Just ten days after its premier in Milan, Italian authorities confiscated the film, and Deodato was charged with obscenity. Later, the charges were escalated to multiple counts of murder. The public and courts believed that the actors had actually been killed on screen.
Deodato's intended message was a critique of sensationalist media. The "civilized" documentarians are the true savages, and the "primitive" cannibals are, in many ways, the victims. However, this nuanced message was almost entirely lost in the wave of censorship and outrage that followed the film's release. index of cannibal holocaust 1980 exclusive
High-resolution scans of Japanese, Italian, and West German theatrical posters. Just ten days after its premier in Milan,