: The film is infamous for its graphic violence and genuine animal cruelty. Upon its release, the realism was so convincing that Deodato was arrested and forced to prove in court that the actors were still alive and had not actually been killed on screen. Technical Breakdown of the File
: An NYU anthropologist travels to the Amazon to find a documentary crew that went missing while filming indigenous tribes. He recovers their lost film cans, and the second half of the movie consists of this "found footage," revealing the crew's increasingly horrific and exploitative behavior.
: Critics often debate whether the film is merely "trash" exploitation or a biting critique of Western media sensationalism and journalistic ethics.