FAQ for
Cannibal Holocaust (1980) More at IMDbPro »

The answer is no on all counts. The film's advertising may hint to the footage being real, but it isn't. The rumors of this being real started after the film's released, where director Ruggero Deodato was arrested for making a real snuff film (a film in which the actors are murdered for the camera). The charges were proven false when Deodato presented the actors on a television show.

Yes. Seven animals (a coatimundi, a turtle, a spider, a snake, two squirrel monkeys, and a pig) were actually killed, with six of them for the camera. The monkey scene had to be filmed twice, so even though only one is seen dying, two were killed.

The makers of The Blair Witch Project have come under fire for supposedly drawing heavy uncredited influence from previously released films which bear similarities to their film. Such films include Cannibal Holocaust, The Last Broadcast, and Man Bites Dog, as all of which included the characters of the film as cameramen using a cinema verite style.

However, the makers of The Blair Witch Project claim to have thought of The Blair Witch Project in 1992. Cannibal Holocaust is the only film released by this time (Man Bites Dog wasn't released in the USA until 1993). Also, Cannibal Holocaust is often cited as a major influence due to the structure of the film and the film's premise itself: a small group of film makers head into the wilderness to make a documentary and never come back. A rescue party searches for them but only finds their footage. The rest of the film is the subsequent viewing of the footage.

The makers of The Blair Witch Project, however, have denied that Cannibal Holocaust was an influence and only knew of its existence when confronted with the two films' similarities after its release.

The makers of The Last Broadcast (which uses the same structure and premise as Cannibal Holocaust and The Blair Witch Project) have had similar accusations made against them and also claim that Cannibal Holocaust was not an influence and was unknown to them until after their film's release.

Many critics have cited that Ruggero Deodato was attempting social conscious and commentary with his film Cannibal Holocaust.

The most common interpretation is that Deodato was attacking the media and its coverage of sensationalistic topics instead of aiming for journalistic integrity (as the film crew did in the movie). Also, it is suggested that the media may stage their footage (or, at the very least, target footage of graphic subject matter) for the sake of ratings.

Another common interpretation is that Deodato was commenting on the savagery of modern civilization, that although Western society today is "civilized", it is still innately as brutal and savage as, say, primitive cannibals living in the jungle or any other society that one may find barbaric. Western society may also cannibalize itself or other, lesser developed societies to work towards its own means, thus unleashing its hidden savagery (represented in the film by cannibalism and the film crew, who tormented who they believed were the savages to work to their own profit).

Deodato, however, has stated that he had no intentions for Cannibal Holocaust other than making a cannibal movie. Star Luca Barbareschi supports this view. However, co-star Robert Kerman claims that Deodato had meant to comment on the media with Cannibal Holocaust.

A snuff film is a film that depicts the actual murder of a person or persons for the purpose of capturing their death on film. A maker of a snuff film would murder a person specifically for the goal of selling the murder footage for sensationalistic profit.

There are many misconceptions about what is truly a snuff film and what isn't. Any film that depicts an incidental death (such as a spontaneous suicide like the R. Budd Dwyer TV footage, for instance) is not considered a snuff film because the person did not die for the purpose of capturing the death on film.

Other examples of what snuff films aren't are Mondo films, which were documentaries made during the 60s, 70s, and 80s that often depicted real human death. These deaths, however, were not for the purpose of capturing on film. The fact that it was filmed is purely incidental.

As of yet, there is no proof that a snuff film exists or has ever existed. They are myths that was created around the Manson Family murders when it was suspected that the family had video taped their crimes. However, no murders were ever found on the family's taped footage.

Yes. Ten days after the film premiered in Italy, director Ruggero Deodato was arrested and his film was confiscated based on the belief that several actors were actually murdered in the film. He produced the actors to the courts to prove the charges false.

Yes. Several countries have, in fact, banned the film in its entirety. Some of those countries include New Zealand, Singapore, and The Maldives. Countries where it is believed to be banned include Iceland, Malaysia, Thailand, and The Philippines.

Some countries have indirectly banned the film. For instance, The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) ordered Cannibal Holocaust to be cut by nearly six minutes before it could be released in the UK. Any version that does not include these cuts is banned in the UK. The same is true for Germany.

