Cannibal Holocaust (1980), directed by Ruggero Deodato, uncut and unrated, XT Video remaster, encoded in 10 bit HEVC with AAC sound, including stereo remaster, original theatrical mono, two commentary tracks, and English subtitles.

IMDb : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078935/

Video encoded in two-pass 9 800 kbps x265 10bit with the veryslow preset for archive quality image.

English subtitles OCRed, proofed and corrected.

Note : Ruggero Deodato's vicious, repulsive Cannibal Holocaust hardly needs an introduction, but here it is anyway: Not the first Italian cannibal film, nor the first found footage film, but one of the most notorious and influential of both genres. Watching it now, I'm struck by how shocking and gnarly it still is, from the unsimulated shots of animal cruelty (which are, honestly, pretty hard to watch), to the cynical attitudes of the characters and the utter degradation they visit upon each other. Does the film denounce violent media and the people who profit off of it, or is it itself complicit? At best, it's hypocritical and exploitative, but it also does feel like it genuinely has something it wants to say, in between the incessant rape and murder. It's realistic and raw enough that the producers planned to market it as a snuff film, until Deodato was hauled off to court suspected of murder, and the actors had to appear to convince everyone they were still alive.

The story, as is often the case, is pretty simple, an anthropology professor goes to the Amazon to find out what happened to a previous documentary expedition by a notorious film crew making mondo films, witnesses some atrocities, and manages to recover the raw footage from the natives, who seem to have killed the film crew. Returning to New York City, the professor and the media executives who sent the film crew in the first place watch the material, and find out not only what happened to them, but exactly how far they were willing to go to get "exceptional" footage. No one comes out looking really great in the end, and it's nasty, unflinching, and pretty racist.

This XT Video remaster is, in my opinion, quite a bit better than the Grindhouse Releasing one that's the basis for most available encodes. The contrast is better (to the point of sometimes slightly clipping blacks), the grain is more coherent, and it feels slightly sharper. The 16mm found footage is grotty and nasty on purpose, of course, while the footage of the second expedition and the people in NYC is of better quality. The stereo remaster sounds good, and the two commentary tracks are interesting enough, although Deodato's basic English, and the actors sounding kind of drunk, confused, and morose makes it a bit obvious and pat at times. Still, probably as good a version of this film as we'll ever get.

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