12 Extreme Horror Movies You Need To See Before You Die

1. Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

Courtesy of fans such as Eli Roth, Cannibal Holocaust is finally getting the respect it deserves as it the granddaddy of all those €œfound footage€ movies that came along in the wake of The Blair Witch Project. The Legend Of Boggy Creek (1971) may have employed the pseudo-documentary format years earlier, but few would deny that Ruggero Deodato€™s is the more powerful. €œThose who filmed it were devoured alive by cannibals!€ shrieks the no-nonsense tagline, which is apt because this is a no-nonsense film where at no point do whiny teenagers stand around discussing horror films or giving €œironic€ commentary on the proceedings. Ah, the good old days. Handheld and grainy, the footage of (real) animal abuse and physical torture has a you-are-there immediacy that to this day has not been equalled, never mind topped. Slick movies like Rec and Cloverfield might be better edited, but what Deodato€™s movie lacks in finesse it more than makes up for in conviction.