haitangkitty

I watched Cannibal Holocaust(1980) and a more recent film that was inspired by it the Green Inferno(2013).

TW: cannibalism(obviously), sa, animal abuse, racism

I've seen lot of "cannibalism as a metaphor for love/intimacy" type of content online. I've seen Bones and All(2023) ans Raw(2016). And I've watched two seasons of Hannibal but it grossed me out and I didn't find it sexy like many seem to. It reminded me too much of Dahmer case. I haven't seen the tv series based on him because it’s based on exploitation of real life crime which is truly disgusting.

I had Cannibal Holocaust on my watchlist for some time but I only decided to watch it after hearing Stephanie Soo's (Rotten Mango youtuber) describe it. It's considered the first snuff film and the director ended up in jail because people thought the film was a real documentary.

I've only seen one found footage film before and it was the scariest film I've seen. I feel like as a horror subgenre it's the one that scares me the most alongsides with paranormal. The presence of the camera and getting the film material about what happened is central to the story.The contrast between the New York skyscrapers and the Amazon is highlighted in the film - these are two completely different worlds.

The documentarist turn out to be the savages who rape and slaughter the Amazonian people and animals. They do not come into the jungle with good faith but as "adventurers". This reminds me when I used to watch Madventures and follow all these white people who would travel to dangerous places and eat wild animals etc. and play these kinds of adventurers. It's a very colonialistic mindset. But at the end of the film the indigenous people take revenge on the documentarists and rape, kill, and eat them. We are asked at the end of the film who are the real savages.

One of the most controversial things about this film was that it features real animal killings. It was the grossest part in the film for me.

I feel like this film will stay with me. I haven't actually seen any films that deal with colonialism so it was an eye opening watch.

Second film that was also about white people going to the cannibalistic Amazonian tribes I watched was the Green Inferno. It takes inspiration from Cannibal Holocaust but it's a really bad film. The white people in this film are activist college students who go to the Amazon to protest companies who destroy the indigenous land. The film could be seen as a critique on white saviors or the naivete of some activists but it fails to do so. It more so tries to make fun of the activists and the dialogue is really cringe at times. It's weird how Cannibal Holocaust has a message about colonialism but the Green Inferno seems racist in their depiction of the indigenous tribe. The film had one gory scene but overall it was not scary or upsetting just annoying.