According to the video preview, the production of Hannibal is damn bloody fine, and comparable to the quality of the films, including Silence of the Lambs. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed one bit, so check it out and drop us your opinion in the comments section below.

“Will Graham is a gifted criminal profiler who is on the hunt for a serial killer with the FBI. Graham’s unique way of thinking gives him the astonishing ability to empathize with anyone – even psychopaths. He seems to know what makes them tick. But when the mind of the twisted killer he’s pursuing is too complicated for even Will to comprehend, he enlists the help of Dr. Lecter, one of the premier psychiatric minds in the country. Armed with the uncanny expertise of the brilliant doctor, Will and Hannibal (known as a serial killer only to the audience) form a brilliant partnership, and it seems there’s no villain they can’t catch. If Will only knew…”

There are no redeeming factors to this, the greatest of the Italian Cannibal films. One of the goriest, if not the goriest films ever made, it caused the arrest of the director when authorities thought the movie was real and believed it to be a snuff film. When the director proved the actors were still alive, he received the lighter sentence of four months for animal cruelty.

The film received an X rating, which killed its distribution and was banned from many countries. But with a dedicated following and cult status worldwide, the film has stuck around for 25 years. Grindhouse has released a two-disc DVD that gives a remastered, uncut version of the film with a ton of extras.

The film itself tells the story of a rescue mission sent into the Amazon rain forest to retrieve a missing American film crew who’s work was to document the culture and living habits of the native cannibal tribes of the region.

The team fails to save the crew as they are all dead by the time of the team’s arrival. Only bones were remaining as evidence the film crew were there. Well bones and the crew’s film reels which the team convince the tribe to relinquish.

The rest of the film has the executives of Pan American Broadcast Company and Howard Monroe (Robert Kerman), the rescue team leader, first review the raw footage then broadcast an edited version of the recordings. The the pre-edited reels show the crew raping and killing natives and the natives returning the favor with cannibalism added to the violence (we as the audience watch along with the players). By the ending, Monroe wonders who were the worse savages, the natives or the film crew.

Cannibal Holocaust is neither for the faint of heart nor for those easily upset by disturbing images. If you are a fan of horror and gore and you haven’t seen this film, you are sorely lacking a true point of reference and comparison. But if you’re not, avoiding this film may be your best course of action. One of the most famous of the exploitation films of the ’80s, Cannibal Holocaust is not for the mainstream.

Cannibal Holocaust Gallery:

Cannibal Holocaust Trailer:

Yell! Rating:

4 out of 5 stars

Year Released:

7 February 1980

Director:

Ruggero Deodato

Cast/Crew

Robert Kerman, Francesca Ciardi, Perry Pirkanen, Luca Barbareschi, Ricardo Fuentes

Genre

Exploitation, Snuff Film, Horror

Official URL:

Cannibal Holocaust

The Green Inferno

The still you’re taking a quick peek at may look like a horror scene directly from the film Cannibal Holocaust, but in fact is the first photo from Eli Roth’s The Green Inferno, which pretty much sounds like a prequel or sequel to Holocaust based on the all details released thus far, including this official synopsis.

A group of student activists from New York City travel to the Amazon to protect a dying tribe, but crash in the jungle and are taken hostage by the very natives they saved.

Kirby Bliss Blanton (Scar, Project X) is the young up-and-coming actress seen surrounded by the group of hungry cannibals in the still above, and if you let your imagination go a little further based on her facial expression alone, I’m 100% sure you probably know what happens next. Lets just say the cannibals aren’t taking any seizing notes for her prom dress anytime soon.

As we reported before, the filming for The Green Inferno was wrapped up late last year, and the film was shot in a remote village off of the Amazon river, which also stars Daryl Sabara, Lorenza Izzo (Aftershock), Ariel Levy (Aftershock), Aaron Burns, Magda Apanowicz (Caprica), and Sky Ferreira.

We still don’t have any details on when the film will premiere, or when it is expected to be released to the public, but once we hear of them we will be sure to keep you in the loop here on Yell! Magazine.

