Cannibal Man

DVD Anchor Bay Entertainment
1971, 98 minutes

review by Lee Peterson

If you're expecting a gut-wrenching shock-fest along the lines of Cannibal Holocaust, Cannibal Man will surely disappoint you. If you set your expectations a little bit lower, you'll discover a lurid, sometimes shocking examination of one man's gradual slide into homicidal psychosis.

Marcos (Vicente Parra, who looks like a lumpy Victor Mature with wicked sideburns) has a good job, working in a slaughterhouse. When he accidentally kills a taxi driver during a fight (the cabbie is offended that Marcos and his girlfriend are making out in his cab), his girlfriend insists they go to the police. Marcos disagrees, a fight ensues, and he strangles her. When his brother Steve sees the body, Marcos whacks him with a pipe wrench. Steve's girlfriend comes snooping around, and she gets her throat slit. Her father gets a hatchet in his face. Before long, Marcos has a pretty impressive (and pretty smelly) body count piling up in his bedroom, which he's disposing of, piece by piece, at the slaughterhouse. 

Meat is meat, after all, and people gotta eat.

A gay neighbor who has been spying on (and hitting on) Marcos ups the ante when he reveals that he knows what Marcos has been up to. What's a desperate serial killer to do? Kill him? Make him a partner? Jump in the shower with him?

Spanish writer/director Eloy de la Iglesia would later create several groundbreaking, socially progressive gay-themed films, including 1976's Los Placeres Ocultos (Hidden Pleasures) and 1978's El Sacerdate (The Priest). It's hard to miss the queer subtext in Cannibal Man, with Marcos cautiously edging toward a dangerous intimacy with his neighbor. Imagine a Spanish Andy Milligan with a competent cast and crew, and you're somewhere near the mark.  

Anchor Bay Entertainment presents the U.S. debut of Cannibal Man  (aka La Semana del Asesino) in a beautiful, widescreen DVD transfer (1.85:1; 16x9 enhanced). The colors are a little bit faded from age, but it's a perfectly clean image. The Dolby Digital Mono soundtrack is also excellent, though the English dubbing is pretty atrocious (it's too bad a Spanish-language version wasn't available). A theatrical trailer and some informative liner notes are the only extras.

If you forget about the Cannibal Man title and what it implies, you'll enjoy (if that's the right word) a sleazy little slice-of-life (and lots of death) that would make a nice double feature paired with Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.  Be forewarned, though—the film opens with some authentic slaughterhouse footage that's far more graphic and unsettling than the film that follows.

Official Website:

http://www.anchorbayentertainment.com