Cannibal Holocaust



Cannibal Holocaust is a 1980 Italian cannibal horror film directed by Ruggero Deodato from a screenplay by Gianfranco Clerici. It stars Carl Gabriel Yorke, Robert Kerman, Francesca Ciardi, Perry Pirkanen, and Luca Barbareschi. Influenced by the works of Mondo director Gualtiero Jacopetti, the film was inspired by Italian media reporting of Red Brigade terrorism. The coverage included news reports Deodato believed to be staged, an idea which became an integral aspect of the film's story. Cannibal Holocaust was filmed primarily in the Amazon rainforest of Colombia with indigenous tribes interacting with American and Italian actors.

The film tells the story of a missing documentary film crew who had gone to the Amazon to film cannibal tribes. A rescue mission, led by the New York University anthropologist Harold Monroe, recovers the film crew's lost cans of film, which an American television station wishes to broadcast. Upon viewing the reels, Monroe is appalled by the team's actions, and after learning their fate, he objects to the station's intent to air the documentary. The presentation of the crew's lost footage, functioning similarly to a flashback, revolutionized the found footage style of narrative filmmaking, later popularized by such films as The Blair Witch Project.

Cannibal Holocaust achieved notoriety as its graphic violence aroused a great deal of controversy. After its premiere in Italy, it was ordered to be seized by a local magistrate, and Deodato was arrested on obscenity charges. He was later charged with making a snuff film due to rumors that claimed some actors were killed on camera. Although Deodato was later cleared, the film was banned in Italy, Australia, and several other countries due to its portrayal of graphic brutality, sexual assault, and real depictions of violence toward animals. Some nations have since revoked the ban, though it is still upheld in several countries. Critics have suggested that the film is a commentary about civilized versus uncivilized society.

Plot
In 1979, an American film crew disappears in the Amazon rainforest while filming a documentary about indigenous cannibal tribes. The team consists of Alan Yates, the director; Faye Daniels, his girlfriend and script girl; and two cameramen, Jack Anders and Mark Tomaso. Harold Monroe, an anthropologist at New York University, agrees to lead a rescue team in hopes of finding the missing filmmakers. In anticipation of his arrival, the military conducts a raid on the local Yacumo tribe and takes a young male hostage in order to help negotiate with the natives. Monroe flies in via floatplane and is introduced to his guides, Chaco and his assistant, Miguel.

After several days of trekking through the jungle, the group encounters the Yacumo tribe. They arrange the release of their hostage in exchange for being taken to the Yacumo village. Once there, the group is initially greeted with hostility and learns that the filmmakers caused great unrest among the people. Monroe and his guides head deeper into the rainforest to locate two warring cannibal tribes, the Ya̧nomamö and the Shamatari. They encounter a group of Shamatari warriors and follow them to a riverbank, where they save a smaller group of Ya̧nomamö from death. The Ya̧nomamö invite Monroe and his team back to their village in gratitude, yet they treat the outsiders with suspicion. To gain their trust, Monroe bathes naked in a river. A group of Ya̧nomamö women emerge from the riverbank to take him to a shrine, where he discovers the rotting remains of the filmmakers. Angered, he confronts the Ya̧nomamö in the village, during which time he plays a tape recorder. The intrigued natives agree to trade it for the filmmakers's surviving reels of film during a cannibalistic ceremony, in which Monroe must take part.

Back in New York, executives of the Pan American Broadcasting System invite Monroe to host a broadcast of the documentary to be made from the recovered film, but Monroe insists on viewing the raw footage before making a decision. The executives first introduce him to Alan's work by showing an excerpt from his previous documentary, The Last Road to Hell, depicting executions in several war-torn countries. One of the executives tells Monroe that Alan staged such dramatic scenes to get more exciting footage. Monroe then begins to view the recovered footage, which first follows the group's trek through the jungle. After walking for days, their guide, Felipe, is bitten by a venomous snake. The group amputates Felipe's leg with a machete to save his life, but he quickly dies and is left behind. The remaining four locate the Yacumo. Jack shoots one in the leg so they can easily follow him to the village. Once they arrive, the crew forces the tribe into a hut and burn it down in order to stage a massacre for their film. Monroe criticizes the staged scenes and poor treatment of the natives, but his concerns are ignored.

