Cannibal Holocaust: How The Controversial Horror Movie Became A Video Game

Ruggero Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust is one of the most infamous horror movies of all time and was banned in many countries for its extreme depictions of violence and animal cruelty. As such, it’s a strange choice to be adapted at all, let alone in another medium, but in April 2020, Ruggero Deodato and Fantastico Studios announced that’s exactly what they intend to do in celebration of Cannibal Holocaust’s 40th anniversary.

An upcoming video game, first known as Cannibal and now titled Borneo: A Jungle Nightmare, will continue Deodato’s cannibal story through an interactive horror adventure coming to consoles and PC in the summer of 2021. The game will feature the direction and script of Ruggero Deodato and original artwork from Solo Macello. Billed as the fourth chapter in Deodato’s cannibal story, this game will follow in the footsteps of his cannibal trilogy, which consists of Jungle Holocaust in 1977, Cannibal Holocaust in 1980, and Cut and Run in 1985.

While adapting horror movies into video games is certainly not uncommon, it does seem strange to choose this highly controversial film as the basis for a video game. After all, there are a lot of elements from Cannibal Holocaust that would make the film’s shock factor difficult to replicate even today, but perhaps that’s why Deodato is choosing the virtual format for his latest story.

Cannibal Holocaust was released in 1980 as one of many Italian cannibal movies of the 1970s and ’80s. But, this movie stood out both because of the extreme nature of what was shown, and also because of its found footage format, which led the Italian government to believe several of the actors were actually killed on-screen for the movie. Of course, this wasn’t true, but the trial and the censorship charges waged against the movie led to Cannibal Holocaust becoming the most widely banned film of its time; it’s even banned in many countries to this day.

While horror video games are certainly no stranger to extreme depictions of violence and even cannibalism, as shown in the success of games like Resident Evil 7, Outlast and Outlast 2, and The Forest, there are other elements of Cannibal Holocaust that lend to its shocking nature. The sexual assault, animal violence, and found footage nature of the movie all add complexity which would make it more difficult to recreate and follow up with a sequel or reimagining in any format.

Additionally, it’s important that Borneo: A Jungle Nightmare maintains the movie’s original message. The game must show the stark contrast of modern people and indigenous people, but through the lens of the real evil being people from the modern world, not the tribes they come in contact with — even if those people are cannibals. If not, there’s some serious danger of the game losing the intended meaning of its source material, and risks coming off as exploitative in a bad way.

That being said, with Deodato being part of both the writing and directing process for the game, it’s likely he will maintain the original vision and message present in his film. According to the game description, Borneo: A Jungle Nightmare will have the player take control of different characters to reveal what led them to the jungles of Borneo and ultimately the truth of the story. This description indicates that the game has serious potential to be a real spiritual follow-up to Cannibal Holocaust even if it’s not a direct sequel.

Overall, while it might seem puzzling that Ruggero Deodato would choose to create a video game as the 40th anniversary follow-up to his infamous 1980 classic, the fact that his original movie’s impact would be difficult to recreate on film today means that a video game is a great choice for this next step. Additionally, with the success of extremely brutal video games in recent years, it’s clear there’s a good market for horror video games of this type. Audiences can only hope that Borneo: A Jungle Nightmare will be the sequel that Cannibal Holocaust deserves.

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