12 Extreme Horror Movies You Need To See Before You Die

By Ian Watson /

1. Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

Courtesy of fans such as Eli Roth, Cannibal Holocaust is finally getting the respect it deserves as it the granddaddy of all those €œfound footage€ movies that came along in the wake of The Blair Witch Project. The Legend Of Boggy Creek (1971) may have employed the pseudo-documentary format years earlier, but few would deny that Ruggero Deodato€™s is the more powerful. €œThose who filmed it were devoured alive by cannibals!€ shrieks the no-nonsense tagline, which is apt because this is a no-nonsense film where at no point do whiny teenagers stand around discussing horror films or giving €œironic€ commentary on the proceedings. Ah, the good old days. Handheld and grainy, the footage of (real) animal abuse and physical torture has a you-are-there immediacy that to this day has not been equalled, never mind topped. Slick movies like Rec and Cloverfield might be better edited, but what Deodato€™s movie lacks in finesse it more than makes up for in conviction.