a tale of two cannibal movies

Now that I have seen (and had time to digest) Cannibal Holocaust and Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death, it's time to compare and contrast. Don't this make you feel all collegiate again? Woo hoo!

Anyway, before we begin, let's look at the trailers.

There is one point of similarity between the two movies: The premise. Both plots center on an expedition into the jungle to make contact with a mysterious tribe of cannibals. In CH the expedition is undertaken by documentarians who are intelligent though ethically lacking. They're going into the Amazon rainforest to tell a story of war between various preliterate peoples. In CWitAJoD, the expedition is undertaken by a ragtag group whom I wouldn't trust to find their way out of an elevator. They're going into a vast uncharted avocado forest in southern California in order to stabilize the price of avocados (and, through that, guacamole).

And we've pretty much exhausted the similarities.

CH is filmed in a gritty "found footage" style -- a style that it pioneered. That lent it so much realism that the director ended up on trial for making a snuff film. He was only freed when he produced the stars -- still alive -- for the court. On the other hand, I can't imagine anyone watching CWitAJoD and thinking it's real. Unless they're drunk. Really drunk. It has all sorts of stylized Hollywood production values, including costumes that are visually impressive but don't lend an air of realism. It also doesn't help that there's plenty of intentionally bad acting. For more differences, see the chart below.

In terms of watchability, it's kind of a tossup, depending on your sensibilities. CH is a deeply disturbing movie, full of graphic violence. I'm glad I saw it, but I hope never to see it again. CWitAJoD, isn't disturbing in the same way. But it's so aggressively, painfully bad that it's also hard to watch. You can practically feel the smart leaving your head through whatever path it can.