Thursday, April 24, 2008

Cannibals

I remember seeing Cannibal Holocaust somewhere in the 1990s. It was from that moment that I started to watch other cultish gore movies. The movie has come a long way since it was produced in the 1980s. It started as a low-budget controversial underground, but became the signature of a new sub-culture (no, that is not metal).

Sure, the movie is gruesome and yes it has some unnecessary animal kiillings in it (no doubt it is hard to condemn them), but it is more than just a meaningless piece of action melo-drama. In fact, its message fits right into Debord's notion of the 'Spectacle'. An age of extremes in which movie audiences have become so far removed from reality that they start believing and identifying with the fables the screen provides them.

Cannibal Holocaust is not for everybody, though I think everybody needs to see it. The acting is bad, so is the soundtrack, but I reckon that this does not really matter too much. The muerders, rapes and other scenes of violence not only absorb the viewer, but confronts him/ her with his/ her own ethics. People have often complained about the animal kiilling, but do they consider where the meat on their plate comes from (no veggie myself)? However, the movie goes well beyond the food industry or animals rights, its message criticises all facets of alienation in contemporary society. In sum, we are all cannibals.

Interested?

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