Monroe finishes viewing the footage, and expresses his disgust to the station executives regarding their decision to air the documentary. To convince them otherwise, he shows them the remaining, unedited footage, which only he has seen. The final two reels begin with the team locating a Ya̧nomamö girl, whom the men film and gang-rape. Faye only tries to intervene when Alan participates. Afterwards, they encounter the same girl impaled on a wooden pole by a riverbank, where they claim that the natives killed her for loss of virginity. Shortly afterwards, they are attacked by the Ya̧nomamö in revenge for the girl's rape and death. Jack is hit by a spear, and Alan shoots him so the team can film how the natives mutilate his corpse. As the three surviving team members try to escape, Faye is captured. Alan initially insists that they try to rescue her, but ultimately decides not to. Mark continues to film as she is raped, beaten to death, and beheaded. The Ya̧nomamö then pursues and kills the last two team members as the camera drops to the floor and ends showing Alan's bloody face. Disturbed by what they have seen, the executives order the footage to be destroyed.

Cast

 * Robert Kerman as Professor Harold Monroe
 * Luca Giorgio Barbareschi as Mark Tomaso
 * Gabriel Yorke as Alan Yates
 * Francesca Ciardi as Faye Daniels
 * Perry Pirkanen as Jack Anders
 * Salvatore Basile as Chaco Losojos
 * Ricardo Fuentes as Lieutenant Ochoa
 * Paolo Paolini as Executive
 * Lucia Costantini as Adulteress
 * Lionello Pio Di Savoia as Executive
 * Luigina Rocchi as Native
 * Enrico Papa as TV Interviewer (uncredited)
 * David Sage as Mr. Yates (uncredited)
 * Ruggero Deodato as Man on University Campus (uncredited)

Production
Production began in 1979, when Deodato was contacted by German film producers to make a film similar to Last Cannibal World, which was also directed by Deodato. He accepted the project and immediately went in search of a producer, choosing his friend Francesco Palaggi. The two first flew to Colombia to scout for filming locations. Leticia was chosen as the principal filming location after Deodato met a Colombian documentary filmmaker at the airport in Bogotá, who suggested the town as a location ideal for filming. Other locations had been considered, specifically the locations where the film Burn!, directed by Gillo Pontecorvo, had been shot, but Deodato rejected these locations due to lack of suitable rainforest. Leticia was only accessible by aircraft, and from there, the cast and crew had to travel by boat to reach the set. The locale presented many problems for the production, in particular the heat and sudden rain storms, which sporadically delayed filming.

Development and writing
Deodato said he conceived of the film while talking to his son about news coverage of the terrorism of the Red Brigades. Deodato thought that the media focused on portraying violence with little regard for journalistic integrity and believed that the media staged certain news angles in order to obtain more sensational footage. He reflected this behavior in the film team in Cannibal Holocaust, whom he said symbolized the Italian media.

The Italian screenwriter Gianfranco Clerici wrote the script under the working title Green Inferno. He had collaborated with Deodato in his previous films Ultimo mondo cannibale and The House on the Edge of the Park, the latter of which was filmed before Cannibal Holocaust but released afterward. The names of certain characters in the film were changed from Clerici's screenplay: the name "Mark Williams" was changed to "Mark Tomaso", and "Shanda Tommaso" was changed to "Faye Daniels".

Clerici also wrote several scenes that did not make the film's final cut. One of which depicted a group of Ya̧nomamö cutting off the leg of a Shamatari warrior and feeding him to piranhas in the river. This scene was to take place directly after Monroe's team rescues a smaller group of Ya̧nomamö from the Shamatari. Attempts were made to film this scene, but the underwater camera did not operate properly, and the piranha were difficult to control. As a result, Deodato abandoned his efforts, and still photographs taken during the scene are its only known depiction.

Casting
For the film, Deodato cast several inexperienced actors from the Actors Studio in New York City. Luca Giorgio Barbareschi and Francesca Ciardi were cast in part because they were Italian actors who also spoke English. Deodato decided to make the film in English to appeal to a wider audience and to lend the film credibility. However, he also needed to establish a European nationality so that the film could be more easily distributed among European countries. Under Italian law, for the film to be recognized as Italian, Deodato had to have at least two native Italian-speaking actors to star in the film.

