Cannibal (2006)

For years now Cannibal on the internet has been known as one of the sickest films of all time. That's not really surprising when you know the true story that this film is based on. In short the true story is about a German cannibal named Armin Meiwes and his willing victim named Bernd Brandes, who wanted to be cannibalized. Sometimes I wonder how these individuals always manage to find each other.

The IMDB plot goes like this.
The Internet becomes a virtual shopping list for a man with an obsessive fetish for eating his fellow man. The technically inclined cannibal places a cyberspace advertisement for a willing victim, and his marketing efforts pay off when the gruesome madman receives a reply from eager prey. This macabre drama is a reenactment of the true story of Armin Meiwes, who was convicted of killing and eating his voluntary victim, Bernd-Jürgen Brandes. 

Cannibal is certainly not the most subtle film you'll ever see. The story doesn't have a whole lot of build up. The Man (the murdering cannibal) and The Flesh (the sicko who wanted to be eaten) quickly meet each other on the internet and decide to meet up in real life. What follows are 50 incredibly uncomfortable minutes filled with hairy legs, dicks, assholes and other kinds of homo erotics. It's all quite distasteful and I thought about shutting the movie down numerous times. I didn't do it though as my soul was already damaged by all the disgusting images and I might as well wait 'till it gets to the ''fun'' part where the cannibal starts slaughtering his ''meat''. 

After about an hour the movie starts to get bloody. ''The Flesh'' gets castrated and manages to take a piss right after his dick got cut off. Can it get anymore gross?! Apparently it can 'cause they cook the penis and have a nice dinner with candles and everything. This however isn't a success because the penis is so tough and leathery that they can't eat it. Eventually ''The Flesh'' dies, not before puking on the cannibal's back and squirting liquid shit all over the place, and the cannibal gets ready to get rid of his insides and carve him out like a pumpkin on halloween. This is where the movie, according to many online, really starts getting out of control with some of the nastiest shit you'll ever see. The gore didn't quite catch me though. Sure it was good but it was not on a level I had never seen before. 

What makes this movie so uncomfortable for the most part is the sick, gloomy and realistic atmosphere that this movie breaths. At times I had the feeling that I was watching a documentary that left nothing to the imagination. Another remarkable thing about this film is that there is hardly any dialogue. It's mostly just weird images supported by, some rather good, music. The use of light and camerawork creates a strange kind of feeling, almost like you're experiencing a nightmare. 

Does Cannibal deserve its reputation? I guess it does. It's all very, very gross but in my opinion it's mainly the story and strange camerawork that creates the type of vibe that just makes you feel uneasy. That doesn't mean I thought it was a very good movie though. The first 50 minutes that are largely filled with naked guys running around was getting on my nerves quite quickly. It's not like I'm homophobic but after a while I felt like it wasn't adding anything to the story. Cannibal is one of those films that is really hard to judge. It succeeds in what it tries to do: shock and make you feel uneasy. But was it a good movie? Not really in my opinion...