What's it about? A rescue mission enter the depths of the Amazon jungle and discover several cans of film footage from a documentary team which went missing some time before. Upon returning to America to review the footage they soon realise that the behaviour of the documentarians was appalling to say the least. But the footage also reveals their own grisly fate at the hands of the indigenous tribe they sought to exploit. What makes it groundbreaking? Cannibal Holocaust is far from a complex, mature entry into this list of groundbreaking horror movies, but nevertheless for better or worse its legacy on the genre has been lasting. Not only did Ruggero Deodato's movie cause a great deal of controversy on its release - not least on account of the filmmakers killing real animals - it also triggered the wave of video nasties which proliferated throughout that decade. It's also the first hint of a genre that would become popular nearly two decades later - found footage.