Deodato also hired Perry Pirkanen and another actor from the Actors Studio to play Jack Anders and Alan Yates, respectively. The latter dropped out shortly before the production team left for the Amazon, although he appears in the film as an ex-colleague of Yates. Casting director Bill Williams subsequently chose Carl Gabriel Yorke to replace him for the role. Yorke, a stage actor who had studied under Uta Hagen and appeared in three national tours of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, was chosen in part because he was the right size for the costumes and boots, which had already been purchased. Because Cannibal Holocaust was a non-Union production, Yorke originally wanted to be credited under the alias Christopher Savage, but ultimately decided against doing so.

Robert Kerman had years of experience working in adult films under the pseudonym R. Bolla, including the well-known Debbie Does Dallas. Kerman was recommended to Deodato for his previous film, The Concorde Affair, in which Kerman played an air traffic controller. Kerman went on to star in the Italian cannibal films Eaten Alive! and Cannibal Ferox, both directed by Umberto Lenzi. Kerman's girlfriend at the time was cast as one of the station executives, as the production needed an actress to be available in both New York City and Rome.

Direction
Deodato drew influence from the works of Paolo Cavara, Gualtiero Jacopetti, and Franco Prosperi, documentary filmmakers of whom Deodato was a fan. Prosperi and Jacopetti produced several Mondo films, which are documentaries similar to the one made in Cannibal Holocaust. These documentaries focused on sensationalistic and graphic content from around the world, including bizarre local customs, death, and general cruelty. Deodato followed suit in ways of similar content, such as graphic violence and animal slayings. Although fictional, Deodato created a similar exposé of worldly violence, such as Cavara's, Prosperi's and Jacopetti's Mondo Cane.

Deodato filmed Cannibal Holocaust using the cinéma vérité technique he learned from his mentor Roberto Rossellini, a style which production designer Massimo Antonello Gelend called "hyperrealistic." Film historian David Kerekes contends that the film's sense of reality is based on the direction and the treatment of the film team's recovered footage, noting that the "shaky hand-held camerawork commands a certain realism, and 'The Green Inferno,' the ill-fated team's film-within-a-film here, is no exception," and that "this very instability gives the 'Green Inferno' film its authentic quality." David Carter of the cult horror webzine Savage Cinema says that Deodato's methods added a first-person quality to the film team's footage, claiming, "The viewer feels as if they are there with the crew, experiencing the horrors with them." Deodato was proud of other aspects of the cinematography, namely the numerous moving shots using a standard, shoulder-mounted camera, foregoing the use of a steadicam.

Kerekes noted the animal slaughter and inclusion of footage from The Last Road to Hell as adding to the sense of reality of the film. Lloyd Kaufman of Troma Entertainment compares these scenes to Vsevolod Pudovkin's theory of montage, saying, "In Cannibal Holocaust, we see the actors kill and rip apart a giant sea turtle and other animals. [...] The brain has been conditioned to accept that which it's now seeing as real. This mixture of real and staged violence, combined with the handheld camerawork and the rough, unedited quality of the second half of the movie, is certainly enough to convince someone that what they are watching is real." Deodato says he included the execution footage in The Last Road to Hell to draw further similarities to Cannibal Holocaust and the Mondo filmmaking of Gualtiero Jacopetti.

Certain scenes in Cannibal Holocaust have also been noted as being similar to scenes in Antonio Climati's Mondo film Savana violenta, specifically the scene in which Monroe bathes naked in the river and the scene of the forced abortion rite. The cinéma vérité style used heavily in Cannibal Holocaust was also used before in Climati's first Mondo film, Ultime grida dalla savana, in a scene where a tourist is attacked and killed by a pride of lions. Another scene, in which a native man is captured, tortured, and murdered by mercenaries in South America, uses a similar filming style, and both scenes may have been influential on Deodato's direction.

Filming
Principal photography began on 4 June 1979. The scenes featuring the film team were shot first with handheld 16mm cameras in a cinéma vérité style that mimicked an observational documentary. After shooting with the film team was completed, Kerman flew down to film his scenes in the rainforest and then to New York to film exterior shots in the city. The interior shots of New York were later filmed in a studio in Rome. Production on the film was delayed numerous times while filming in the Amazon. After the original actor to play Alan Yates dropped out, filming was halted for two weeks as new casting calls began, and the crew awaited the arrival of Yorke from New York City. During principal filming with Kerman, the father of the actor who played Miguel was murdered, and production was again halted as the actor flew back to Bogotá to attend his father's funeral.

