In spite of the title of this film it’s not about cannibalism. At least not in the sense that most films in the cannibal genre involve eating another human being. The title is actually a bit of a twist rather than flat out being about an actual cannibal.
Marcos (Vincente Parra) is a young man who works at a nearby butcher company. Not the store on the corner but a mass producer of meats for markets. His job pays him enough to get by but nothing big. Marcos is dating Paula (Emma Cohen), a girl whose father believes she is too good for Marcos. Still the young couple dates without his knowing.
After a date on the way home to Marcos’, a home he shares with his brother, the couple begin to make out in the back seat of their cab. The driver throws a fit when he sees this and pulls over, demanding they get out in the middle of nowhere. In spite of kicking them out he demands that they pay him. A struggle ensues and Marco accidentally kills the cab driver.
The next day the news is all about the mysterious death of the cab driver with the police having no clues who was responsible. Paula wants to go to the police but Marcos tells her that if she does so he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison. An argument follows and results in Marcos killing Paula.
And so the movie progresses with new people stopping by and talking to Marco with each one discovering his secret. It doesn’t matter who, each one ends up being killed in what almost seems like a comedy of errors without a touch of humor. But what is Marco to do with all these bodies?
Fortunately the owner of the company he works for has been training Marco on a new piece of machinery installed at the plant. Smaller pieces of meat are put into the machine and it grinds up everything place in it, bones and all. So Marco begins taking pieces of the bodies now piling up in his house and disposing of them this way. But even then how long can his killing spree last?
The film was controversial enough to land on the Video Nasties list in the UK. At first glimpse you might wonder why? Certainly there are more films worthy of being added with much more gore to them. The thing is that this movie presents the killings in a more realistic manner than most. Those scenes are more disturbing than say a chainsaw or machete wielding maniac on the loose.
Not only that the character of Marco is a sympathetic one at time in spite of what he does. We are presented with a handsome lead in the form of Parra who is a bit simple minded with no clue about how the world around him works. At first he seems like a decent man that we wouldn’t mind being neighbors with. And then with one act of violence we begin to witness a slow descent into madness.
Here again Severin has released the film, directed by Eloy de la Iglesia, featuring both the International and extended Spanish version of the film, newly scanned from the original negatives for the first time ever. This release also has extras that include “Cinema at the Margins: Stephen Thrower and Dr. Shelagh Rowan-Legg on Eloy de la Iglesia”, “The Sleazy and the Strange” and interview with Carlos Aguilar, deleted scenes from the film, the trailer and reversible artwork for the box.
Once more fans of Spanish cinema, de la Iglesia or foreign
films will want to add this to their collections. It’s an interesting film that
will hold your attention from start to finish.
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