Reality in Cannibal Holocaust

This chapter reviews how Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust follows in the tradition of mondo and exotic cinema. It illustrates how Cannibal Holocaust presents the viewer with a purportedly genuine 'reality', such as unsimulated animal slaughter, actual locations, and newsreel atrocity footage. It also analyses the fictionalisation of location, native lifestyles, and historical images in Cannibal Holocaust . The chapter discusses the harrowing execution footage of Cannibal Holocaust 's 'Last Road to Hell' sequence, which shows its vast use of visual misinformation. It looks at the misappropriation of third world horror that is attributed to a perceived postcolonial European 'superiority' in which all conflicts in developing nations are viewed as indicative of an exotic sense of anarchy.