Whatever you do, don't watch 1980's Cannibal Holocaust.

At the time, the genre of Italian exploitation movies was quite popular. They were gory, full of sex, and cheap to make. What's not to like, right?

As it turns out, the film was a bit too convincing. As a result, filmmaker Ruggero Deodato ended up in an Italian court facing murder charges because authorities believed his movie contained real scenes of the intentional killing of human beings. And just because he told them, "No, it doesn’t," didn't get him out of jail.

The film's second half features studio executives screening what they believe to be "found footage" taken by a documentary crew around the Amazon river. Think "Blair Witch Project," but with more blood and death.

And the film does show the killing of several actual animals. Disgusting. It features a squirrel monkey decapitated with a machete and a pig shot in the head at point-blank range. To make matters worse, they had to shoot the monkey scene twice, resulting in the death of two monkeys. Not to worry, however, the filmmaker said that indigenous people on set ate both of the primates.

** It's all fake, but try telling that to the Italian cops.

Somehow watching the film from the perspective of the executives in the screening room makes the "found footage" look shockingly real. Real like, "I really don't don't feel good about watching this" real. I suppose that's high praise if you make gorefest movies.

When the film premiered, it was shortly thereafter seized by local authorities and banned. Deodato was arrested on obscenity charges. Later, the charges included multiple counts of murder. Cannibal Holocaust was banned in many countries, a ban that still stands in some of those areas more than 40 years later.

Deodato and his production team were eventually cleared in court of murder charges but were convicted on numerous counts of animal cruelty and obscenity. He received a four-month suspended sentence.