Cannibal Holocaust...

An 1980 Italian horror movie, it is undoubtedly the most disturbing film I have ever seen. The film sieved following the premier  and the director,  Ruggero Deodato, was arrested and charged for making a snuff film as it was rumoured that the graphic footage actually showed several actors killed on screen. He was cleared of all charges, though having watched Holocaust of the Cannibals I would be inclined to believe them. The film was banned in several countries due to its depiction of extreme violence (including on screen decapitation), explicit sexual violence, full frontal nudity and the onscreen slaughter of seven animals.

Filmed in the Amazon,  Cannibal Holocaust tells the story of the search for a documentary film crew who had gone to film indigenous tribes and went missing for two months. A second team, headed by the New York anthropologist Harold Monroe, recovers their lost cans of film and learns their fate. Much of the film is the portrayal of the recovered films' content; the sections of "documentary" film function similarly to a flashback and grows increasingly disturbing as the film progresses.

The amongst the most controversial film content is the onscreen murder, decapitation and, rape of the missing crew members. Rumors that the actors were actually murdered on screen were fueled my there disappearance from the media for a year following its release, a contractual condition to promote the film.
The most disturbing scene in my opinion however was the impalement scene were a native girls, the crew had pack raped in an earlier scene, is depicted impaled on a wooden post, in through the genitals and out the mouth. The scene was so hideously realistic it was believed that Deodato had murdered and impaled the actress however having explained how the effect was achieved with a bicycle seat mounted on as post and a piece of balsa wood held in the actress's mouth, he was cleared of all charges.

Seven animals were killed during the film's production:

• A coatimundi (mistaken as a muskrat in the film) has its jugular veins cut open
• A large turtle  is captured then decapitated; its head, limbs, shell, and entrails removed on screen then the actors proceed to cook and eat it.
• A large spider is killed with a machete.
• A snake is killed with a machete.
• A squirrel monkey has the top of its skull chopped off with a machete; this scene however was shot twice so two monkeys were actually scalped.
• A pig is kicked twice and then shot.

Personally I don't care that no crimes against human were committed during the making of this film, what the footage depicts is so disturbing, graphic and inhuman I couldn't help feeling that the film was real. In one respect I suppose the film was a success, conversely I never want to see it again and almost certainly wish I never had.