Cannibalism and its effect on the horror cinema
The taboo responsible for one of the greatest horror exploitation sub genres.
The following main contain images with violence and yadda yadda yadda. Just read the damn wiki. And do not criticize my typos!
The act of cannibalism is one of the more unsettling taboos; the act of eating ones flesh. This is not an act practiced within western audiences, but has been cited as a ancient tribalistic act, and believed to still be practiced by certain tribes.
Shakespeare's play Titus Andronicus, is one of the first western references to it, as it is used as the final revenge plot, making it arguably one of the coolest Shakespeare plays ever. Out of all the boring plays by Shakespeare, the one that involves rape, murder, mutilation and cannibalism, is considered the worst. Typical eh, imo it's the best. I would have much rather study it than Othello or Hamlet. Urgh, goddamn Hamlet!
Even South Park had to jump on that bandwagon and reference it with Scott Tenorman. Om nom nom.
There are plenty of real life serial killers, who practiced cannibalism, such as Jeffrey Dahmer and Albert Fish. Fish even consumed a 10 year old girl, whom he had kidnapped and murdered. To rub salt in the wounds, he later sent a letter to the girls family, graphically detailing his crime and the pleasure he received committing it.
There have been instances where people have been forced to eat each other out of starvation or desperation. Normal people who would consider cannibalism abhorrent but who under dire circumstances have had to rely on it to survive. Alfred Parker, The Donner Party, Dudley and Stephens, and many others during WWII have found themselves in these situations. It brings up the interesting hypothetic, that if you were in a situation such as these poor bastards, would you pick up the fork?
What about people who want to be consumed? In 2012, this Japanese bloke called Mao Sugiyama had his own genitals removed and cooked them up for his guests.
Then there was, Armin Meiwes who recently shocked Germany when he ate his consensual lover Bernd Jürgen Brandes. Brandes, like Sugiyama, wanted to be eaten, unfortunately, they fucked up cooking his cock and burnt it, making that little experiment a bit of a waste. Unlike Sugiyama, Brandes was (consensually) murdered for the incident to occur. This particular story has been referenced in multiple horror movies such as Marian Dora's Cannibal and Feed.
Naturally we also have many fictional cannibals in horror, Hannibal Lecture arguably being the most famous. But there is something very frightening about the concept of tribalistic cannibals. In our western society, cannibalism is considered immoral, taboo. In many ancient societies, it is considered the norm. The Korowai tribe in Indonesian New Guinea is known to still practice cannibalism if they suspect a member of their tribes to be a witch. There was also the Carib Indians of the Caribbean. Here's an interesting fact I read up on the internet, the term 'Cannibal' originates from these blokes. The Spanish had a problem pronouncing the letter 'r' in Carib, so this became 'Canib' and eventually 'Canibales'. The more you know.
Okay, so there's some pointless bull on Cannibalism, lets get to the good stuff. Cannibal exploitations!!!!
These flicks were predominately made by the Italians during the 70s and 80s. These movies made a name for themselves; while they dealt with one of the most ultimate taboos, they also dealt with graphic violence, rape and usually genuine animal cruelty. You know, just in case the idea of a cannibal film wasn't controversial enough.
Most will regard Cannibal Holocaust as being the most famous of the lot, but it actually wasn't the first Cannibal flick to come out of this era, so we shall talk about that one later.
First up; Umberto Lenzi's Man from the Deep River. To my shame, I haven't seen this movie yet, but from what I gather, it is the official start to the Italian Cannibal sub genre. It later inspired other cannibal related films, such as Ruggero Deodato's Last Cannibal World (Jungle Holocaust) and Sergio Martino's Mountain of the Cannibal God.
Both these movies are wonderful. Last Cannibal World is frightening, intense, and barbaric. Naturally animal lovers will not appreciate this movie one bit, but it is a fantastic piece of cinema, and is largely underrated compared to Deodato's more popular Cannibal piece, Cannibal Holocaust.
But again, we are getting ahead of ourselves, we'll get to that one later.
Last Cannibal World basically is a different turn on the story, our main character is changed due to the experiences with the cannibals, and almost becomes just as barbaric as they are. It is a fantastic experience, and highly recommended movie.
Mountain of the Cannibal God, does not feel like a cannibal exploitation flick. Despite the abundance of animal cruelty and cannibals, it almost feels like a national geographic feature with some b movie plot placed in. Horror fans will wanna stick with this one till the end, but make sure you have the uncut copy, for some very explicit scenes of female masturbation and ... bestiality... shudder.
And then we had that horny perv Joe D'Amato add his two cents into the genre, with his Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals. Despite Laura Gemser's appearance, it's kinda boring. I don't know how they made a cannibal film with Laura Gemser as Emanuelle boring, but bugger me, they did. Cool ending though.