Keep in mind that he also opened his haunted house, Goretorium, in Sin City a few months ago, which features A Year-Round Maze, Bloody Mary’s Bar, Baby Dolls Lounge, Wedding Chapel and Zombie Feedings. I’m getting a strong feeling that Yell! Magazine is going to be packed more than ever with good ol’ Eli Roth updates next year, and more just keeps flowing in on his feature film.

We reported last month that Roth left L.A. with a small crew to a remote village in the Amazon to start filming his Ruggero Deodato inspired cannibal film titled The Green Inferno, along with producer Nicolas Lopez. Now according to Roth’s official twitter account, on Friday he announced that the filming for Inferno is wrapped up with the picture above attached to his tweet. Lopez also tweeted the following a day later…

It’s a wrap! Congrats eliroth !!

With filming officially complete for The Green Inferno in the Amazon, all the footage is now entering the post-production phase in the studio. We only hope that this part of the process moves just as fast, so they can announce a release date for the film.

Keep checking back for more updates on The Green Inferno.

The Green Inferno (2013) – Eli Roth

As this is the very first TV series that will be based on Hannibal Lector, a fictional character created by Thomas Harris for his novel The Silence of the Lambs that was also adapted to film in the ’90s of the same name, and brilliantly portrayed by award-winning actor, Anthony Hopkins. It’s now up to Mads Mikkelsen (Valhalla Rising, Casino Royale) to pick up the role from Hopkins, and add his own touch to the cannibalistic serial killer. I’m hoping he can pull off an amazing performance just like Heath Ledger did with his take as the Joker in The Dark Knight, previously played by Jack Nicholson.

I’m definitely sensing a win for NBC’s Hannibal tv series based on the new pictures above, as it looks to very bloody and creepy at the same time. You can expect the first season (13 episodes) to begin in spring of 2013.

About the Show

One of the most fascinating literary characters comes to life on television for the first time: psychiatrist-turned-serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. In this new drama from Bryan Fuller (“Pushing Daisies,” “Heroes”), based on the characters from Thomas Harris’ classic novels, we see where this incredible story began.

Will Graham is a gifted criminal profiler who is on the hunt for a serial killer with the FBI. Graham’s unique way of thinking gives him the astonishing ability to empathize with anyone – even psychopaths. He seems to know what makes them tick. But when the mind of the twisted killer he’s pursuing is too complicated for even Will to comprehend, he enlists the help of Dr. Lecter, one of the premier psychiatric minds in the country. Armed with the uncanny expertise of the brilliant doctor, Will and Hannibal (known as a serial killer only to the audience) form a brilliant partnership and it seems there’s no villain they can’t catch. If Will only knew…

Starring brilliant young actor Hugh Dancy as Will Graham, “Hannibal” will breathe new life into a deadly classic.

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After five years away from filmmaking, with Hostel: Part II being his last effort, Roth and a small crew are getting ready to shoot a cannibal pic similar to Holocaust, titled The Green Inferno, in a remote village up the Amazon River that has “no electricity, no running water, nothing.” What makes his adventure slightly more interesting is that the producers have recruited some of the natives from the village to play as extras in the horror film. The cult film Cannibal Holocaust was apparently used as a recruitment tool. Since the village is so remote and the natives have no access to television, hence they have never seen a film, Roth insisted on showing them Cannibal Holocaust. They used a generator to power a TV, and when the film ended, Roth remarked, “They thought it was the funniest thing they’d ever seen.”

Aside from this extraordinary recruitment technique, Roth will also be the first person to venture near the area since Werner Herzog’s film Aguirre: The Wrath of God, which got released in West Germany in 1972.

In a recent casting update, Roth is heading in to the Amazon early next month to begin filming The Green Inferno in the remote village, and according to Variety, the following actors are in negotiation to appear in his Ruggero Deodato-inspired cannibal film: Lorenza Izzo (Aftershock), Daryl Sabara (Spy Kids), Kirby Bliss Blanton (Project X), Ariel Levy (Aftershock), Sky Ferreria, Magda Apanowicz (Caprica), and Aaron Burns.

