FEBRUARY 27, 2008
GENRE: CANNIBAL, MOCKUMENTARY
SOURCE: THEATRICAL (REVIVAL SCREENING)
One of the first times (possibly THE first; my memory is for shit) I went to the New Beverly was for a screening of Cannibal Holocaust, which if memory serves screened with a Fulci film. This was in like March of 2006, a few months after I moved to LA (and right around the time I finally had some sort of income that would allow me to go to the movies at all). The next month they showed Cannibal Ferox, another one I had never seen. So now, with like 600 movies seen since then, I had a lot of trouble remembering which was which. This is the one that DOESN’T have Giovanni Lombardo Radice, so therefore it’s not as good.
Sadly the crowd was pretty thin (and abnormally quiet – other than mimicking the legendary “Bwyoooooooo!” sound effect from the soundtrack, there was hardly a peep from anyone). And that's a real bummer for this movie in particular, because it’s so goddamn reprehensible, you need a big crowd (preferably a bit drunk) laughing at certain parts in order to enjoy it. Otherwise it’s just sort of an endurance test: can you watch the poor turtle get hacked up without looking away? Or any of the 2 or 3 rapes in the film? How bout the “pregnancy” scene? Etc. In short, it’s far from an enjoyable viewing experience for the most part.
Not that the film is entirely without levity. “He’s just switching reels” is an odd gutbuster, and the little kid running around in the park while our leads discuss the footage is also hilarious. The hauntingly beautiful “love theme” from the film also elicits a few chuckles, but you’re never more than 5 minutes away from another scene that’s just sort of awful.
Granted, the film is loaded with social commentary and the like, so we are supposed to be outraged or repulsed by certain parts of the film (mainly in the final half hour), but there’s little to enjoy alongside of it. Dawn of the Dead (or for a closer example – Diary) certainly have their share of commentary, but the films are still quite fun to watch at the same time. Not the case here – the characters are mostly despicable, the violence is too believable to be “fun”, and the nonstop animal killing is hardly entertainment.
This isn’t to say I dislike the film, in fact I think it’s quite good. But the New Bev is all about having a good time, so having this particular film play to an unusually subdued crowd (which wasn’t the case when I first saw it) had the opposite effect. Bummer.
What say you?
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3 comments:
I have the film uncut and I like it apart from the animal killings.The UK cut removes lots but leaves most of the other stuff in and is probably the film as it should be seen,since all the social commentary shines through and some extreme gore,but without the totally unnecessary turtle/monkey/rat vivisections.But it does leave in the pig shooting,which makes sense.
Its too grim for most people to get into laughing and shouting at the screen mode.At least half the film would be hilarious if the other stuff wasn't so grotesque.
i hate this movie and promised myself i would never watch it again. i can take a lot, but there's something about it that does not bode well with me in the least bit.
I got to catch this one at a midnight screening in Chicago once. It was pretty quiet there too (considering everyone was pretty rowdy for the other films). I actually thought it was quite fitting and made the movie seem all the more powerful.
I'll agree though, there is nothing fun about this movie. Still, seeing it on the big screen was an experience that I treasure
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