Okay, finally, the moment everyone has been waiting for. The glorious-ness of Cannibal Holocaust!
Sure it might be a touch overrated, but there is a reason it is praised so highly. This movie has cannibalism, rape, mutilation, Found footage, and social commentary. What's not to love?! This movie has been banned in so many countries, the whole thing only made it more desired. After all, director Deodato had to prove in court that the actors were still alive, as it was that realistic that they were killed.
Not only is this movie a controversial masterpiece, but the music in it will forever transcend time, and be more morning alarm to wake up in the mornings.
There's not too much to say about this that hasn't already been said, so I'll simply state one of my favourite facts about it. The controversial scene with the girl that was impaled on that pole, they way they filmed that, they had her sitting on a bicycle seat with her head tilted back, and the pole coming out of her mouth. And she simply sat very still. Very effective, Mr. Deodato, well done.
Umberto Lenzi's Eaten Alive came out shortly after, which, despite how entertaining it is, shamelessly stole footage from several of the other cannibal movies made before it. So if you wanna skip some of the cannibal movies, make sure you at least check this one out, seeing as it shows scenes from the earlier movies anyway.
Naughty Lenzi. But don't worry, your contribution Cannibal Ferox more than makes up for your dodginess. Cannibal Ferox is probably the closest to coming to the success of Cannibal Holocaust. It combines sleaziness of horror to make it both a scary and entertaining cannibal flick. plus we actually see the cannibals engaging in...cannibalism. Something that hasn't been seen much of at this point. From memory, Eaten Alive shows some cannibal scenes too, but these movies mainly focus on the horror on the tribes and the people they encounter, not so much on cannibalism. Oh, and rape and animal cruelty, best not forget those.
There have been other entries into the series, including Massacre in Dinosaur Valley which is hilarious, and an entry from Spanish director Jess Franco, with his White Cannibal Queen entry. In this lesson, we learnt that cannibal flicks should remain the Italians forte. Sorry Franco, stick with WIP flicks, and movies dealing with the Marquis de Sade.
The sub genre has since sizzled out of the 80s and remained dormant for a long time, until Eli Roth blew everyone's minds with his upcoming The Green Inferno, set to come out this year. And there was much rejoicing. Yay!
So why we all frantically anticipate that glorious feast, here is a trailer for the upcoming movie, as well as some memorable and noteworthy scenes for any cannibal lovers cinema.
Enjoy.
Cheers!
The act of cannibalism is one of the more unsettling taboos; the act of eating ones flesh. This is not an act practiced within western audiences, but has been cited as a ancient tribalistic act, and believed to still be practiced by certain tribes.
Shakespeare's play Titus Andronicus, is one of the first western references to it, as it is used as the final revenge plot, making it arguably one of the coolest Shakespeare plays ever. Out of all the boring plays by Shakespeare, the one that involves rape, murder, mutilation and cannibalism, is considered the worst. Typical eh, imo it's the best. I would have much rather study it than Othello or Hamlet. Urgh, goddamn Hamlet!
Even South Park had to jump on that bandwagon and reference it with Scott Tenorman. Om nom nom.
There are plenty of real life serial killers, who practiced cannibalism, such as Jeffrey Dahmer and Albert Fish. Fish even consumed a 10 year old girl, whom he had kidnapped and murdered. To rub salt in the wounds, he later sent a letter to the girls family, graphically detailing his crime and the pleasure he received committing it.
There have been instances where people have been forced to eat each other out of starvation or desperation. Normal people who would consider cannibalism abhorrent but who under dire circumstances have had to rely on it to survive. Alfred Parker, The Donner Party, Dudley and Stephens, and many others during WWII have found themselves in these situations. It brings up the interesting hypothetic, that if you were in a situation such as these poor bastards, would you pick up the fork?
What about people who want to be consumed? In 2012, this Japanese bloke called Mao Sugiyama had his own genitals removed and cooked them up for his guests.
Then there was, Armin Meiwes who recently shocked Germany when he ate his consensual lover Bernd Jürgen Brandes. Brandes, like Sugiyama, wanted to be eaten, unfortunately, they fucked up cooking his cock and burnt it, making that little experiment a bit of a waste. Unlike Sugiyama, Brandes was (consensually) murdered for the incident to occur. This particular story has been referenced in multiple horror movies such as Marian Dora's Cannibal and Feed.
