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Cannibal films, alternatively known as the cannibal genre, are a subgenre of exploitation film 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 rain forests. 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. The genre evolved in the early 1970s from a similar subgenre known as Mondo films, documentaries which claimed to present genuine taboo behaviors from around the world. Umberto Lenzi is often cited as originating the cannibal genre with his 1972 film ''Il paese del sesso selvaggio'', while Antonio Climati's ''Natura contro'' from 1988 is similarly regarded to have brought the trend to a close. Ruggero Deodato's ''Cannibal Holocaust'' is the most well known film of the genre due to the significant controversy surrounding its release and is one of the few films of the genre to garner mainstream attention. In recent years, the genre has experienced a cult following and revival, as new productions influenced by the original wave of films have been released. Due to their graphic content, the films of this subgenre are often the center of controversy, and many have been censored or banned in countries around the world. The animal cruelty featured in many of the films is often the focal point of the controversy, and these scenes have been targeted by certain countries' film boards. Several cannibal films also appeared on the video nasty list released by the Director of Public Prosecutions in 1983 in the United Kingdom. Nonetheless, the genre has occasionally fallen under critical interpretation, and certain films have been noted for containing themes of anti-imperialism and third world oppression. ==History== Movies similar to the cannibal genre certainly were not rare before the 1970s, as rain forest adventure films were often found popular in cinema (such as with the Tarzan movies of the 30s and 40s starring Johnny Weissmuller). Some of these films even included primitive, and in some cases, alleged cannibal tribes, and could be seen as the prototype for the modern cannibal film. One movie that can almost be definitively linked as the predecessor to the cannibal genre is Cornel Wilde's 1965 film ''The Naked Prey'', which involved a white man being chased by a tribe of natives because his safari group offended their chief. Another influential film on this genre was the 1970 Richard Harris western ''A Man Called Horse'' which, although it involved non-cannibalistic Native Americans, was about a civilized white man being captured by, and forced to live with, a tribe of savages, during which time he comes to respect, and strives to join, his captors. The basic plot of ''Man from the Deep River'' is almost a scene-for-scene swipe from that film, merely substituting rain forest cannibals for the American Indians. The subgenre as it is known today was officially started with Italian director Umberto Lenzi's 1972 film ''Man from the Deep River''. It was released in New York City as ''Sacrifice!'', and was a 42nd street hit. This film inspired several other similar films to be made during the late 70s, a period identified by genre fans as the "cannibal boom". Included in these films are Ruggero Deodato's ''Ultimo Mondo Cannibale'', Sergio Martino's ''Mountain of the Cannibal God'', and a few films by Joe D'Amato starring Laura Gemser. A large number of cannibal films were made in 1980, making it the most successful year for the genre. In February 1980, Ruggero Deodato released ''Cannibal Holocaust'', probably the best known cannibal film. Its graphic and unrelenting violence and exploitation is believed to have caused audiences to realize how repugnant most of these films really were, and inevitably, the popularity of the genre began to decline. Despite this (or perhaps because of it), ''Cannibal Holocaust'' was an enormous success; it is sometimes claimed to have accumulated a 200,000,000 USD worldwide box-office gross, though this has not been verified and the true gross may never be known.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Trivia for Cannibal Holocaust )〕 Lenzi would also contribute to the genre in 1980 with ''Mangiati Vivi (Eaten Alive)'', and again in 1981 with the notorious ''Cannibal Ferox'' (''Make Them Die Slowly''), but by then, however, the genre was beginning to fade, and only a few other obscurities were made until Mondo film director Antonio Climati was considered to have put an end to the genre in 1988 with the film ''Natura Contro'', which is also known as an unofficial sequel to ''Cannibal Holocaust'' (it has an alternate title of ''Cannibal Holocaust II''). Other similar films were made with a straight-to-video release afterward, most notably films by horror hack director Bruno Mattei. The genre is heavily indebted to Mondo cinema, which similarly aimed to shock audiences with exotic customs and graphic violence. A common premise of the cannibal films is that mondo filmmakers (as in ''Cannibal Holocaust'') or anthropologists (as in ''Cannibal Ferox'') from a "civilized" country enter a jungle and run afoul of cannibalistic natives. Ironically, many have an anti-imperialist slant to them, as in the films, the "civilized" Westerners are the first to perpetrate extreme cruelty and violence upon the natives. The cannibals, in turn, reap revenge by inflicting the same form of barbarism on the Westerners. A few are set in modern urban centers with cannibalism practiced secretly, as in ''Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals'' and ''Zombie Holocaust'' (which was the first film to mix the cannibal genre with the then-popular "zombie film"). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cannibal film」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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