6. Ruggero Deodato (1939-)
Hands down, Ruggero Deodato will forever be burned in the minds of exploitation cinema fans as the director of notorious Video Nasty - Cannibal Holocaust. This will always be his crowning achievement. He cut his teeth in Italian cinema working under Roberto Rosselini and Sergio Corbucci. As a fully fledged director, he helmed a lot of comedies, musicals and thrillers during the 1960s. Deodato left the big screen for a number of years to shoot commercials. He made a return in 1977 for The Last Cannibal World starring British actress Me Me Lai - an injection in the arm to the cannibal subgenre. In 1979, with a budget of $100,000, Deodato returned to the cannibal subgenre with the grand daddy of all cannibal movies - Cannibal Holocaust. The resulting film provoked widespread controversy in many countries. It was banned in Britain for nearly 20 years. In his native Italy, Deodato had to parade the actors of Cannibal Holocaust around a courtroom to prove they hadn't been killed on camera. He also picked up a lot of flak over the animal snuff in the film - receiving a four month suspended sentence for his misdemeanours. Deodato's film making license was revoked but somewhere along the line he had created yet another Video Nasty - the most censored film in all of the DPP's list of 39 prosecuted films - House on the Edge of the Park. This film featured a typecast David Hess as a sadistic killer, who terrorises a bunch of yuppies with his hapless partner in crime Giovanni Lombardo Radice. Two further interesting Deodato films include Off Balance: Phantom of Death and The Washing Machine. Phantom of Death is an excellent Giallo starring Michael York, Edwige Fenech and Donald Pleasance. Michael York is a brilliant pianist who has a wasting disease that prematurely ages him. He takes his rancour out on the women around him. The Washing Machine is the torrid tale of three sisters' tangled love lives and murder. An astonishingly diverse and talented man, Deodato has recently directed TV series and comedies. He had a cameo in Hostel 2 where he cannibalised a young man. This must have been in recognition to his cannibal film infamy. I don't think Ruggero Deodato is especially proud of Cannibal Holocaust, but putting that aside, he has made other important exploitation and Giallo films and can be widely praised for his services to Italian horror films.