GRINDHOUSE FILM FESTIVAL presents CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST

Banned in several countries due to the misconception that it was a snuff film, Ruggero Deodato's 1980 shock horror film Cannibal Holocaust has become somewhat of a rite of passage for extreme horror fans.  The story is simple: an academic (Robert Kerman) heads to the Amazon to find out what happened to a missing film crew.  He stumbles upon an indigenous, cannibalistic tribe from which he recovers the crew's footage.  Upon returning to America, he reviews what they shot, revealing the group of filmmakers grisly, nasty ends.  Pretty basic stuff, and it doesn't take a genius to understand the influence of Deodato's film on the found footage craze driving such pictures as The Blair Witch Project, [REC], Paranormal Activity, and, most recently, V/H/S.

Cannibal Holocaust, unlike those other films, has built up a reputation as one of the most transgressive films of all time.  In Britain, it became one of the holy grails of the video nasties, movies that were forbidden for sale by legislative decree, resulting in an active black market for bootleg video copies of those films. For more on video nasties, I've included a short piece hosted by English critic Mark Kermode after the trailer.

The Hollywood Theatre's monthly Grindhouse Film Festival brings Portland audiences the chance to catch the film this Tuesday on the big screen, projected from a rare 35mm print.  Here's what the theater's press release has to say (note the warning about refunds):

The Grindhouse Film Festival presents the only known 35mm print of Ruggero Deodato’s soul-shattering horror film Cannibal Holocaust. 

Cannibal Holocaust (1980) A crew of documentary filmmakers, working on a movie about a lost cannibal tribe, disappears deep in the Amazon jungle. An anthropologist is sent in search of them, and finds only their film footage. When he screens the film, we witness the crew’’s horrible fate. This gut churning descent into the dark side of humanity includes some of the most horrific images ever burned into celluloid. This film is absolutely guaranteed to shock, offend and disgust. It is also one of the most powerful films of all time. 

WARNING: This film contains extreme violence and scenes of animal cruelty. No one under the age of 17 will be admitted, and no refunds will be given to those offended.

Cannibal Holocaust plays one-night-only at the Hollywood Theatre on Tuesday, October 23rd at 7:30pm.  More info available here.


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V/H/S: HOW MUCH LONGER IS THIS GOING TO LAST?

The found footage horror trend that kicked off some thirteen years ago with The Blair Witch Project had already worn out its welcome some time back.  But that didn't stop the ensemble of directors behind V/H/S from trying to do something new with it.  They've put together an omnibus presentation of short horror pieces linked together by a promising premise: a group of video-making douchebags break into a house searching for a rare videocassette and, finding it difficult to distinguish the rare one among the many that litter the place, begin watching what's on multiple vhs tapes.

Unfortunately, V/H/S ends up being the definition of a mixed bag and there's very little worth recommending here.  The directors have squandered the chance to have the shorts and the interlocking premise in the house relate to each other.  Perhaps worse are the stupid, lewd, and poorly drawn characters contained throughout the film as a whole.  It doesn't take long before watching the film begins to feel like being trapped in a corner by an unpleasant party guest.  On the plus side, the misogynistic tone and lazy writing of the introductory segment (directed by Adam Wingard) does greatly diminsh one's expectations, so if you stay in your seat for the remainder, it's your own damn fault. 

If you're hoping for surprises, you've stumbled into the wrong movie.  Most of these films go exactly where you'd expect them to.  Probably the best thing here is Ti West's Second Honeymoon, which follows a couple's adventures on a road trip.  The two are stalked at night by a dangerous and mysterious stranger who invades their hotel room as they sleep.

West's reputation as one of the best new horror directors on the scene is well deserved after his work on the excellent The House of the Devil and his much underrated follow-up The Innkeepers.  Most folks who see V/H/S will likely have been drawn to it because of West's participation.  But it turns out that being constrained to a reduced running time doesn't exactly play to his strengths.  As his features have proven, he's at his best when given the time to slowly ramp up tension.  Second Honeymoon feels like it's just beginning to develop into something when it reaches its rushed and unsatisfying conclusion.

Directed by the video collective Radio Silence, 10/31/98 also works better than much of the rest of V/H/S, if only because it finally breaks free from expectation by the end of its story, offering up a few twists to an otherwise basic story of some moronic dudes entering the wrong house one Halloween night.

The rest is all middling (David Bruckner's Amateur Night and Joe Swanberg's The Strange Thing That Happened To Emily When She Was Young) to downright awful (Glenn McQuaid's truly terrible, glitch-happy Tuesday the 17th).  But even the better moments of the film are muddied by displays of infantile male sexuality, an overreliance on sharp objects piercing flesh, and the boring predictability of it all.  That last failure makes for an exceedingly flat viewing experience, one that had me constantly wanting to check my watch as the film dragged on; never a good sign.

V/H/S begins its run at the Hollywood Theatre on Friday, October 5th.  More info available here.


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