A lot of cautiously optimistic anticipation for this from fans of the original found footage film, Cannibal Holocaust, almost two decades before Blair Witch. I'm not really sure if that was the first found footage film, but it's the earliest one I know of.
It's an infamous movie shot like stock footage showing a tribe of cannibals eat, rape, and kill people, including killing real animals. I'm not sure if the animal killing was real or just urban legend to promote the film, like Blair Witch being real. It's a very raw looking film, which I love, coming from the 70's film school of horror.
I heard there were other Cannibal films similar to this, making it it's own mini short lived genre. I've never heard of them.
Anyways, you're probably wondering how this movie was and not those. Well it's a big let down, which is why I'd rather discuss that film and others.
This was written and directed by Eli Roth. He's mostly known from the torture porn horror era of last decade for Hostel and that awesome grind house trailer of Thanksgiving. So I expected a mediocre movie, but for him to deliver the brutality and people getting torn to shreds and eaten. It's the only reason you'd go to see this movie, to watch people getting eaten.
Well you get two scenes and that's it and only one of them delivers while the other is a poorly re-shot zombie like attack from a Walking Dead episode.
The characters are stupid and annoying, which is fine because it gives us something to root for to get eaten, but those people don't or they disappear off camera.
I was surprised they didn't go for the found footage route with this. It's actually rooted in found footage. Instead the movie looked and felt fake. The so called cannibal tribe felt like extras. They could have been genuine tribesmen used as extras, but it was never scary or raw looking. It felt like a movie and I had a hard time suspending disbelief based on both the stupidity of the tribe and the victims.
I'd give this a low rental for people who want to see some cannibalism. You're not missing anything, except the first cannibal scene, it's downhill after that.