Tensions on the Amazonian set were high, due in part to the location and to the nature of the production itself. Yorke describes the set as having "a level of cruelty unknown to me," while Kerman described Deodato as remorseless and uncaring; he and Deodato got into long, drawn-out arguments every day of shooting, usually because of remarks made by Deodato. Cast members also experienced unscrupulous payment practices, which further heightened tensions. Yorke's first payment for the film came in the form of Colombian pesos and was less than what had been agreed upon. Yorke refused to continue shooting until he was paid fairly in United States dollars. The native extras also went unpaid for their work despite their involvement in numerous dangerous scenes, including a scene in which they were forced to stay inside a burning hut for a prolonged period of time. Robert Kerman also noted unfair treatment of the natives by Deodato, stating, "He was a sadist. He was particularly sadistic to people that couldn't answer back, people that were Colombian, [and] people that were Italian but could be sent home".

One particular aspect that led to disagreement amongst the cast and crew was the genuine killing of animals. Kerman stormed off the set while the death of the coatimundi was filmed, and Yorke refused to participate in the killing of a pig, which he was originally scripted to execute, leaving the duty to Luca Barbareschi. When it was shot, the squeal of the pig subsequently caused Yorke to botch a long monologue, and retakes were not an option because they had no access to additional pigs. Perry Pirkanen cried after filming the butchering of a turtle, and crew members vomited off camera when a squirrel monkey was killed for the film. Actress Francesca Ciardi also objected to the film's sexual content and did not want to bare her breasts during the sex scene between her and Carl Yorke. When she refused to comply with Deodato's direction, he dragged her off the set and screamed at her in Italian. She had earlier suggested that she and Yorke actually have sex in the jungle before filming in order to relieve the tension of the upcoming scene. When Yorke declined, she grew upset with him, alienating him for the rest of the shoot.

Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack was composed entirely by Italian composer Riz Ortolani, whom Deodato specifically requested because of Ortolani's work in Mondo Cane. Deodato was particularly fond of the film's main theme, "Ti guarderò nel cuore," which was given lyrics and became a worldwide pop hit under the title "More." The music of Cannibal Holocaust is a variety of styles, from a gentle melody in the "Main Theme," to a sad and flowing score in "Crucified Woman," and faster and more upbeat tracks in "Cameraman's Recreation," "Relaxing in the Savannah," and "Drinking Coco." The instrumentation is equally mixed, ranging from full orchestras to electronics and synthesizers.

Track listing
Total Album Length: 32:37

Reaction
Cannibal Holocaust premiered on 7 February 1980 in the Italian city of Milan. Although the courts later confiscated the film based on a citizen's complaint, the initial audience reaction was positive. After seeing the film, director Sergio Leone wrote a letter to Deodato, which stated, "[Translated] Dear Ruggero, what a movie! The second part is a masterpiece of cinematographic realism, but everything seems so real that I think you will get in trouble with all the world." In the ten days before it was seized, the film had grossed approximately $2 million; in Japan it grossed $21 million, becoming the second highest-grossing film of that time after E.T. the Extraterrestrial. Internationally, it grossed $200 million.

Critical response
Critics remain split on their stances of Cannibal Holocaust. Supporters of the film cite it as a serious and well-made social commentary on the modern world. Sean Axmaker praised the structure and setup of the film, saying, "It's a weird movie with an awkward narrative, which Deodato makes all the more effective with his grimy sheen of documentary realism, while Riz Ortolani's unsettlingly lovely, elegiac score provides a weird undercurrent." Jason Buchanan of Allmovie said, "While it's hard to defend the director for some of the truly repugnant images with which he has chosen to convey his message, there is indeed an underlying point to the film, if one is able to look beyond the sometimes unwatchable images that assault the viewer."

Detractors, however, criticize the over-the-top gore and the genuine animal slayings and also point to an alleged hypocrisy that the film presents. Nick Schager criticized the brutality of the film, saying, "As clearly elucidated by its shocking gruesomeness — as well as its unabashedly racist portrait of indigenous folks it purports to sympathize with [the real indigenous peoples in Brazil whose names were used in the film—the Ya̧nomamö and Shamatari—are not fierce enemies as portrayed in the film, nor is either tribe truly cannibalistic, although the Ya̧nomamö do partake in a form of post-mortem ritual cannibalism] — the actual savages involved with Cannibal Holocaust are the ones behind the camera."

