Exclusive: Proof CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST Piranha-Torture Was Filmed

By Josh Millican

Cannibal Holocaust celebrated its 41st anniversary recently. But the infamous exploitation flick remains as controversial today as it was when it was first released in 1980. Despite a cult fan base, the film has been dismissed as racist. Activists have condemned the film for its very real scenes of animal cruelty. Most tragically, a monkey is decapitated and an endangered river turtle is slaughtered.

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Some of the human deaths were so convincing, many suspected that director Ruggero Deodato had actually created a snuff film. Even if Cannibal Holocaust is a work of fiction, its rape, mastication, and savagery are still hard to stomach.

Even for the most black-hearted of horror fans. Deodato shot the film deep in the Amazonian rainforest (dubbed “The Green Inferno”). The production itself is a Heart of Darkness story. One with many details that wait for discoverey.

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Synopsis:During a rescue mission into the Amazon rainforest, a professor stumbles across lost film shot by a missing documentary crew. Their goal was to study the region’s cannibalistic tribes.

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One film historian doing his best to separate fact from fiction in regards to Cannibal Holocaust is Calum Waddell. He’s been researching the film for years. He wrote a book about it (Cannibal Holocaust (Devil’s Advocates)) and a documentary (Eaten Alive! The Rise and Fall of the Italian Cannibal Film). I was lucky enough to sit down with Waddell, and he shared an exciting, recent discovery.

“I’ve had a real interest in the Italian cannibal film cycle for a while now. Because watching some of these movies today you do sort of wonder, ‘Wow, how the heck did this ever get made?’ And the stories behind-the-scenes just have to be exciting. Because [the filmmakers produced] Cannibal Holocaust in thick in the Amazon jungle back in 1979. Which is a tale unto itself.”

Indeed, Cannibal Holocaust comes with its own mythology and mysteries. And one of the most compelling is the “lost” (or “unfinished”, depending on who you ask) piranha-torture scene. It consisted of tribesmen tying one of their own to a log and then dipping him into the piranha-infested river. When he emerges, the meat-eating fish have almost completely eaten his leg; some still hang off the man’s stump.

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Only one still picture of this sick scene has survived.

On a trip to the Amazon before Covid-19 hit, Waddell confirmed the filmmakers rehearsed the scene. And he a witness insisted the crew actually filmed it.

“I reached out to a gentleman called Ronaldo Blanca, who still lives in Leticia, Colombia,” Waddell tells Dread Central exclusively. “Fans of Cannibal Holocaust will remember Ronaldo as the young man with the leash around him in the film. He’s the guy Professor Harold Monroe (Robert Kerman) uses to find the legendary Tree People.

“Now Ronaldo has only fond memories of starring in the movie and I was honestly thrilled to touch base with him and find him alive, I mean what are the odds?” Waddell continues. “Anyway, he finally watched Cannibal Holocaust for me, over 40 years later, and he tells me about who some of the native actors are.”

Here comes the revelation: “Then Ronaldo says, ‘There is one problem with this film. Where is the piranha scene?’ Now, as fans will know, one shot exists of that scene. Ruggero Deodato, the director, always said it was shot for publicity. That they couldn’t make it work so it was never filmed. But Ronaldo says to me, ‘No, no, I was there for that scene – he definitely shot it. He called ‘Action!’ and he called ‘Cut!’ and some of us had gathered around to watch it and we all applauded… it was a brilliant effect’.

If you think this story couldn’t get any more bizarre, you’d be mistaken.

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“He told me how they used a local guy who had lost his leg. It’s worth remembering this was a time of war in the area. So it could have been because of this. They literally stitched live piranhas to a prosthesis. And pulled him out of the water after his leg was being eaten away. He says it was all set up, took a day to film, and he’s absolutely insisting on it. So, I guess we have yet another puzzle in the Cannibal Holocaust legend. Will we ever find this scene in a dusty archive somewhere? I hope someone out there knows!”

So do we! Hopefully, anyone with ties to Cannibal Holocaust will be inspired by this article. And they will search their dusty attics and/or storage lockers for this infamous footage. Many will maintain that Cannibal Holocaust is a film that shouldn’t exist in the first place. But others will be excited to find a missing piece of this extremely bloody puzzle!

We’ll be keeping in touch with Waddell. We’ll see when his further findings on the making of Cannibal Holocaust lead him. Hopefully, he’ll uncover even more unsavory and tantalizing details about one of the most infamous horror movies ever made!

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Are you a fan of Cannibal Holocaust? Are you excited to learn that the infamous piranha-torture scene was actually filmed? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! You can also carry on the convo with me personally on Twitter @josh_millican.