being a huge horror buff, I've been waiting for House of 1000 Corpses since I first read about it a couple of years ago in Fangoria. With all the controversy over the gore and other content PLUS Rob Zombie wanting to make an homage to the 70's horror films PLUS Zombie naming his horror influences.... I couldn't wait!

Finally 1000 Corpses hit my local mega-plex and I saw it the first night it played. I was expecting Texas Chainsaw type scares and Cannibal Holocaust type gore and shocks. I was expecting Lucio Fulci mixed with Evil Dead mixed with early Tobe Hooper mixed with Re-Animator. What I got was MTV mixed with Scooby-Doo mixed with Oliver Stone (at his worst) mixed with... well, Rob Zombie.

Do all the "horror fans" on imdb who give this a positive review and label the people who pan it as "not a true horror fan" realize that the only thing positive this film has going for it is the performances of the great Sid Haig and Bill Moseley (who's performance actually does grow tiresome by the end of the film). Zombie shows us nothing original here. From the storyline (teenagers on a road trip make a wrong turn and all hell breaks loose), to the horrible (and incredibly annoying) editing style (MTV video meets Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers), we've seen it all before and we've seen it done alot better.

So many times in this film we are shown wild unexplained images that register as completely incoherent and make the audience just think "What the F**k?". I'm not saying that we have to understand everything that's going on in a horror film... hell many of Fulci and Argento's plot lines vere off coarse so much I'm sometimes left scratching my head. But their films have atmosphere and they leave us in the dark about things to make us that much more afraid of the unknown, whereas Mr. Zombie does it apparently just to make his viewer say "What the F**k?".

Oh Well, at least I have 28 Days Later, Beyond Re-Animator, and HOPEFULLY George Romero's fourth installment of the Dead series (hopefully to be titled Twilight of the Dead instead of the generic Dead Reckoning). Until then I guess I'll have to put up with people thinking this feature length piece of crap is the "TRUE HORROR FILM" reborn.

Escape from Hell (1980)

Sleaze Galore... The W-I-P Film at its Trashy Best

[9/10 · 7 June 2003]

Great family entertainment! OK, maybe not.... But, man, what an excellent piece of sleaze. Great sex scenes (in the first sex scene you can see that the girl is actually performing REAL oral sex on the male guard),the stand-out being the sweaty lesbian scene in the jail cell... very steamy. The rape scenes are a little too rough and suprisingly realistic (one guard holds the lead actress while the other gropes and performs REAL oral sex her) but my guess is that the cast is probably of the hardcore background due to the scenes they perform in this film. It may not have the wit of Caged Heat or the originality of The Big Bird Cage but it sure does know the right parts to imitate. While this may not be the "watch with the girlfriend" type movie it's a great guilty pleasure... and one hell of a Sleazy/Trashy/Morally devoid piece of filth!!! GOD, I LOVE IT! 9/10.

Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

Hands down the best of the cannibal subgenre

[22 January 2003]

Far surpassing any of the cannibal films I've viewed (Cannibal Ferox, Mountain of the Cannibal God, Eaten Alive, etc.) I'd have to say that Cannibal Holocaust is not only my favorite Italian Cannibal film, but one of my favorite horror films.

The plot for Cannibal Holocaust is an obvious inspiration for The Blair Witch Project: A group of young film students set out into the wild to film a documentary. They disappear. Months later their disturbing footage is found.

In Holocaust's case the wild is the Amazon Jungle as opposed to Blair Witch's forrest in rural Maine. And the documentary's subject is cannibals as opposed to a witch. And in Holocaust the contents found on the recovered footage is incredibly graphic and violent whereas in Blair Witch it's what we don't see that scares us. For all you haters of the Blair Witch Project (I personally loved it): don't worry, that's where the similarities end.

Holocaust begins when a Professor at the missing film-maker's University is asked to travel to the "Green Inferno" (the Amazon) to find the young students. Upon arriving he is given a couple of guides and makes his way into the jungle. After witnessing a brutal killing of a native girl they capture a native and he takes the three men to his tribe. It is there that the Professor finds the film of the missing students. Before getting the film he must go through some cannibal "nastiness" though.

When we finally view what's on the film it is an incredibly disturbing experience. We see that the student's aren't such a likeable group and they enjoy and take pride in provoking the cannibals. Still, as much as we don't like the students... there's the inevitable dread of seeing what their fate will be.

The beginning of Holocaust plays somewhat like a jungle adventure... just with alot more gore. Whereas the documentary footage plays alot like Blair Witch. Again, the main difference being that Holocaust contains all the money shots of graphic sex and violence.

This is without a doubt the most skillfully directed Cannibal film ever made (notice that what the three men see in the beginning of the film connects to what happens in the documentary footage perfectly, but is not even emphasized). Director Ruggero Deodato easily tops his own Jungle Holocaust (my second favorite cannibal flik) and proves himself an intelligent film-maker with a flare for disturbing his audience. Much more so than Umberto Lenzi (Cannibal Ferox, Eaten Alive) who seems to just want to shock his audience. Although I have yet to see Lenzi's The Man from Deep River (the cannibal film to start them all), I have to say that even though I like his cannibal films, they can't touch Deodato's. A 10 out of 10.