Robert Firsching of Allmovie made similar criticisms of the film's content, saying, "While the film is undoubtedly gruesome enough to satisfy fans, its mixture of nauseating mondo animal slaughter, repulsive sexual violence, and pie-faced attempts at socially conscious moralizing make it rather distasteful morally as well." Slant Magazine's Eric Henderson said it is "artful enough to demand serious critical consideration, yet foul enough to christen you a pervert for even bothering." Cannibal Holocaust currently holds a 65% approval rating on the film review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 5.1/10.

In recent years, Cannibal Holocaust has received accolades in various publications as well as a cult following. The British film magazine Total Film ranked Cannibal Holocaust as the tenth greatest horror film of all time, and the film was included in a similar list of the top 25 horror films compiled by Wired. The film also came in eighth on IGN's list of the ten greatest grindhouse films.

Interpretations
Cannibal Holocaust is seen by some critics as social commentary on various aspects of modern civilization by comparing Western society to that of the cannibals. David Carter says "Cannibal Holocaust is not merely focused on the societal taboo of flesh eating. The greater theme of the film is the difference between the civilized and the uncivilized. Though the graphic violence can be hard for most to stomach, the most disturbing aspect of the film is what Deodato is saying about modern society. The film asks the questions 'What is it to be 'civilized'?' and 'Is it a good thing?'" Mark Goodall, author of Sweet & Savage: The World Through the Shockumentary Film Lens, also contends the film's message is "the rape of the natural world by the unnatural; the exploitation of 'primitive' cultures for western entertainment."

Deodato's intentions regarding the Italian media coverage of the Red Brigades have also fallen under critical examination and has been expanded to include all sensationalism. Carter explores this, claiming that "[The lack of journalistic integrity] is shown through the interaction between Professor Monroe and the news agency that had backed the documentary crew. They continually push Monroe to finish editing the footage because blood and guts equal ratings." Lloyd Kaufman claims that this form of exploitative journalism can still be seen in the media today and in programming such as reality television. Goodall and film historians David Slater and David Kerekes have also suggested that Deodato was attempting to comment on the documentary works of Antonio Climati with his film.

Despite these interpretations, Deodato has said in interviews that he had no intentions in Cannibal Holocaust but to make a film about cannibals. Actor Luca Barbareschi asserts this as well and believes that Deodato only uses his films to "put on a show". Robert Kerman contradicts these assertions, however, stating that Deodato did tell him of political concerns involving the media in the making of this film.

These interpretations have also been criticized as hypocritical and poor justification for the film's content, as Cannibal Holocaust itself is highly sensationalized. Firsching claims that "The fact that the film's sole spokesperson for the anti-exploitation perspective is played by porn star Robert Kerman should give an indication of where its sympathies lie", while Schager says Deodato is "pathetically justifying the unrepentant carnage by posthumously damning his eaten filmmaker protagonists with a 'who are the real monsters – the cannibals or us?' anti-imperialism morale".

Controversy
Since its original release, Cannibal Holocaust has been the target of censorship by moral and animal activists. Other than graphic gore, the film contains several scenes of sexual violence and genuine cruelty to animals, issues which find Cannibal Holocaust in the midst of controversy to this day. Due to this notoriety, Cannibal Holocaust has been marketed as having been banned in over 50 countries. In 2006, Entertainment Weekly magazine named Cannibal Holocaust as the 20th most controversial film of all time.

Snuff film allegations
Ten days after its premiere in Milan, Cannibal Holocaust was confiscated under the orders of a local magistrate, and Ruggero Deodato was arrested and charged with obscenity. As all copies were to be turned over to the authorities, the film was distributed internationally via subterfuge. In January 1981, during the film's theatrical run in France, the magazine Photo suggested that certain deaths depicted in the film were real, which would have made Cannibal Holocaust a snuff film. Following the publication of the Photo article, the charges against Deodato were amended to include murder. The courts believed that the actors who portrayed the missing film crew and the native actress featured in the impalement scene were killed for the camera. Compounding matters was the fact that the supposedly deceased actors had signed contracts with the production which ensured that they would not appear in any type of media, motion pictures, or commercials for one year following the film's release. This was done in order to promote the idea that Cannibal Holocaust was truly the recovered footage of missing documentarians. During the subsequent court proceedings, questions arose as to why the actors were in no other media if they were alive as Deodato claimed.

