Fans are remembering a horror film in 1980 was deemed so graphic that it was banned for decades, after its director passed away.
Cannibal Holocaust shocked the world upon its release and was banned in several countries, with the UK not removing the film from censor controls until 2001.
On Thursday (December 29), it was reported that the movie’s controversial director Ruggero Deodato had died at the age of 83.
READ MORE:Banned horror film was so realistic the director was charged with murder
The filmmaker’s controversial horror flick caused a tidal wave of backlash upon its release and caused trouble for Deodato years after.
(Image: Youtube)
The director was famously charged with murdering several members of the Cannibal Holocaust cast, having previously convinced them to disappear in order to sell the film’s found footage content as authentic.
With cast members later showing up to the trial and proving to the judge they were alive, Deodato was instead handed a suspended jail sentence for obscenity.
Cannibal Holocaust follows a professor’s attempt to find a missing documentary crew in the Amazon rainforest, making a series of grim discoveries after finding footage shot by the missing crew members.
The film contains a multitude of grisly scenes – with gruesome murder and rape depictions and the slaughter of seven animals on set.
One gory scene sees a tribeswoman impaled on a spike, while in another scene, a tribesman can be seen sucking a monkey’s brains. Two monkeys were killed so the scene could be filmed from different angles.
The real-life beheading and disembowelment of a turtle also features in the graphic horror film.
Speaking in 2009, Deodato contributed the film’s terrible reception to its real-life depictions of animal slaughter.
He told Eye For Film: “It was really the animal violence that was the problem with Cannibal Holocaust. Because of that, they couldn’t help but ban it – without that, it might have passed uncut.
“But at the time I had to do something shocking to get noticed. I couldn’t kill real people so the animals got killed, but all the animals were eaten, they didn’t just die for the film.”
He also told StarBurst magazine: “There is a reaction to violence in my films but no reaction to the terrifying violence happening out there every day.”
(Image: Getty Images)
Reacting to Deodato’s death on Twitter, fans paid tribute to the “innovative” and “misunderstood” filmmaker.
One fan wrote: “RIP Ruggero Deodato. Cannibal Holocaust will forever reign supreme as one of the most singular pieces of shock cinema ever made. A true craftsman who could turn his hand to any genre, too.”
Another added: “RIP Ruggero Deodato., masterful, revolutionary, misunderstood today and in his time. May you be uncensored in the heavens, Ruggero.”
A third fan tweeted: “Farewell to a Master. He was innovative and bold and a little bit mad.”
READ NEXT:
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
