Double Feature Movie Show: ONCE IS QUITE ENOUGH

The Green Inferno came out! The movie THEY didn’t want you to see!

Actually, whatever.

I’m one of the few people out here who likes Eli Roth and even I think this one’s a bit much. The previews make it look completely offensive in an “all Natives are savages” sort of way and Eli’s defense of it really didn’t help much.

But, as it’s supposed to, it brings to mind the slew of Italian films from the 70s and early 80s about cannibalistic Africans and South Americans ruining the lives (and genitals) of some incredibly obnoxious white tourists. You never once feel sorry for these people…but more on that in a bit.

I’ve seen a lot of these films and, let me tell you, once is really enough. They’re all basically the same and the images stay with you for quite a while.

Here are the two granddaddy’s of “Once Is Quite Enough” cinema.

(Keep in mind: I don’t hate these films. I’m not morally opposed to them in any way. I just don’t ever need to see them again.)

CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1980)
Directed by Ruggero Deodato
Written by Gianfranco Clerici

Cannibal Holocaust is THE Video Nasty. It’s the film (along with The Driller Killer) that inspired the British government to look at horror films to see if they were appropriate for the public. And, according to them, no. No, it wasn’t.

The story centers on a group of college students who go to the Amazon to study the native tribes. Things go horribly, horribly wrong when they get stupid, uncaring and generally rapey. (No, really. One of them rapes a Native woman. And these people are initially sold as the protagonists!) Of course, the Natives get revenge. Bloody, cannibalistic, castraty revenge.

It’s an ugly, ugly film. Yes, it has it’s point. (Who, really, ARE the cannibals? Us or THEM?!) But, my God, is it hard to watch. I’m a pretty big horehound and this movie takes it to the limit. With women being penetrated on giant pikes in the middle of the village to intestines being pulled out and eaten by very obviously white “Native,” this is gore at its most nauseating.

It’s Eli Roth’s favorite horror film.

So, that tells you all you need to know about his taste in films.

NEKROMANTIK (1987)
Directed by Jorg Buttgereit
Written by Jorg Buttgereit/Franz Rodenkirchen

Nekromantik is a love story between a man, a woman and a corpse. A disgusting, rotting corpse.

Rob cleans up after accidents and, somehow, is able to bring home corpses and body parts for he and his wife, Betty, to enjoy at home. And enjoy them, they do. In many, many different ways and positions. Soon enough, of course, Betty decides that the corpse is a better lover than dear ol’ Rob.

What’s a jilted boy to do?

Being a man of Germanic descent, it’s really hard for me to see how absolutely effed up Germans can truly be.

Remember the scene in South Park where the boys find a German porn? Yeah. Sadly, it doesn’t really seem to be so far off base. Nekromantik is a truly disturbing film full of sex scenes that…well…the movie was made by a man who really just wanted to shock the German censors. That was its only true reason for being.

The fact that Buttgereit is still making films, including a sequel, must mean that he hasn’t quite finished the job. And if the fact that Betty jams a metal pole into the crotch area of the corpse for her use didn’t do the trick…well, it just goes to show that German censors aren’t so tough to get things by.

Luckily, if you want your necrophelia a little less…erm…messy, there’s a remake!

The 1996 film Kissed (starring Molly Parker) is basically an art house remake of this one. The corpse, of course, isn’t quite so gross. And there’s no pole involved, that I remember.

I do believe that both films end the same way, though.