To prove his innocence, Deodato had Luca Barbareschi get in contact with the other three actors, and the four of them were interviewed for an Italian television show. Deodato also explained in court how the special effect in the impalement scene was achieved: a bicycle seat was attached to the end of an iron pole, upon which the actress sat. She then held a short length of balsa wood in her mouth and looked skyward, thus giving the appearance of impalement. Deodato also provided the court with pictures of the girl interacting with the crew after the scene had been filmed. After they were presented with this evidence, the courts dropped all murder charges against Deodato.

Censorship
Although the snuff film allegations were disproven, the Italian courts decided to ban Cannibal Holocaust due to the genuine animal slayings, citing animal cruelty laws. Deodato, Franco Palaggi, Franco Di Nunzio, Gianfranco Clerici, producer Alda Pia and United Artists Europa representative Sandro Perotti each received a four-month suspended sentence after they were all convicted of obscenity and violence. Deodato fought in the courts for three additional years to get his film unbanned. In 1984, the courts ruled in favor of Deodato, and Cannibal Holocaust was granted a rating certificate of VM18 for a cut print. It would later be re-released uncut.

Cannibal Holocaust also faced censorship issues in other countries around the world. In 1981, video releases were not required to pass before the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC), which had power to ban films in the United Kingdom. Cannibal Holocaust was released straight-to-video there, thus circumventing the possible banning of the film. In 1983, the Director of Public Prosecutions compiled a list of 72 video releases that were not brought before the BBFC for certification and declared them prosecutable for obscenity. This list of "video nasties" included Cannibal Holocaust, which was successfully prosecuted and banned. The film was not approved for release in the UK until 2001, albeit with nearly six minutes of mandated cuts. In 2011, the BBFC waived all but one of these previous edits and passed Cannibal Holocaust with fifteen seconds of cuts. It was determined that the only scene that breached the BBFC's guidelines was the killing of a coatimundi, and the BBFC acknowledged that previous cuts were reactionary to the film's reputation.

The film was also banned in Australia, Norway, Finland, New Zealand, and several other countries in 1984. In 2005, the Office of Film and Literature Classification in Australia revoked the ban, passing Cannibal Holocaust with an R18+ rating for the uncut print, including the consumer advice, "High level sexual violence, high level violence, animal cruelty." In 2006, the film was rejected for classification and banned in its entirety by the OFLC in New Zealand. Cuts to retain an R18 classification were offered by the Office, but they were eventually refused.

Animal cruelty
Many of the censorship issues with Cannibal Holocaust concern the on-screen killings of animals. Deodato himself has condemned his past actions, saying "I was stupid to introduce animals." Although six animal deaths appear onscreen, seven animals were killed for the production, as the scene depicting the monkey's death was shot twice, resulting in the death of two monkeys. Both of the animals were eaten by indigenous cast members, who consider monkey brains a delicacy. The animals that were killed onscreen were:
 * a coati (mistaken for a muskrat in the film), killed with a knife
 * a large turtle, decapitated and its limbs, shell, and entrails removed
 * a tarantula, killed with a machete
 * a boa constrictor, killed with a machete
 * a squirrel monkey, decapitated with a machete
 * a pig, shot in the head with a shotgun at point blank range

Film historian Andrew DeVos has argued that the animal deaths have been harshly condemned because of the film's classification as exploitation, whereas animal mutilations in films perceived by critics to be classics or art films are often ignored. DeVos cites several examples of this double standard, including The Rules of the Game, El Topo, and Apocalypse Now. The BBFC made a similar conclusion regarding the censorship of scenes in which the deaths were quick and painless, noting, "Removing these sequences would be inconsistent with the BBFC's decisions to permit quick clean kills in several other films, such as Apocalypse Now."

Legacy
Cannibal Holocaust was innovative in its plot structure, specifically with the concept of the "found footage" being brought back to civilization and later viewed to determine the fate of the crew that shot it. This was later popularized as a distinct style in Hollywood cinema by The Last Broadcast and The Blair Witch Project, both of which use similar storytelling devices. Each film uses the idea of a lost film team making a documentary in the wilderness, and their footage returned. Advertisements for The Blair Witch Project also promoted the idea that the footage is genuine. Deodato has acknowledged the similarities between his film and The Blair Witch Project, and though he holds no malice against the producers, he is frustrated at the publicity that The Blair Witch Project received for being an original production. The producers of The Last Broadcast have denied that Cannibal Holocaust was a major influence. Nonetheless, the film was cited by director Paco Plaza as a source of inspiration for the found footage films REC and REC 2.