Make sure you check back with Yell! Magazine for more updates on The Green Inferno and other projects Eli Roth is involved with.

The Green Inferno (2013) – Eli Roth

Most likely you will laugh since you’re probably already familiar with the splatter franchise, and you really dig watching people suffer in the most bizarre death scenes possible. The Wrong Turn sequels have continued to exploit that approach further with each new entry, and it looks like Bloodlines will be the most entertaining one in terms of kills out of the bunch based on this new trailer alone. Plus, can it really go wrong with having Doug Bradley (Pinhead, Hellraiser) in the movie? I doubt it, so check out the trailer, and leave us your thoughts in the comment section below.

Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines gets a Blu-ray/DVD release on October 23, 2012.

The Hills Have Eyes deals with the Carter family who, after taking a “detour” while driving through the desert, fights a clan of cannibalistic desert people. These cannibals consist of the leader, Papa Jupiter, (who says one of my favorite lines in movie history: “I’M GONNA EAT THE HEART OF YOUR STINKIN’ MEMORY”), Mama, Ruby, Mars, Mercury, and Pluto. Even if you haven’t seen the movie, you’ve probably seen an image of Pluto, played by Michael Berryman, in your life. Berryman was born with a rare skin condition that prevented him from growing hair, sweat glands or fingernails. Thus, for better or for worse, he was perfect for playing the angry man-beast, Pluto. On a side note, Berryman is a really, really nice guy. I met him at a horror convention once and I would put him on my list of Top 5 People Who Wouldn’t Attempt To Murder My Family In The Desert.

The most controversial aspect of the film is the sequence in the middle, which is extremely brutal. Bob, the patriarch of the Carter family, is staked to a tree and burned alive. Pluto and Mars rape the youngest daughter, Brenda. Ethel and Lynne, the older daughter and matriarch of the family, are killed by Mars. This is the point of the movie that usually stops people from watching the second half. While it’s unsurprising that the events were orchestrated by the man who had formerly directed Last House, it is no less horrific.

The film is in the same “rape-revenge” vein as Last House, but turns it into more of an overt fantasy. While it is loosely based off the story of Sawney Bean, the idea of a rogue family, living out in the middle of nowhere and living off those “richer” or “more normal” than they are is a popular one in culture:

The Hills Have Eyes took the romanticized story of a twisted Robin Hood-esque concept and mixed it with the horror that Craven was obviously talented at handling. I think that Hills is a better film than Last House, but it lacks the impact that Last House or Deliverance or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has, because it entrenches itself more in the fantastical. The hill clan is just a little too strange looking to be relatable, the locale is recognizable but foreign, and the story, that of a family fighting against, well, monsters, takes away the “it could happen in YOUR back yard” theme that Last House held so dearly.

That might be my most legitimate stab at film criticism ever. Enjoy that last paragraph. If anything is going on my tombstone, it’s that.

There was an eight-year gap between Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes and Wes Craven’s Horseshit (which you might know in America as Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes Part II). In that amount of time, Craven managed to devise a story that would take everything you loved about the original film and completely not do that again. The Hills Have Eyes Part II is what a train wreck refers to when it’s trying to make a train wreck metaphor. The film is so bad that your Blu-ray player will tell you “It’s not you, it’s me” after you pop the disc in. If you were to cut open Hitler’s stomach, the stench that would hit you would give you flashbacks to Hills Part II, whether you’ve actually seen it or not. Watching Hills Part II is like having a bar mitzvah for pure hate.

The Hills Have Eyes Part II concerns a member of the cannibal clan existing in a fashion that completely contradicts the mythology set up in the first film. Pluto comes back, after obviously dying in the first film. The dog from the first film also returns, and has flashbacks about the first film, showing that even animals can have PTSD when trapped in a movie this awful. Hills Part II concerns some motocross racers whose bus breaks down in the desert around where the Carter trailer broke down before and they end up getting attacked by mutants. I’m not quite sure whether the DVD case I bought had a movie inside or a bomb meant to blow up a film school.

