Cannibal Holocaust
Well, I watched it, I didn't like it, but it wasn't anywhere as bad an experience as I feared. I don't usually watch films with the kind of distance I approached this one, so especially for the first half, it was pretty easy going and left me room to reflect on the conflicted morality and contradictory nature of the content. It starts off with some beautiful jungle shots and once things get going the events create a very effective uneasiness. There's no question about the exploitative nature of the footage but for a while at least the film preserves its humanity and the conflict of the characters rings at least partially true. Even through the exaggeration and manipulation there are genuine questions raised about cultural perceptions, civilization vs savages, etc. The anthropologist character was rather well done, not tough, but not weak either, a good set up for his role in the second half. Aside from subpar sound and acting issues the first half is a reasonably strong film that's effective at exploring an idea and tense without being too gruesome.
Then we have the second half, where things get harder to bear, animals are unnecessarily tortured and killed, and the film's own exploitative nature runs counter to its blunt and ineffectual message. Though even as someone who dislikes gore I wouldn't say it was gruesome. Other than the animal killings most of the blood and guts are distanced from the camera and it doesn't feature the things that bother me most. That's not to say the content isn't disturbing. The entire section is framed from the perspective of TV executives watching found footage, so we get cuts to alleviate the horror and the occasional blunt comments about the footage. It's heavy-handed, but honestly it does help. The device also allows the footage to be shown in a relatively escalating manner, allowing the viewer to acclimate to the increasing violence. The problem, though, is that showing this much footage undermines the purported message and the conclusion burn all the footage is laughably contradictory to the film itself. There's simply no need for all that's on screen to establish the characters and events, and that's not even getting into whatever went on in actually getting the footage.
It's not something I'm glad I saw, but I also don't regret watching it. It's certainly not irredeemable even if it has some really strong negatives.