Source-Grindhouse Releasing DVD
From 1980,growing up this was THE Cannibal film. The one every horror loving kid had heard of but most of us had never seen. Then finally when I was 14 I was at my local con. And there was the grey market dealer guy. Yall older fanboys know who I am talking about. His table was loaded with VHS. Most of which were copies of laserdiscs. With a few workprints or never released on VHS films mixed in. Well the guy had Cannibal Holocaust. "Yeah that is the fully uncut version. Got it off a Japanese laserdisc. So it also looks and sounds really good." I asked the price and got told $30. I handed him the money and thought that I would finally get to see this film I had been hearing about for a long time.
The bad thing I bought the tape on Sunday. The last day of the con. I got home. Sure I had school the next day and had barely slept that weekend. But I was gonna watch Cannibal Holocaust before I went to sleep. I throw the tape in. And it is blank.Yep I had paid $30 for a blank tape. Thru a friend that helped run the con he got a message to the dealer. Got told "He said if you are willing to pay the shipping he will send you another copy plus another film from his stash as a sorta sorry I missed up gift" So I mailed the guy the money. Waited forever and never got anything. The next year at the con I planned on talking to him. And of course he wasn't there. So I gave up on seeing the film.
Then around 2005 ,might have the year wrong,I got the Grindhouse Releasing DVD. Sat down and watched it. And while the film is gory. It was only the real animal deaths that got to me. Thankfully the dvd I got has an option to watch it with the animal deaths removed. And until today when I watch the film that is how I watch it.
So how is the film? The plot isn't bad. A camera crew disappears in the Amazon rain forest while filming a documentary on the various tribes that live in the area. Another group is sent in to find the film crew but all they end up finding is the footage that was shot.
The rest of the film is us watching this footage. And we get to see how brutal and asshole like the documentary crew was acting. And at least with me after a short while I was wanting the cannibals to eat them.
Cannibal Holocaust is considered one of the first films in the Found Footage genre. And it is the earliest film from that genre that I have seen. It is also well known for how many times it has been banned or heavily censored in various countries. In the UK it was on the video nasties list in the 80s. And unless I have missed something it still hasn't been released uncut in the UK. In the USA it seems we have always gotten an uncut release.
This DVD is like every Grindhouse Releasing product loaded with extras. We got a fun commentary with the director and one of the lead actors. A short featurette on the "Road to hell " footage. A few trailers. And my favorite extra the previously mentioned animal cruelty free version of the film. For this viewing I watched the fully uncut film with animal deaths still in it. And like the first time I watched it those animal deaths still get to me.But the director has said he wishes he hadn't filmed them.
Cannibal Holocaust gets a B-.
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