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Two decades before The Blair Witch Project, the mockumentary horror film was pioneered by Italy's Ruggero Deodato, a splatter filmmaker of the most notorious type. Cannibal Holocaust gives us four documentary filmmakers whose footage is recovered after they all vanish in the Amazon, where they're researching primitive tribes (sound familiar?). A professor treks to find them, retrieves their film, and discovers the truth: After trying to play God, the cannibals turn on them, and soon they're all disemboweled. The effect is now familiar, but back then it was incredibly shocking, as most viewers believed every word of it. The effects are indeed amazing and horrifying, coupling rubber guts with real-live animal killings. The film's power is muted by the professor subplot, who's seen every five minutes back in New York, screening the movie in a theater. Buzzkill.
