Cannibal Man (1972) – DVD

La semana del asesino
The Cannibal Man
**½/**** Image B+ Sound B
starring Vincente Parra, Emma Cohen, Eusebio Poncela, Vicky Lagos
screenplay by Eloy de la Iglesia and Anthony Fos
directed by Eloy de la Iglesia

by Travis Mackenzie Hoover Despite some cheesily-gratuitous murders and an awkwardly-inserted sex scene, Cannibal Man clearly wants to be more than exploitation. Pity that for long stretches, the movie–a study of a man trying to hide a sin while committing many more to cover it up–doesn't have much else to go on besides the horrible irony that drives its gimmick: we're trapped with this guy repeating his brutal mistake over and over again to the point of irrationality and intimations of a Kids in the Hall parody. The working-class milieu and lack of leering stupidity soften the blow, but there's no denying that a certain dearth of invention keeps this from crawling all the way out of the grindhouse barrel. Still, it's a solid two-run hit and was clearly made by people with compassion; the film even earns remarkable points for its equation of a lonely gay voyeur with an unhappy man who can't cover up his escalating violence.

Sort of Killer of Sheep for the 42^nd Street set, Cannibal Man centres on a desolate slaughterhouse employee named Marcos (Vincente Parra). Marcos lives alone in a depressing shack, dreaming of a promotion and escaping into the arms of the much younger Paula (Emma Cohen). Unfortunately, the pair chooses to canoodle in the backseat of a cab, so incensing the hackie that he kicks them out, insults them, and starts to get rough. One rock to the head in self-defense later, there's a dead cabbie. Paula insists on going to the cops; Marcos, fearing she'll rat him out, strangles her–and then finally confesses everything to his brother, who in turn threatens to go to the police as well. You can pretty much figure out where this is headed: the daisy chain of death continues, with each suspicious family member/friend/etc. who noses around coming to some unpleasant end.

The obvious problem is that this gets repetitive: everybody who drops by notices the smell, or wonders why they're forbidden from entering the room where the bodies are kept, and freaks out enough to justify a cleaver to the face. Excepting a few wrinkles in terms of smell-concealing and body-disposing, not much different happens, and the lengths to which Marcos goes start to seem a little ridiculous. This is mitigated, however, by the appearance of Nestor (Eusebio Poncela), a neighbouring gay man who lives on the 13^th floor of a high rise and takes an interest in this tormented serial killer. We expect Nestor to be a gratuitous stereotype, doomed to a violent death approved by the filmmakers, but he turns out to be a friend, talking with Marcos, sure, but also generally engaging in behaviour you don't expect to see in something like this. A bit of digging reveals that director Eloy de la Iglesia was gay–viewed in that light, it reverses the pitiful condescension with which well-meaning straights have treated gay subjects.

Cannibal Man is worth a look for the really, really interesting relationship Nestor forges with Marco–especially in terms of the finale, during which the former reveals the extent of his understanding and imparts some cathartic wisdom to his fucked-up amigo. I suppose you do have to struggle with dead spots, but this is ultimately a movie inserted into an exploitation context rather than living or dying by it. The film's heart clearly isn't in the string of deaths, one über-bloody moment, or the single topless sex scene: it's more in the sense of anomie, sadness, and compassion for someone who wants to keep things under control but only makes matters worse. One IMDb user suggested it had something to do with the elephants in the closet of Franco's Spain, adding yet another fascinating dimension to a movie that doesn't quite get where it's going but offers you ample, suggestive scenery along the way. Though Cannibal Man is no classic, it is its own thing and will give connoisseurs of the unusual more than they might expect.

THE DVD
Cannibal Man looks its age on Blue Underground's DVD, apparently a straightforward reissue of the Anchor Bay release. All things considered, the 1.85:1, 16×9-enhanced transfer is nevertheless exemplary; detail is strong in spite of a tendency towards thick colours. The accompanying Dolby 2.0 mono sound is fine, if a little lacking in dimension. There are no extras save the film's theatrical trailer.

98 minutes; NR; 1.85:1 (16×9-enhanced); English 2.0 (Mono); DVD-5; Region One; Blue Underground