Cannibal Holocaust

Résumé : Cannibal Holocaust is one of the most controversial horror films ever made. Despite not achieving huge success when it was first released, the Italian production found an audience on home video in the 1980s and became a must-see for connoisseurs of extreme cinema. Indeed, Cannibal Holocaust foremost legacy is in the United Kingdom, where it obtained its reputation as one of the most harrowing and offensive 'video nasties'. However, as the years have progressed, Cannibal Holocaust has been re-evaluated, mainly as the forefather of the 'found footage' film, and recent home video re-releases have added some valuable perspective to the onscreen violence with cast and crew interviews. What has been missing from this contemporary activity is contextualisatiion of Cannibal Holocaust's style, affirmation and discussion of its locations and any extensive discourse about its representation of third world inhabitants (i.e. as primitives). Additionally, and also amiss from previous dialogue on the production, it can be argued that it is one of the key post-Vietnam films. Calum Waddell's Devil's Advocate provides an insightful and thoroughly researched discussion of this truly ground-breaking film, which also includes a foreword by the film's star, Carl Yorke. Calum Waddell is a Lecturer in Film and Media and writes on film for such publications as Dazed, SFX and Sci-Fi Now. His work as a documentary producer and director includes over-seeing the special features for the American home video releases of Cannibal Ferox and Cannibal Holocaust and helming the acclaimed documentaries Slice and Dice : The Slasher Film Forever (2013), 42nd Street Memories (2015) and Yellow Fever : The Rise and Fall of the italian Giallo (2016).