If you are not a lover of 1980s European horror films or of the Giallo style, perhaps the name Ruggero Deodato leaves you cold. But if I mention Cannibal Holocaust (1980), one of the sickest and most controversial movies of all time, that rings a bell.
With a career starting in the 1960s and during until the current days, Ruggero Deodato is one of the most recognized Italian filmmakers of his generation in the horror genre. During his career, he has filmed in many different genres like peplum, comedy, drama, poliziottesco and science fiction, but he is best known for directing violent and gory horror films with strong elements of realism. Around 20 full-length features are on his back where one of them outstands from the rest, Cannibal Holocaust (1980). The main premise of that false documentary was a rescue mission into the Amazon rainforest where a professor stumbles across lost film shot by a missing documentary crew. And form that, all sort of torture, cannibalism and real animal murdering happens. The images are very crude and probably still stands on the highest position of movies I haven’t been able to finish watching myself. So what we have here is a total horror experience.
Besides Cannibal Holocaust (1980), other titles worth to mention in Deodato’s filmography are The Barbarians (1987), Camping del Terrore (aka Body Count) (1986) or Fenomenal e il tesoro di Tutankamen (aka Fenomenal and the Treasure of Tutankamen) (1968). His latest feature film to date is the recent Ballad in Blood (2016), which was part of the Sitges Film Festival line-up in 2016 and here you can find our review. The filmmaker is currently filming the segment “Casetta Sperduta in Campagna” that will be part of the movie anthology Deathcember, a collection of 24 short films that take a look at the dark side of the festive season, serving as some kind of creepy advent calendar. 24 international directors including Lucky McKee, Pollyanna McIntosh and Isaac Ezban are part of the project.
Documentary Deodato Holocaust (2019) is the work of filmmaker Felipe M. Guerra, who has filmed, produced, directed and edited the piece. He is also a horror filmmaker himself, author of some titles in his country of origin Brazil such as Canibais e Solidão (2006), several short films and documentaries, and segments in the anthology movies 13 Weird Stories (13 Histórias Estranhas in original Portuguese language) (2015) and A Maldição do Sanguanel (2014). Besides the star of the show Ruggero Deodato, the film contains archive footage from several of the stars and collaborators in his movies like Eva LaRue, Willie Aames, Richard Lynch, Edwige Fenech, Rex Harrison, Lisa Blount, James Franciscus, Mimsy Farmer, Richard Bright, Roberto Rossellini, Yorgo Voyagis, Ray Lovelock, Adolfo Celi and Christopher Connelly only to name a few.
Deodato Holocaust (2019) will have its world premiere next 16th of May at Fantaspoa – International Fantastic Film Festival in Brazil. You can watch the official trailer of the film published by director Felipe M. Guerra in his own YouTube channel here:
