A snuff film is a genre or video that purports to show scenes of actual homicide. The promotion of these films depends on sensational claims that are generally impossible to prove, and there are sophisticated special effects for simulating murder.
Cannibal Holocaust is a 1980 Italian cannibal horror film directed by Ruggero Deodato and written by Gianfranco Clerici. It stars Robert Kerman as Harold Monroe, an anthropologist from New York University who leads a rescue team into the Amazon rainforest to locate a crew of filmmakers. Played by Carl Gabriel Yorke, Francesca Ciardi, Perry Pirkanen, and Luca Barbareschi, the crew had gone missing while filming a documentary on local cannibal tribes. When the rescue team is only able to recover the crew's lost cans of film, an American television station wishes to broadcast the footage as a sensationalized television special. Upon viewing the reels, Monroe is appalled by the team's actions and objects to the station's intent to air the documentary.
Ruggero Deodato is an Italian film director, and has also performed as both a screenwriter, and more recently an actor in both his own and other projects.
Cannibal Ferox, also known as Make Them Die Slowly in the US and as Woman from Deep River in Australia, is a 1981 Italian cannibal exploitation horror film written and directed by Umberto Lenzi. Upon its release, the film's US distributor claimed it was "the most violent film ever made". Cannibal Ferox was also claimed to be "banned in 31 countries", although this claim is dubious. The title derives from the Latin ferox, meaning cruel, wild or ferocious.
Robert Charles Kerman, also known as R. Bolla, was an American actor who had a noted pornographic acting career during what is considered to be the "golden age" period of the porn film industry during the mid-1970s to the early/mid-1980s. He grew up in a middle-class Italian neighborhood of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. As R. Bolla, he appeared in well over 100 pornographic films, most famously Debbie Does Dallas (1978). He was one of few adult performers to have an appreciable mainstream acting career, with his most widely known leading role being Professor Harold Monroe in the controversial horror film Cannibal Holocaust (1980).
Cannibal films, alternatively known as the cannibal genre or the cannibal boom, are a subgenre of horror films made predominantly by Italian filmmakers during the 1970s and 1980s. This subgenre is a collection of graphically violent movies that usually depict cannibalism by primitive, Stone Age natives deep within the Asian or South American rainforests. While cannibalism is the uniting feature of these films, the general emphasis focuses on various forms of shocking, realistic and graphic violence, typically including torture, rape and genuine cruelty to animals. This subject matter was often used as the main advertising draw of cannibal films in combination with exaggerated or sensational claims regarding the films' reputations.
Duke Mitchell was an American film actor, slapstick comedian, crooner and independent film director of 1970s gangster movies starring himself. Mitchell often performed his nightclub act in and around Palm Springs, California, and anointed himself the "King of Palm Springs."
Bob Murawski is an American film editor. He was awarded the 2010 Academy Award for Best Film Editing for his work on The Hurt Locker, which he shared with his wife, fellow editor Chris Innis. He often works with film director Sam Raimi, having edited the Spider-Man trilogy, Oz the Great and Powerful, and the 2015 remake of Poltergeist. Murawski is an elected member of the American Cinema Editors, and is the co-founder of Grindhouse Releasing, an acclaimed film distribution company specializing in re-releases of cult films.
The Barbarians is a 1987 sword and sorcery film directed by Ruggero Deodato and starring the Barbarian Brothers, Richard Lynch and Eva La Rue.
Luca Barbareschi is an Italian-Uruguayan actor, television presenter, and former member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. Barbareschi is Jewish.
Francesca Ciardi is an Italian film actress.
Carl Gabriel Yorke is an American actor.
Perry Pirkanen is an American actor. He is best known for starring in the 1980 Italian cannibal film Cannibal Holocaust. Pirkanen, then a student at New York City's Actors Studio, was hired by director Ruggero Deodato who was looking for unknown actors to play the film's four protagonists. In the film, he was in an infamous scene where he butchered a large turtle. He is even seen holding the turtle's head next to his mouth. However, after filming the scene, he cried and had an emotional breakdown off camera.
Christina Jean "Chris" Innis is an American film editor and filmmaker. She was awarded the 2010 Academy Award, BAFTA, and ACE awards for "Best Film Editing" on the film The Hurt Locker shared with co-editor, Bob Murawski. She is an elected member of the American Cinema Editors (ACE) and has served as an associate director on the board.
Gone with the Pope is a 1976 independent film written, directed and produced by Italian-American crooner-actor Duke Mitchell that was first released in 2010 by Grindhouse Releasing.
An American Hippie in Israel, also known as Ha-Trempist, is a 1972 Israeli metaphorical counter-culture film written and directed by Amos Sefer starring Asher Tzarfati. Many have cited this film as one of the worst films ever made. Once thought lost, it was rediscovered decades later by the cult film enthusiasts at Grindhouse Releasing who have digitally restored the film and presented it in Blu-ray and DVD.
Cut and Run is a 1985 Italian exploitation thriller film directed by Ruggero Deodato, written by Cesare Frugoni and Dardano Sacchetti, and starring Lisa Blount, Leonard Mann, Willie Aames, Richard Lynch and Michael Berryman.
Natura contro, also known in English as The Green Inferno and Cannibal Holocaust II, is a 1988 Italian cannibal adventure film directed by Antonio Climati. Climati had no intention of making a sequel to Cannibal Holocaust, and the title was used by distributors of the film to cash in on the success and notoriety of the earlier film.
Nucleus Films is a UK-based independent DVD and Blu-Ray distribution label and private limited company, founded in 2003 by researcher and writer Marc Morris and film director Jake West. The label distributes rare cult films in the horror and erotica genres. They have also produced a range of documentaries and featurettes about the making of films, noted film directors and the fight against censorship.