The Verdict: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The Hills Have Eyes is an extremely gritty, fun film that displays not only Wes Craven’s growing aptitude for the horror genre, but works as an almost lighter companion to The Last House On The Left. While parts of it can be a struggle to get through for those with weak stomachs, or what do they call them… morals, I would recommend it for anyone who enjoys a good backwoods slasher flick. I wouldn’t, however, recommend The Hills Have Eyes Part II. I haven’t used the term “dookie” in years, but by god, it applies for that one.

Yell! Rating (x/5 Skulls):

3.5 out of 5 stars

Year Released:

22 July 1977

Director:

Wes Craven

Cast/Crew

Suze Lanier-Bramlett, Robert Houston, Janus Blythe, Peter Locke, Suze Lanier-Bramlett, Michael Berryman, and John Steadman

Genre

Horror, Thriller

Official URL:

none

If you’ve been craving a different taste of horror lately, I might have something up your alley. Remember all the buzz about The Woman not too long ago? What many people may not realize is that The Woman is actually a follow-up to Offspring (2009), a movie directed by The Woman‘s producer, Andrew van den Houten.

Unlike many of my movie reviews, I’m going to stray away from the straight up plot synopsis I give and delve into the good, the bad, the gory, and the ugly for this one. There’s just too much ground to cover and this is one of those movies that you really have to see a few times to let everything sink in – but here’s a little bit of obligatory back story: A cave-dwelling cannibalistic tribe has been preying on a Maine community for some time, though roughly 10 years ago, it was thought that they were all wiped out. Well, guess who’s resurfaced? Ding, ding, ding, it’s our sharp-teethed little savages, on the prowl for some delectable human flesh. And let me tell you all something right now, they’re a holy Hell of a lot less charming and sophisticated than Dr. Lecter.

The first 5 to 7 minutes of the film get off to a rip-roaring start. We’re treated to a scene of gore so incomprehensible that my brain said, “Okay, this is supposed to be a woman who has been literally ripped apart,” but logically I still have no clue what that even was, because to think about a human looking like that just boggles the mind. There’s so much blood and gore that it’s as if the prop master and special FX man got together and said, “Okay, we have to make this shocking, but we also want to be cheap. Lester, you get the corn syrup ready and I’m going to go hit up all the meat sales and the Goodwill. We’re going to make this so cheap and disturbing that we’ll practically be giving the nightmares away!”

To me, it honestly looked sort of like they did exactly what I just described and stuffed a bunch of raw meat into some clothes they found at the Goodwill, poured fake blood all over it, added in a few latex limbs and said, “Ah, this is art!” And for what it’s worth, it is – it may seem over the top at the first, but when you realize that they’re cannibals, it goes from laughable to downright gross/awesome in no time flat.

Oh, and did I mention the dead baby? Yeah, that also happens within the first 10 minutes of the movie. We’re treated to a grotesque dead baby in a plastic bag. I have a hunch that was the tribe’s idea of take-out.

Continue reading the Offspring review after the jump…

Yell! Rating (x/5 Skulls):

3.5 out of 5 stars

Year Released:

28 August 2009

Director:

Andrew van den Houten

Cast/Crew

Jessica Butler, Kelly Carey, Amy Hargreaves, Art Hindle, Spencer List, Jack Ketchum, Pollyanna McIntosh, and Holter Graham

Genre

Horror, Cannibal

Official URL:

none

Eaten Alive! was Umberto Lenzi’s second foray into cannibal movies; his first, which started the sub-genre, was Il Paese del Sesso Selvaggio, (Man from Deep River) (1973). Lenzi decided to not only show the usual murder, rape, animal dismemberment, and gore that these films became famous for, but he decided that having his victims alive and conscience while they are being devoured would add to the horror. He was right as Eaten Alive! will turn your stomach.

Yell! Rating (x/5 Skulls):

2.5 out of 5 stars

Year Released:

20 March 1980 (Italy)

Director:

Umberto Lenzi

Cast/Crew

Robert Kerman, Janet Agren, Ivan Rassimov, Paola Senatore, Me Me Lai

Genre

Exploitation, Horror, Cannibal, Grindhouse

Official URL:

none