PORNO HOLOCAUST (1980)
Directed by Joe D'Amato
Starring George Eastman and Dirce Funari
A remarkably lame horror film. There isn't much to write about "Porno Holocaust,” other than that it's one of a very few number of "hardcore porn" horror films and has somehow managed to gain a cult reputation in the United States as a shocking movie that has to be seen to be believed. It's often sold with the claim that it was "banned.”
Pushing the idea that it's a taboo-breaking fear fest are the underground video distributors who sell the uncut version of the film in the States. But the movie is unwatchably bad. Don't spend $20 buying it, whatever you do.
A team of scientists head to a deserted island after photographs emerge showing large, mutant-like animals there. We never get to see the photos. But when they finally arrive on the island (after a myriad of meaningless sex scenes between the lady scientists and a couple of male crewmembers), a guy wearing really bad make-up shows up. Apparently he's a monster on the island who was mangled by atomic tests that happened there a while back.
If you're unlucky enough to see it in the U.S., you're almost guaranteed to be watching a terrible second or third-generation copy that some huckster sold to you, claiming the movie was "banned" in 100 countries. Well, I say it should be banned. It's one of the lamest flicks of all time.
D'Amato has a bit of a cult following for directing some other horror pics, "Emmanuelle" movies, "Trap Them and Kill Them" and the low-budget sword-and-sorcery pic "Blade Master.”