Naturally we also have many fictional cannibals in horror, Hannibal Lecture arguably being the most famous. But there is something very frightening about the concept of tribalistic cannibals. In our western society, cannibalism is considered immoral, taboo. In many ancient societies, it is considered the norm. The Korowai tribe in Indonesian New Guinea is known to still practice cannibalism if they suspect a member of their tribes to be a witch. There was also the Carib Indians of the Caribbean. Here's an interesting fact I read up on the internet, the term 'Cannibal' originates from these blokes. The Spanish had a problem pronouncing the letter 'r' in Carib, so this became 'Canib' and eventually 'Canibales'. The more you know.
Okay, so there's some pointless bull on Cannibalism, lets get to the good stuff. Cannibal exploitations!!!!
These flicks were predominately made by the Italians during the 70s and 80s. These movies made a name for themselves; while they dealt with one of the most ultimate taboos, they also dealt with graphic violence, rape and usually genuine animal cruelty. You know, just in case the idea of a cannibal film wasn't controversial enough.
Most will regard Cannibal Holocaust as being the most famous of the lot, but it actually wasn't the first Cannibal flick to come out of this era, so we shall talk about that one later.
First up; Umberto Lenzi's Man from the Deep River. To my shame, I haven't seen this movie yet, but from what I gather, it is the official start to the Italian Cannibal sub genre. It later inspired other cannibal related films, such as Ruggero Deodato's Last Cannibal World (Jungle Holocaust) and Sergio Martino's Mountain of the Cannibal God.
Both these movies are wonderful. Last Cannibal World is frightening, intense, and barbaric. Naturally animal lovers will not appreciate this movie one bit, but it is a fantastic piece of cinema, and is largely underrated compared to Deodato's more popular Cannibal piece, Cannibal Holocaust.
But again, we are getting ahead of ourselves, we'll get to that one later.
Last Cannibal World basically is a different turn on the story, our main character is changed due to the experiences with the cannibals, and almost becomes just as barbaric as they are. It is a fantastic experience, and highly recommended movie.
Mountain of the Cannibal God, does not feel like a cannibal exploitation flick. Despite the abundance of animal cruelty and cannibals, it almost feels like a national geographic feature with some b movie plot placed in. Horror fans will wanna stick with this one till the end, but make sure you have the uncut copy, for some very explicit scenes of female masturbation and ... bestiality... shudder.
And then we had that horny perv Joe D'Amato add his two cents into the genre, with his Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals. Despite Laura Gemser's appearance, it's kinda boring. I don't know how they made a cannibal film with Laura Gemser as Emanuelle boring, but bugger me, they did. Cool ending though.
Okay, finally, the moment everyone has been waiting for. The glorious-ness of Cannibal Holocaust!
Sure it might be a touch overrated, but there is a reason it is praised so highly. This movie has cannibalism, rape, mutilation, Found footage, and social commentary. What's not to love?! This movie has been banned in so many countries, the whole thing only made it more desired. After all, director Deodato had to prove in court that the actors were still alive, as it was that realistic that they were killed.
Not only is this movie a controversial masterpiece, but the music in it will forever transcend time, and be more morning alarm to wake up in the mornings.
There's not too much to say about this that hasn't already been said, so I'll simply state one of my favourite facts about it. The controversial scene with the girl that was impaled on that pole, they way they filmed that, they had her sitting on a bicycle seat with her head tilted back, and the pole coming out of her mouth. And she simply sat very still. Very effective, Mr. Deodato, well done.
Umberto Lenzi's Eaten Alive came out shortly after, which, despite how entertaining it is, shamelessly stole footage from several of the other cannibal movies made before it. So if you wanna skip some of the cannibal movies, make sure you at least check this one out, seeing as it shows scenes from the earlier movies anyway.
Naughty Lenzi. But don't worry, your contribution Cannibal Ferox more than makes up for your dodginess. Cannibal Ferox is probably the closest to coming to the success of Cannibal Holocaust. It combines sleaziness of horror to make it both a scary and entertaining cannibal flick. plus we actually see the cannibals engaging in...cannibalism. Something that hasn't been seen much of at this point. From memory, Eaten Alive shows some cannibal scenes too, but these movies mainly focus on the horror on the tribes and the people they encounter, not so much on cannibalism. Oh, and rape and animal cruelty, best not forget those.
There have been other entries into the series, including Massacre in Dinosaur Valley which is hilarious, and an entry from Spanish director Jess Franco, with his White Cannibal Queen entry. In this lesson, we learnt that cannibal flicks should remain the Italians forte. Sorry Franco, stick with WIP flicks, and movies dealing with the Marquis de Sade.
The sub genre has since sizzled out of the 80s and remained dormant for a long time, until Eli Roth blew everyone's minds with his upcoming The Green Inferno, set to come out this year. And there was much rejoicing. Yay!
So why we all frantically anticipate that glorious feast, here is a trailer for the upcoming movie, as well as some memorable and noteworthy scenes for any cannibal lovers cinema.
Enjoy.
Cheers!