Cannibal

It’s always fun to watch films that are based on the stories and lives of killers and their poor victims, right? Well here is one that is based on two of the most disturbed men I have ever had the utmost pleasure of reading about as well as watching films about. Based on the true story of The Cannibal of Rotenberg comes director Marian Dora’s first full length feature, directorial debut;

Cannibal

Opening with our good friend the Cannibal (being a character based on the real life cannibal of Rotenberg, Armin Meiwes) as a child having the story of Hansel and Gretel read to him by his mother, I started to get the feel of this film. The story being read is that of the intension to cook and eat human flesh.

We then see the cannibal at a later age, probably late 30’s early 40‘s, searching the internet through various forums hunting down a tasty treat… Human Meat! Through many trials and tribulations, be they meetings with various men who were not really down for the whole being eaten thing, or those who just plain never showed up to participate in the feast, our hero all the while continues his talks of savoring the flavor of man meat with a very interesting and interested man on one of the chat rooms. This man, known as “The Meat” assures “The Cannibal” that he will not be one to chicken out, he wants to be inside him… In more ways than one!

The Conversations between the 2 men go on for a while, so it seems, until they finally decide when and where to meet and begin their party of sex and violence. The day had finally come for our man about town to go to the station to pick up his most delicious meal. When “The Meat” (based on the real meal by the name of Bernd-Jurgen Brandes) steps towards him he knows that this will be it, this is the one who will become part of him till the day he dies.

This meal of a human being is a tall, older looking man (at least he looks older than “The Cannibal”) has more hair on his body than a fucking Lions has on its head. I couldn’t fathom for the life of me the attraction for this man, nor could I ever imagine eating this hairy fuck, believe me, you’d be plucking long and curlys from your teeth for days on end and forget about the hairballs you’d be coughing up.

Ok! Enough about how hairy this fucker is and on with the show! Our good friend drives “The Meat” and himself back to his home where they shall begin the long day ahead. After naked coffee and much alcohol, the two men are ready to begin what they had long discussed. The best part of this whole deal is that in order to be ingested “The Meat” had one request of our friendly neighborhood cannibal, a need he has felt for years, to be castrated, but not by blade, by teeth. “The Cannibal” is more than happy to fulfill this request being that its still something to eat.

Have you ever heard the term, 'If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again'? Well unfortunately for “The Meat” his obscenely hairy Tool was way too tough to bite through. This incident to him meant the night was a failure, if he still had his cock attached there was no fucking way this dude was eating him. The two men decide it’s a lost cause and begin to part ways, until, of course, they decide to try, try again!

They decide at this point the best way to do this is sever “The Meat” from his mini meat with a knife, as this will ensure removal. Once the separation is complete “The Cannibal” cooks up a lovely balled headed bishop sauté for the two to feast upon. Much to their dismay the pecker is too gristly and tough for them to enjoy… But hey, at least its no longer a burden to the hairy fucker right?

While waiting for him to bleed to death, due to the mass amounts of booze and the loss of his wonder wand, “The Cannibal” places the hairball into a tub and tends to him till the moment of truth. OH!!! Did I mention all the sex they had before he lost his junk? Well I did now! Extreme homosexual content to make any homophobe puke, even though there is no visual penetration… No wait, i’m wrong! They did show him trying to bite it off in astounding detail, but aside from that brief scene just a whole lot of dicks and asses running around.

As “The Meat” becomes completely oblivious as to what’s going on and to his surroundings, our good friend “The Cannibal” prepares him for what’s to come at long last… Dinner! He drags the mans body from the tub and takes him to his homemade slaughter house. It is there that the thing he had long yearned for begins, the cutting and cleaning of his beautiful (ha-ha) long pig. I’ll explain the term long pig really quick for you guys and gals out there reading my ramblings. A long pig is a term used in the cannibal community to describe the person who is to be cannibalized, because a human body is longer than that of an average pig, and a pig is what an average butcher would slaughter for meat. There you go! Oh, you are most welcome!

From this point on its astounding gore and even imagery for a film of this caliber, meaning next to no budget whatsoever. Many of the scenes with the two men together performing nasty acts were done so well this film could come across as a soft gore porn film, which in any other case I would prefer not to view (though I have no problems with homosexuality, just to make that very clear).

Ratings:

For direction id have to give this film a 5. For Starters I do have to say at least Marian Dora can make an Oscar winning masterpiece compared to his (so it seems) mentor, the King of Shit Heap films himself, Mr. Ulli Lommel. That being said let me move on to speak Dora and his film. The direction of this film was very immature and non charismatic. However I do feel that if director Marian Dora would have concentrated more on making due with what he has, rather than the shock value of homosexuality and/or the one truly disturbing scene in the film, the ending, Cannibal could have and would have been an absolutely phenomenal achievement for this independent film maker. Trust me, even the aspects that were mainly focused on could have stayed in place, just a bit more care into the story and making these characters believable people, especially for the fact that they are based on two very real human beings, would have made a shite load of difference. Still, I loved the film and would recommend it to anyone who can stomach it.

The screenplay/script gets an 8. This is for the fact that most of what was shown in the film is historically accurate, that to me is always a giant plus. I just wish it was cared about just a bit more.

As far as the acting goes I have to give this film a 3. These men were atrocious, maybe it was the directors fault maybe not, who knows. The dialogue, what little there is, was terrible. Though many of the things said were in fact words spoken by the two real men the film is based on, actors Carsten Frank “The Cannibal” and Victor Brandl “The Meat”, could not have done any worse with the few lines they had. This was the biggest setback to the film and probably could have been a far superior picture with different actors playing to very disturbed and broken human beings.

For the FX I give an 8. With a tiny budget and what appeared to be next to nothing to work with, the gore in this film was mind blowing, even the cock bite was done with excellence. All I have to say is, great job in this area, keep up the good gore.

As far as the film overall, I give Cannibal a score of 7. I know it doesn’t make sense being how low some of the ratings are, but this film hits hard. Even with lousy direction and acting it kept my attention from start to finish and that I can say is definite call for a viewing for any fan of gore (or gay) films. Though there were many flaws in making this film the production was great. A wonderfully grim tapestry of blood, love, sex and triumph. Any fan of gore should at least give this a shot, look and feel wise I’d say that Cannibal is almost a film of Jorg Buttgereit’s style, with films such as the NeKromantiK series, Schramm and Der Todesking, only Dora’s Cannibal lacks the true talent found in these other films. If you like The work of Buttgereit you may enjoy this as well.