The master of ultra-brutal horror cinema is dead: Ruggero Deodato shocked an entire generation with “Cannibal Holocaust”.

The Italian filmmaker Ruggero Deodato died in Rome on Thursday at the age of 83reports the newspaper now .

The director was one of the defining figures of European horror cinema. With his exploitation film “Cannibal Holocaust” – also known in Germany as “Nackt und zerfleischt” – he delivered a cannibal shock in the early 1980s that remains controversial to this day. . There is no information about the cause of death so far.

Born on May 7, 1939 in Potenza, Italy, Ruggero Deodato learned his craft as an assistant director for film greats such as Roberto Rossellini, whom he supported in the films “The False General” and “It was Night in Rome”. In that capacity, Deodato also participated in the cult film “Django” with Franco Nero by spaghetti western icon Sergio Corbucci.

Ruggero Deodato – One man, many faces

In the late 1960s, Deodato started making films for the cinema himself and directed fantasy films such as “Ursus and the Devil’s Slave”, erotic adventure films – including “The Maid with the Sharp Blade” or tried his hand as a Western director before turning a few turned his back on the film industry years ago and made a name for himself as a television director and commercial filmmaker.

From the mid-1970s he returned to the cinema world and concentrated more and more on hard-hitting thrillers, disaster films and ultra-brutal horror films. The director caused a stir in particular with the film “Cannibal Holocaust”, because Deodato deliberately blurred the boundaries between found footage and professionally shot footage.

Master of Marketing

The footage was so disturbing that the filmmaker soon faced serious charges and was even briefly jailed shortly after the film’s theatrical release. The reason: He was charged with murdering several actors (on camera) – but the charges were dropped when they later appeared in court alive.

Deodato got the actors to sign contracts to go into hiding for a year – obviously to consciously fuel the hype surrounding the movie. At that time, the filmmaker was already using the same marketing strategy that helped the found footage creeper “Blair Witch Project” to world fame in the late 1990s, because it was also sold as fact report at the time.

Deodato has influenced major directors around the world

With his lurid style, Ruggero Deodato influenced other filmmakers far beyond the Italian borders. Filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and Oliver Stone have credited the Italian horror master as an influence on their work. Eli Roth is also an ardent admirer of Deodato’s cinematic art, he paid homage to “Cannibal Holocaust” with “The Green Inferno” and even had the controversial director make a cameo appearance as a cannibal in his horror thriller “Hostel 2”.