I've seen a lot of horror and gore flicks, many that my friends couldn't handle or thought were too intense, so I consider myself fairly jaded and ready for just about anything on screen - bring it on!
After reading many comments on _Cannibal Holocaust_, I expected to at least be mildly affected by this film, in spite of my jaded "iron gut" status. This film didn't do a thing for me or to me, it completely failed to have any major or minor impact on me.
If you've read about the film, you already know all the major components, and the items that got under the skin of most of those watching. Didn't faze me one iota! Either I'm as messed up in the head as my friends think I am, or this flick suffers too many major problems, or both.
Some will probably say I just didn't "get it", but I think I did. There are potentials for a great film here, but it falls far short. The underlying moral theme of western decadence being more savage than "primitive" tribal culture could have been a good hook, and saves the film from being a total failure. The documentary style helps some as well, lending some realism and an excuse for some of the poorly done effects (I have a very hard time believing there really was an obscenity trial for the director, in regards to the authorities believing anyone really got killed in this film).
The most often quoted "disturbing" parts, being the actual killing of animals, just didn't bother me much. The only one I had any feelings about at all was the muskrat, as it was killed in a slow and painful manner, and I'm not a fan of animal torture. But, as it was a rodent, I had a hard time getting worked up about it - I just thought the folks who would do such a thing for fun/profit were assholes. I felt worse for their lack of regard than I did for the actual animal suffering and death. The other animal killings were all relatively quick events, mostly involving beheading (which is quick and effective for the most part) and while a turtle flopping its legs around after it is dead and being cut up might freak some people out, with its head cut off it is already dead and the movements are reflex only. I've had shark filets that were still quivering from nervous action when I put them in the skillet, and I know darn well the shark wasn't feeling a thing by then!
Aside from the gore of butchering the animals, the effects are not well done, even for a 1979 film, IMNSHO. I also found the pace of the film, and the amount of gory/horror content to be lacking in a big way. I was mostly bored, not grossed out, horrified, or "disturbed". I've seen older non-grossout style flicks have much better effects than most of the blurry/disjointed action that makes up most of the gore scenes in this film. A few obligatory gut and entrail/exposed brain moments, and most of the rest is at least semi-implied, rather than explicitly detailed. The focus goes away, the event happens, the focus comes back some for the "result". About the only effect I thought was reasonably well done was the castration. I wasn't looking for _Day of the Dead_ spill your entrails on the floor in graphic detail, but when watching a scene of primitive natives beating someone to death with rocks and sticks, I would expect the blows to at least look like they come close to landing on the victim! The rapes seemed thrown in, perhaps as an afterthought, for extra shock value, and the way they were thrown in made them seem even more unreal and fake than the way they were acted.
I could have tolerated the very poor acting, the disjointed underexplained setup, the animal cruelty, the slower disjointed pace, if there was anything more to this film, but I just didn't find anything more. I've seen much better gore on a low budget from the same time frame (_Evil Dead_ was shot within a year or two of this "piece", wasn't it?), and I've seen better attempts at the "realism" style over the "buckets of blood" gore style. I've also been more "disturbed" by non-gore movies because of plot, storyline, or clever gimic. Shame, too, as I think the moral theme, and (later stolen by Blair Witch?) finding the victims footage after their demise premise were great hooks, and could have made for a much better final product.
At least _Blood Sucking Freaks_ made me laugh...
If you are a serious fan of the genre, you'll probably have to watch this one and judge it for yourself. However, I would advise a rental, or borrowing it from a friend if possible, as I would have been quite disappointed if I had paid full price for the DVD.
I rate it a 3 out of 10, as it had great potential but failed to come even close to meeting it.
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