Several countries had banned the film until recently. Norway and Australia each unbanned the film in 2005. It was also banned in its native Italy for a short time during the scandal upon the film's original released, but has been unbanned since 1984.

Rumors persist that the film is banned in over 50 countries (largely due to the printing on the UK video release by VIPCO), but these are all unverified. It is possible that the film was banned in dozens of countries during its snuff film controversy, but this is also unverified.

The Last Road to Hell is a mini-documentary in Cannibal Holocaust that the missing film crew had previously shot. It consists of real-life firing-squad executions. Director Ruggero Deodato says the footage is from Nigeria.

Most DVDs, even those that claim to be uncut, are missing around five to ten seconds of footage. This is because the original film negatives were damaged during the film-to-DVD transfer. The DVD that has the complete footage of The Last Road to Hell is the EC Entertainment 2-disc limited edition DVD. The Grindhouse Releasing/Siren Visual DVDs also have the full Last Road to Hell footage in the special features.

Critics and film makers have cited several aspects that led to the belief that Cannibal Holocaust was a snuff film:

The cinema verite style in which the second half of the film was shot lent a sense of hyperrealism. Poor film quality, shaky camera movements, rough editing, and jump cuts are all techniques that were used to make the footage seem more real.

The use of real pig organs as gore effects was a contributing factor. According to Guinness World Records, pig organs are the animal organs most similar to human beings.

For a long time, the special effects for the impalement scene went without plausible explanation until Deodato demonstrated the effect in court.

With several genuine animal slayings presented in the film, it seemed feasible that the film makers would also kill humans for the film.

Genuine human death was depicted in the Last Road to Hell segment of the film. Therefore, reality was further blurred by the inclusion of real death (the makers of Cannibal Holocaust did not film the footage in The Last Road to Hell. They acquired newsreel footage that featured criminal executions from Nigeria and overlaid it with titles).

The turtle scene is a scene where three of the actors portraying the documentary film team drag a large river turtle from the water and proceed to cut off its head, remove its breastplate, and disembowel the turtle. It is then cooked and eaten.

The piranha scene was a scene that was written and originally intended to be filmed for Cannibal Holocaust. The scene would have taken place immediately after Professor Monroe's team saved a group of natives, the Yanomamo, from another tribe of natives, the Shamatari.

The scene was scripted as thus: a lone Shamatari warrior, injured after the encounter, would have his leg cut off by the group of Yanomamo. The Yanomamo would then tie him to a log that they lowered into piranha infested waters. The Shamatari warrior would slowly be eaten alive.

Though filming began on the scene, it was never completed. The reason for this is the fact that the piranha were hard to control and the film crew's underwater camera was malfunctioning. Only still shots of the scene exist. There have been rumors in the past that the scene appears in an obscure foreign video release, but these are all untrue.

After proving that he did not murder any actors for the film, the Italian magistrate banned the film due to the genuine animal cruelty depicted. Director Ruggero Deodato, the film producers, screenwriter, and a United Artist representative were fined and given a four month suspended sentence after being convicted of obscenity.

A bicycle seat was fastened to the end of an iron pole, on which the actress sat. She then placed a small pole of balsa wood in her mouth and looked straight up, making it seem like she had been impaled.

Because they were filming deep in the Amazon rain forest, there were no studio representatives or controls to prevent them from killing animals. Deodato chose to have the animals killed because there was no one there to stop him (though several crew members protested and even walked off the set).

There are two possibilities for this situation:

The first possibility is that the men of the film crew, after raping the girl, then killed her and impaled the wooden pole through her body. They later pretend to come across the impalement and film the scene as such. Shots of Alan smiling at the sight could be explained as him being happy that the impalement turned out looking the way it did, creating more brutal and sensationalistic content (i.e. he was marveling his handywork).

The other possibility is that it was the raped girl's tribe that killed and impaled her due to her being made "unclean" by the rape (in an almost subliminal shot, a native man can be seen watching the whole rape unfold). Thus, Alan would be correct by stating that the natives killed her because of a "bizarre sexual rite." His quickly caught happiness would be explained by the fact that the team came across such a grisly scene, and again, they would be able to capture the shot for their documentary.