Cannibal Holocaust has been regarded as the apex of the cannibal genre, and it bears similarities to subsequent cannibal films made during the same time period. Cannibal Ferox also stars Kerman and Pirkanen, and star Giovanni Lombardo Radice says it was made based on the success of Cannibal Holocaust. Cannibal ferox has also been noted as containing similar themes to Cannibal Holocaust, such as comparison of Western violence to perceived uncivilized cultures and anti-imperialism. In a mixed review, film journalist Jay Slater claims, "Certainly a tough customer, Cannibal Ferox still fails where Deodato succeeds. [...] Lenzi attempts to tackle cultural defilement and racial issues, but Cannibal Ferox is nothing more than a shoddy exercise in sadism and animal cruelty." Reviewer Andrew Parkinson also notes, "At the end, there is a basic attempt to validate Cannibal Ferox, posing that old chestnut of whether civilised man is actually more savage than the uncivilised tribespeople." Unofficial sequels to Cannibal Holocaust were produced in the years following its release. The titles of these films were changed following their original theatrical releases in order to associate the film with Cannibal Holocaust in different markets. In 1985, Mario Gariazzo directed Schiave bianche: violenza in Amazzonia, which was also released as Cannibal Holocaust 2: The Catherine Miles Story. In addition to the new title, Slater notes similarities between the score in The Catherine Miles Story and Riz Ortolani's score in Cannibal Holocaust. Previously known for his work in Mondo films, Antonio Climati directed Natura contro in 1988, which was released as Cannibal Holocaust II in the United Kingdom.

In 2005, Deodato announced that he planned to make a companion piece to Cannibal Holocaust entitled Cannibals. Deodato was originally hesitant about directing his new film, as he thought that he would make it too violent for American audiences. However, while he was in Prague filming his cameo appearance in Hostel: Part II for Eli Roth, Deodato viewed Hostel and decided that he would direct after all, citing it as a similarly violent film that was given a mainstream release in America. Although the screenplay, written by Christine Conradt, was completed, a financial conflict between Deodato and the film's producer led to the project's cancellation. In 2013, Roth directed The Green Inferno, which takes its title from the fictional documentary produced in Cannibal Holocaust. Roth's film was intended as an homage to Cannibal Holocaust and other cannibal films from the same era.

The film's influence has extended to other media as well. In 2001, Death metal band Necrophagia released a song entitled "Cannibal Holocaust" from the eponymous record. British Author Saurav Dutt also published Cannibal Metropolis, a novel inspired by Cannibal Holocaust set in an urban location. Like Cannibal Holocaust, the novelization features explicit scenes of violence, horror, and rape.

Alternate versions
Due to its graphic content, there are several different versions of Cannibal Holocaust in circulation which are edited to varying degrees. In the UK, the film was originally released on VHS by Go Video in 1982 with approximately six minutes of cuts. These cuts were self-imposed by the distributor, possibly due to technical limitations of the tape. In 2001, the film was passed for release on DVD by the BBFC with 5 minutes and 44 seconds of cuts to remove scenes of animal cruelty and sexual violence; all but 15 seconds of these cuts were waived for a re-release in 2011. The latter release also includes a new edit sponsored by Deodato which reduces the violence toward animals. The versions released by Grindhouse Releasing contains an "Animal Cruelty Free" version of the film that cuts out the six animal deaths. Other versions also contain alternate footage shot specifically for Middle Eastern markets that does not depict nudity.

There are multiple versions of the Last Road to Hell segment of the film, which causes variances even among uncensored releases. An extended version of The Last Road to Hell includes approximately ten seconds of footage not seen in an alternate, shorter version. This additional footage includes a wide-angle shot of firing-squad executions, a close-up of a dead victim, and extended footage of bodies being carried into the back of a truck. The longer version also includes different titles that correctly name the film team as they appear in the final film, while the shorter version gives the names of the film team that originally appear in the script.

The longer version of The Last Road to Hell is no longer found in the film's negatives, but it was included in the original Dutch Ultrabit DVD release by EC Entertainment in 1999. This digital version has since been re-released and licensed for other various DVD releases in Europe. The Grindhouse Releasing DVD release in the United States and the Siren Visual release in Australia have the shorter version of The Last Road to Hell within the feature film but include the extended version in the special features on the first disc.