It stars Robert Kerman as Harold Monroe, an anthropologist who leads a rescue team into the Amazon rainforest to locate a crew of filmmakers that have gone missing while filming a documentary on local cannibal tribes.

Cannibal Holocaust was filmed primarily on location in the Amazon rainforest of Colombia with a cast of indigenous tribes interacting with mostly inexperienced American and Italian actors recruited in New York City.

[4] It was banned in the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa and several other countries due to its graphic content, including sexual assault and genuine violence toward animals.

In anticipation of his arrival, military personnel stationed in the rainforest conduct a raid on the local Yacumo tribe and take a young man hostage to negotiate with the natives.

Once they arrive, the crew proceeds to intimidate the tribe and kill a young child's pet pig before herding the natives into a hut, which they burn down to stage a massacre for their film.

The final two reels begin with the filmmakers locating a Ya̧nomamö girl, whom the men take turns raping against Faye's protests, stating they are wasting film footage.

The Italian media was symbolized by the behavior in the film team in Cannibal Holocaust, the depiction of whom was also influenced by the works of Gualtiero Jacopetti, a documentary filmmaker of whom Deodato was a fan.

[7] The Italian screenwriter Gianfranco Clerici wrote the script under the working title I figli della luna (The Sons of the Moon).

[2] The originally scripted version of The Last Road to Hell, which was written to depict soldiers advancing upon an enemy position, also went unused, as Deodato instead decided to use stock footage of political executions for the segment in order to draw further parallels to the films of Jacopetti.

[1][13] Luca Giorgio Barbareschi and Francesca Ciardi, two inexperienced students from the Actors Studio in New York City, were cast as Mark Tomaso and Faye Daniels, respectively, in part because they were native Italian speakers who also spoke English.

[1] A friend of Pirkkanen was initially cast to play Alan Yates, but he dropped out of the film shortly before the production team left for the Amazon.

[9] Lloyd Kaufman of Troma Entertainment compares these scenes to Vsevolod Pudovkin's theory of montage, saying: "In Cannibal Holocaust, we see the actors kill and rip apart a giant sea turtle and other animals.

"[16] Deodato says he included the execution footage in The Last Road to Hell to draw further similarities to Cannibal Holocaust and the Mondo filmmaking of Gualtiero Jacopetti.

The scenes featuring the film team were shot first with handheld 16mm cameras in a cinéma vérité style that mimicked an observational documentary, a technique Deodato had learned from his mentor Roberto Rossellini.

Deodato was particularly fond of the film's main theme, "Ti guarderò nel cuore", which was given lyrics and became a worldwide pop hit under the title "More".

The music of Cannibal Holocaust is a variety of styles, from a gentle melody in the "Main Theme", to a sad and flowing score in "Crucified Woman", and faster and more upbeat tracks in "Cameraman's Recreation", "Relaxing in the Savannah", and "Drinking Coco", to the sinister-sounding "Massacre of the Troupe".

[21] The film's main theme was used in 2022 for the American teen series Euphoria, where it was played during the closing credits for the season 2 episode "The Theater and Its Double".

Nick Schager criticized the brutality of the film, saying: "As clearly elucidated by its shocking gruesomeness—as well as its unabashedly racist portrait of indigenous folks it purports to sympathize with [the real indigenous peoples in Brazil whose names were used in the film—the Ya̧nomamö and Shamatari—are not fierce enemies as portrayed in the film, nor is either tribe truly cannibalistic, although the Ya̧nomamö do partake in a form of post-mortem ritual cannibalism][27]—the actual savages involved with Cannibal Holocaust are the ones behind the camera.

"[7] Deodato's intentions regarding the Italian media coverage of the Red Brigades have also fallen under critical examination and has been expanded to include all sensationalism.

Carter explores this, claiming that "[the lack of journalistic integrity] is shown through the interaction between Professor Monroe and the news agency that had backed the documentary crew.

Firsching claims that "The fact that the film's sole spokesperson for the anti-exploitation perspective is played by porn star Robert Kerman should give an indication of where its sympathies lie",[29] while Schager says Deodato is "pathetically justifying the unrepentant carnage by posthumously damning his eaten filmmaker protagonists with a 'who are the real monsters – the cannibals or us?'

Other than graphic gore, the film contains several scenes of sexual violence and genuine cruelty to animals, issues which find Cannibal Holocaust in the midst of controversy to this day.

[41] Ten days after its premiere in Milan, Cannibal Holocaust was confiscated under the orders of a local magistrate,[42] and Ruggero Deodato was charged with obscenity.

[44] Rumors of the Cannibal Holocaust murder trial often claim that the actors had signed contracts with the production which ensured that they would not appear in any type of media, motion pictures, or commercials for one year following the film's release.

DeVos cites several examples of this double standard, including The Rules of the Game, El Topo, Wake in Fright, and Apocalypse Now.

"[46] Cannibal Holocaust was innovative in its plot structure, specifically with the concept of the "found footage" being brought back to civilization and later viewed to determine the fate of the crew that shot it.

In a mixed review, film journalist Jay Slater claims: "Certainly a tough customer, Cannibal Ferox still fails where Deodato succeeds.

[...] Lenzi attempts to tackle cultural defilement and racial issues, but Cannibal Ferox is nothing more than a shoddy exercise in sadism and animal cruelty.

"[62] Reviewer Andrew Parkinson also notes: "At the end, there is a basic attempt to validate Cannibal Ferox, posing that old chestnut of whether civilised man is actually more savage than the uncivilised tribespeople.

[65] Previously known for his work in Mondo films, Antonio Climati directed Natura contro in 1988, which was released as Cannibal Holocaust II in the United Kingdom.