The second explanation can come under mild scrutiny from the fact that the natives attack the crew in vengeance for the rape of the girl, even though the tribe had been the ones who killed her. However, it is possible that the tribe's strongly held superstitions stated that they must kill the girl because of her impurity from the rape, and that they attacked the film crew for making it necessary to kill her (thus, in their eyes, the film crew would still be responsible for the girl's death).

Whichever scenario is correct is a matter of interpretation.

Cannibal films (such as Cannibal Holocaust) have drawn heavy influence from Mondo films, which were documentaries that focused on bizarre behavior and sensationalistic topics in hopes of quick profits. The makers of Mondo films have even blatantly and notoriously staged some scenes in hopes of passing them off as genuine.

The film makers in Cannibal Holocaust can be seen as Mondo film makers, as their documentary fits the definition of a Mondo film. They also stage and manipulate several scenes in their documentaries. Since the film crew are strong antagonists in the film, some critics have drawn connection with the Mondo film makers in the film and the Mondo film makers in real life and thus claim that Deodato was attacking Mondo film making in general.

Specifically, some mention that the works of Antonio Climati were under fire. Some scenes in Cannibal Holocaust were directly influenced by scenes in Climati's Mondo film This Violent World and can be seen as an attack on the content of Climati's films.

However, Deodato has never mentioned any kind of attack on Mondo film making in Cannibal Holocaust. In fact, the film's composer, Riz Ortolani, says that Deodato was a fan of Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi, the first Mondo film makers. Ortolani says that Deodato did indeed draw influence from the Mondo works of Jacopetti and Prosperi, but has never stated that his intentions were hostile.

Therefore, it is possible that Mondo film makers were only used in the film to express the story, and that the supposed commentary on Mondo film making is merely incidental.

Deodato had filmed The House on the Edge of the Park in 1978, a year before he filmed Cannibal Holocaust and two years before Cannibal Holocaust's release. Therefore, the distribution company had the finished product before Cannibal Holocaust's release and were able to release it in the same year.

After forcing the Yacumo tribe into the hut, Mark can be heard yelling, "The massacre of the Yacumo by the Yanomamo!" to which Alan agrees. Simply put, they were slaughtering the tribe to film for their documentary and would later edit the footage and claim it was an act perpetrated by another tribe (the Yanomamo). They were staging the scene for their movie to make more sensationalistic content when none was readily available.

Whether or not this whole ordeal was planned or not is unknown, but due to its swift coordination and execution, one can infer that it was planned.

There are several scenes that may point to Faye being less corrupt or an innocent party:

-She did not participate in the burning of the hut. She only filmed.

-After the hut burning, the group films a dying old woman by a riverbank. Her body is completely scarred, presumably from the burning hut. While giving commentary on the scene, Faye breaks down and cries. This was changed from what was originally in the script, which had Faye commenting the whole way through.

-She physically tries to stop the crew's rape of the native girl (though her reasons include to not waste film on something they can't use).

-She tries to stop Alan from killing Jack and shows intense remorse upon his death.

However, neither the director, stars, nor screenwrite have ever said that Faye was not a willing participant in the rest of her group's actions.

No, they did not.

It's a common interpretation that Felipe was bitten by the venomous snake, and that the film team cut off his leg as a blatant overreaction to the situation merely to catch the sensational violence for their documentary.

However, right after Felipe is bitten, he begins screaming and can be heard yelling, "Cut off my leg!" He was asking them to cut off his leg to save his life.

The DVDs released by Grindhouse Releasing in the USA and by Siren Visual in Australia each have a version that cuts out the animal killings, but keeps the rest of the film. Under playback options, select the "animal cruelty free version".

The UK DVD release from VIPCO (Video Instant Picture Company) also has all the animal cruelty removed (except for the snake and the spider), but is also missing other parts of the film, such as sexual violence.

For film and NTSC, the uncut running time is 95 minutes.

For PAL running times, it is 92 minutes uncut (PAL DVDs run about 4% faster than NTSC and film).

The only two true uncut versions (that is, the only two releases that have the complete Last Road to Hell segment within the feature film) are PAL running time DVDs.