Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

The Cannibal Man Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 30, 1999

While it may be at least a bit more of a mainstream lifestyle choice these days, being a vegetarian (which I've been for most of my life) really used to raise some people's hackles back in the day for some reason, and I used to get regularly peppered with questions as to why I would have decided to not eat meat. I was never one to really feel the need to defend a decision that truly only affected me, but for my more relentless inquisitor who insisted they required some kind of "answer", I would sometimes refer people to The Animals Film for those desiring an ostensible explanation. The Animals Film is an absolutely devastating documentary narrated by Julie Christie which has a pretty gut wrenching display of the way humans treat their fellow creatures on the planet, including unbelievably graphic footage showing how various species are "processed" (what a euphemism!) to become food. The opening few minutes of the so-called "International Cut" of Cannibal Man would probably suffice just as well, though, since it has extremely disturbing footage of what goes on at your typical slaughterhouse as cattle are killed, gutted and prepared for "market". Kind of interestingly, the longer "Extended Cut" of the film which Severin also includes on this Blu-ray disc moves that sequence to a bit later in the film, which at least in terms of the context of providing a jolt for a horror outing right off the bat may not have been a wise decision, even if in its postliminary position in the longer version it still retains considerable power.

All of the foregoing said, it's probably a mistake to think of Cannibal Man as a traditional "horror" film, as a really interesting supplement featuring Stephen Thrower and Dr. Shelagh Rowan-Legg points out. The film was the handiwork (?) of provocateur Eloy de la Iglesia, who had more on his cinematic mind than simply shocking people with graphic scenes of murder, though there are at least a couple of those in the film (aside and apart from cows, that is), just to be clear. Thrower and Rowan-Legg discuss how Iglesia managed to outsmart the "hands on" censors of the Spanish film industry by offering a tale that is ostensibly not all that Spanish and which featured a marquee star in Vincente Parra, here playing a kind of hapless guy named Marcos who more or less becomes a serial killer almost by accident. Parra had had a vaunted screen presence previously as Spanish royalty in a couple of films, which may have thrown the censors off the scent of Cannibal Man's more outlandish and potentially objectionable elements.

Thrower in particular gets into how the film was marketed under a number of titles, with United States distributors finding out that The Apartment on the 13th Floor actually attracted more interest from audiences than Cannibal Man, something that's kind of ironic in a couple of ways. First of all, the film's original title in Spanish references neither an apartment nor cannibalism, but the fact that someone somewhere decided that injecting the word "cannibal" into one of the film's alternate titles ended up getting the film listed as a "video nasty", almost by default. That assignation kind of willfully ignores the obvious sociopolitical subtexts that Iglesia attempts to invest the film with.

A seemingly minor fracas with a cab driver sets the plot mechanics in motion, with Marcos pummeling the poor guy until he's expired. When Marcos' girlfriend insists they need to go to the police, that sets Marcos off on a series of killings as one victim after another starts checking in on Marcos for various reasons. There are a number of rather odd presentational and story elements at play here, including the fact that Marcos deposits some of his victims in his bed, as if they're a couple or something. There's also a really rather fascinating subplot involving Marcos' neighbor Néstor (Eusebio Poncela), who is relatively obviously gay, and who seems to attract some subversive interest on the part of Marcos.

The fact that Marcos works in a slaughterhouse (hence that aforementioned really disturbingly graphic footage) plays into things as well, with a subtle but still disturbing aspect that is part Eating Raoul (without the laughs) and part Mrs. Lovett's pies from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in Concert (without the singing), which is probably the reason for the whole "cannibal" title situation.

What repeatedly struck me about Iglesias' presentational stance is that while there are (relatively brief) moments like the "meat cleaver to the face" that adorns the key art for this release, there are other sequences, as in a really interesting slow tracking shot that captures Marcos with his cleaver again, albeit in shadow against an interior wall where a door frame prevents you from actually seeing what's going on (see screenshot 4). I actually found moments like that to be more stylistically effective than the outright blood and guts, but even aside and apart from any accruing body count and how it got there, Cannibal Man is a film that tends to both defy expectations and become kind of goofily predictable. In the latter category, it gets to be a case of "oh, no, another poor idiot is going to Marcos' place" after a while, but in the former category the film is fairly bursting at the seams with subtext and style.

The Cannibal Man Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Cannibal Man* is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1 for both versions. Per usual Severin practice, about the only technical data is offered on the back cover of the release, where it's stated "now featuring both the international and extended Spanish Version newly scanned from the original negatives for the first time ever". I didn't notice any material difference in the quality of the footage shared between the two versions, with both looking at least similar and I'd argue identical with regard to color, grain and occasional damage. The extended version's additional footage can also show the same kind of similar damage with regard to speckling and other blemishes, but otherwise has the same good suffusion and generally nicely resolved grain as the shared footage. There are some occasional rough looking patches, especially some of the darker moments where grain can get fairly gritty looking. But a number of close-ups have impressive fine detail, as can perhaps be made out in some of the screenshots accompanying this review.

*While the cover and credits listing on the back of this release offer the title as Cannibal Man (without a definite article), the Main Menu as well as the title listing on the credits of the international version state The Cannibal Man.

Note: Screenshots 1 through 13 are from the International Cut. Screenshots 14 through 17 are from the Extended Cut.

The Cannibal Man Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both versions of the film feature English and Spanish language tracks presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono. The Spanish language track is noticeably hotter on the extended version, to the point that there's actually a bit of crackle at moments like the opening theme music. Both tracks show signs of (probably total) post looping, so that sync is "loose" (as they say). I didn't notice quite the same kind of amplitude difference on the tracks of the international version, though it is evident if, for example, you toggle tracks when the theme music plays in that version. All of the tracks offer decent fidelity in terms of delivering dialogue, score and effects, but there can be an overall boxy sound and there are occasional minor signs of wear and tear in the form of pops and cracks. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Cannibal Man Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Extended Cut (HD; 1:47:19) and International Cut (HD; 1:38;25) can be accessed via the Main Menu. Both of the individual submenus for the two versions then offer various options (see screenshots 18 and 19).


• Cinema at the Margins (HD; 26:11) is a fantastic piece offering Stephen Thrower and Dr. Shelagh Rowan-Legg discussing Iglesia in general and this film in particular. While not germane to how interesting this discussion is, there's something kind of weird going on with the color in the Thrower segments - - pay attention for example to the green wall behind him.


• The Director and the Cannibal Man (HD; 17:54) offers some interesting perspective from Carlos Aguilar, co-author of a 1996 book called Conocer a Eloy de la Iglesias. In Spanish with English subtitles.


• Trailer (HD; 3:07)


• Deleted Scenes (HD; 1:35)

The Cannibal Man Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Cannibal Man ends up being a kind of mixed bag (with or without body parts stuffed inside, which will be understandable after you watch the film). It's almost comically repetitive after a while, with victim after victim showing up to greet Marcos and then conveniently get murdered by him, but on a whole gamut of other levels it's a fascinating dissection (no slaughterhouse pun intended) of a man caught by the vagaries of fate and his own temper into an escalating series of tragedies. Add on the socioeconomic aspect as well as a homoerotic angle and the film may offer enough for even a vegetarian to make it through the devastating footage of cattle being "processed". With a number of potential major caveats offered in terms of what individual viewers can stomach, and perhaps especially in light of the really excellent supplements included, The Cannibal Man comes Recommended.