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Review

The years immediately prior to the death of Spanish dictator General Franco in 1975 were marked out by an increased sense of liberalism in the nations arts, particularly in terms of Spanish cinema output. Unsurprisingly this period therefore witnessed a wave of horror and exploitation films emanating from Spain which were characterised by previously unacceptable levels of sex and violence, typified by the works of filmmakers such as Amando De Ossorio. One of the more interesting and unusual shockers to emerge from Spain during this time would be director Eloy de la Iglesia’s accomplished obscurity La Semana del asesino, or as it is better known to British genre aficionado’s The Cannibal Man.

The Cannibal Man starts Vicente Parra as Marcos – a put upon average Joe holding down a dead end job in the slaughterhouse section of the Flory Soup factory. Living in a rundown shack, Marcos holds out tentative hopes of landing a better job at the factory, which would finally allow him to marry his attractive younger fiancé Paola (Cohen).

One night Marcos and Paola hitch a ride in a taxi and are thrust into a confrontation with the bad-tempered driver who Marcos winds up inadvertently killing. This sets Marcos off on a veritable killing spree. When a frightened Paola insists upon reporting the driver’s death to the police Marcos flies into a rage and throttles her to death. Later Marcos confides in his brother Steve (Bravo) about the murders and when he also suggest involving the police Marcos kills him too, battering his skull in with a wrench. Soon Steve’s prying fiancé Carmen (Herrera) becomes victim number four and when her father arrives to grill Marcos about her whereabouts he becomes victim number five. The sixth and final victim is Rosa (Lagos) – a friendly waitress from the local cafeteria whom Marcos kills when she cottons on to his horrific crimes.

Marcos soon sets about dismembering the bodies of his victims and begins using the meat blending equipment at the soup factory to gradually dispose of the grisly remains. However, Marcos soon realises that his crimes have been witnessed through binoculars by Nestor – an occupant of the plush neighbouring apartment complex, who has a strange habit of “coincidentally” bumping into Marcos art opportune times. Could the seemingly benevolent Nestor offer a solution to Marcos’ sticky dilemma?

Unfortunately The Cannibal Man has, over the years, fell victim to its misleading title. In Britain the film fund itself achieving a semi-notoriety when it got caught up in the early eighties moral panic concerning so-called “Video Nasties”. At a time where practically any film with the word “zombie” or “cannibal” in its title was getting its collar felt by PC Plod, Iglesia’s comparatively subtle psycho-drama found itself associated with such extreme Italian fare as Cannibal Holocaust (1979) and Cannibal Ferox (1981). Subsequently jaded horror maven’s who were mislead by the title into expecting a full in flesh-eating bloodbath were left feeling short-changed and the films reputation duly (unfairly) suffered.

To reiterate cannibalism plays no part in the film unless you count the potential, inadvertent cannibalistic implications carried by Marcos funnelling his victims remains into soup-making equipment. Nonetheless, taken on its own merits The Cannibal Man offers an interesting and overall rewarding gender reversal n the themes of Roman Polanski’s classic Repulsion (1965).

Iglesia imbues his film with many intriguing, ambiguous flourishes meaning that although some of his loftier artistic aspirations get stifled by pedestrian pacing and weak Eng;lish dubbing, there proves to still be enough going on to justify interest for more patient and receptive viewers.

The Cannibal Man is most often recalled for its brief but grisly pre-credits sequence set in the soup factory slaughterhouse. Viewers are subjected to gruesome, genuine images of cattle being slit open and blood gushing into buckets and covering the floor. Amidst the carnage Marcos nonchalantly munches away on a meat sandwich. This could be read as nothing more than a heavy handed dose of social commentary but regardless of Iglesia’s intent this footage lends a very queasy, uncomfortable edge to the ensuing murders. Indeed it is a highly clever and effective means of creating a nauseating sense of verisimilitude. More generally Iglesia achieves a truly stifling atmosphere of sweltering discomfort and desolation. The principal setting of Marcos’ home is a bleak one – little more than a dilapidated hovel located in the middle of vast, barren waste ground. Feral looking children kick a ball around in the dust and packs of stray dogs congregate outside Marcos’ front door, attracted by the worsening stench emitting from the cadavers of Marcos’ victims. Existing (one couldn’t call it living) in such a hopelessly bleak environment it is little wonder that the initially level-headed and personable Marcos is driven to such violent extremities of anguish, desperation ands despair when fate finally pushes him over the edge.

What little gore there is proves fleeting, yet all six killings are effectively realised and chilling not due to their explicitness but because of the increasingly detached and cold ambivalence with which Marcos kills. Similarly the dismemberment of the victims is never graphically shown; instead Iglesia depicts the deed in silhouette, which makes for a macabre artistic coup. Given this lack of any protracted violence The Cannibal Man was eventually dropped from the “Video Nasties” list and encountered few problems gaining a British video re-release (following a mere one second cut by the BBFC) in the early nineties.

Unfortunately the apparently homoerotic link between Marcos and Nestor is less successful in its realisation, in particular Nestor’s voyeuristic, obsessive observation of Marcos. Is the viewer really to believe that Nestor would observe Marcos murdering no less than six people yet view the whole horrific business as nothing more than some sort of macabre moral melodrama into which he then gores to pains to interject himself as some sort of moralistic judge and juror? While the ambiguity of Nestor’s motivations is intriguing this is still pretty hard to swallow and to an extent it dents the grounded, grim realism Iglesia had previously established with such expert precision. Additionally the typically iffy English dubbing is a constant bane for the film and tends to work against Igelesia’s artier aspirations although luckily the power of Vicente Parra’s vulnerable and sympathetic performance as Marcos still manages to shine through. The film could also have stood to lose the addition of the laboured, awkward and poorly done sex scene between Marcos and Paola which winds up provoking embarrassed laughter.

Overall The Cannibal Man while not without the odd sloppy or ponderous moment is still a fairly worthwhile and rewarding film although one likely to prove an acquired taste given its relentlessly bleak tone of sweltering despair. It is likely that this will continue to chase off viewers accustomed to more light and breezy fare or those looking for a straightforward gorefest, especially considering the total absence of any leavening sense of humour or irony. The best advice I would afford prospective viewers would be to abandon any preconceived notions of the film being another European-made “Video Nasty”. Instead simply approach The Cannibal Man for what it is – namely a grim character study of an ordinary, unremarkable individual driven by impoverished, oppressive social climate and circumstance into murder and madness. Not really a horror or exploitation film at all in the traditional sense, it is perhaps better to view The Cannibal Man as a pessimistic comment on the social implications of poverty albeit with grisly exploitation leanings. Viewed as such The Cannibal Man is an effectively staged and often compelling little film, which benefits from both a deft, clever use of symbolic juxtaposition and intermittent dashes of directorial innovation and flair.

Also Try… Repulsion / The Tenant / A Bell From Hell / Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer.

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