Customer Reviews

Cannibal

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Upon seeing the cover of 'Cannibal', you'd expect a low budget gorefest with piss-poor acting, shoddy camerawork, pathetic editing, and at least one fight scene where its obvious that not a single punch even came close to landing. But what you would be expecting is totally and completely wrong. 'Cannibal' is probably the best psychological thriller I've seen since 'Memento'. Trust me: its really that good.

The French-Canadian release, originally titled 'La Peau Blanche'('White Skin'), opens with two male roomates, Thierry(a young white college student) and Henri(a black dude with some Haitian relatives who know their hoodoo/voodoo stuff), hooking up with a couple of whores they pick up at a bar. Henri gets his throat slashed by his whore, Thierry comes running in and the whore jumps out the window. They then goto the local hospital, where Henri gets stitched up. For a while, this opening scene seems to mean nothing to the overall film but in fact, ends up becoming very important later.

Well, Thierry meets a female musician, Claire, who he's completely enamored with and, as in most movies, they get together and go at it like rabbits on viagra. The thing is though, that the longer they are together, he starts becoming, well, sort of ill and seems only to want to be with his new lady. His black pal starts to feel a bit weird about the situation, especially after Claire's obvious dislike for blacks and once he sees her eating the contents of one of Thierry's used condoms.

Anyways, Thierry eventually finds out that Claire is dying of cancer and meets her family, which so happens that one of Claire's sisters is the whore who cut Henri's throat. Claire's family pulls her out of the hospital and Thierry has to track them down. Henri and his Haitian aunt, who has some shady connections, after being told by Thierry what he knows about Claire's family, believe that she and her clan are succubi(or some other sort of evil being) and must be destroyed. They go to find them and they do...and so does Thierry.

I won't go into anymore detail because I don't want to give anything away. But 'Cannibal' is an absolutely excellent film. At the Toronto International Film Festival, Daniel Roby won best director for a debut feature film. The script is excellent, the cinematography is brilliant, and the acting is excellent, understated, and very realistic. The camerawork, editing, sound... everything is on-par with any Hollywood release you've ever seen, and on a fraction of the budget. This is an amazing film that will hook you right from the opening scene up until the last frame. A fabulous piece of work. I cannot wait for director Roby's next feature.

I'll never understand the marketing ploys that US movie distributors use, but do not be fooled by the silly DVD artwork. This is an art house film about cannibalism, possibly vampirism, love, and friendship. Definitely worth seeing, so go rent it. Better yet: go buy it. I guarantee you will not be disappointed

First of all the title of the film is totally misleading. It makes people think that it's perhaps a zombie film when it's nothing at all like that. As I understand it, the original French title means "White Skin". Obviously some marketing dope thought you could sell more copies by changing the name to "Cannibal" in America. It's a French film...kind of an art house horror film if you will. It's dubbed, and dubbed rather poorly really, but if you can get by that as well as some other shortcomings you'll probably be pleasantly surprised as I was. It's really hard to categorize this film and as such somewhat difficult to review.

Two roommates Henri and Thierry are out on the town and pick up a couple of hookers in a bar. While in a motel room, one of the hookers attacks Henri, cutting his throat. She escapes but we'll find out more about her down the road. Meanwhile Thierry begins to fall for a girl named Claire. The better word is obsessed as he wants to spend all of his time with her and yet becomes increasing ill. Henri isn't happy with the situation and begins to poke around, eventually finding out some rather disturbing things about Claire and her family. Henri is a Haitian and knows something about voodoo/evil and eventually enlists the aid of a relative because Henri is going to need a LOT of help. The plot really does surprise as it doesn't end up being what you think it's going to be and therein lies the positive to the film that is able to overcome some of its technical shortcomings. It's as much psychological thriller as supernatural. I know dubbing is an immediate turnoff to a lot of people but give this one a shot and you really might be surprised as I was.

I orginally wanted to see a horror movie when I picked this one up. It is not really a horror movie but a thriller that is more of a drama thriller. It is billed very wrong. Now, with that out of the way, it is a pretty decent movie. It's orginal language is French, but has been english dubbed. The acting is excellent and the story is very different than any thing that I have ever watched before. And it is all about boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy tried to find girl, boy get girl back. Watch the movie and you will understand what I am saying. You won't be disappointed.

First things first: this isn't a cannibal movie, it's a pale mutant succubi meets uncharismatic actor love story. The box art and title of the film are misleading to the extreme. The movie is slow, something that wouldn't be a bad thing if it actually had somewhere to go, but instead it's like driving 1 mph to work: it's not a destination that you're going to get excited about and there's not much to see along the way. The script is lousy and contains more padding than a 12 year old at her first school dance. Want an example of the stupidity? Okay: a character suddenly goes from "hmmm, there's something fishy going on" to researching succubi on the Internet. Now, I'm no French-Canadian, but here in the U-S-of A we do not naturally jump to the conclusion that weird things are brought on by medieval demons unless we have some compelling evidence. Don't get all excited about the succubi angle anyway--there's not much in the way of nekkid-ness and what there is isn't very prominent or noteworthy. Memo to Canada: we're not amused.

The DVD cover art and title are misleading and make the movie appear more salacious than it is. This is a very low-key thriller/horror French Canadian film. Some of the scenes and interactions between the characters (particularly with the supernatural characters) are chilling and startlingly realistic in that they are believable; as are the revelations that come out during the course of the film. Don't see this movie expecting a slasher. As I said, this is movie is not "Jennifer's Body" type no-brainer horror. In fact, I think the film promoters did the movie a diservice by promoting it this way because it's a very sharp film and one of the best horror movies I've ever scene.

Similar to Thirst, this is a really good Canadian thriller. I expected a slasher type flick from the stupid cover art...but instead was given an exellent thriller. The english dubbing is excellent, and fits each character. I highly reccomend this engrossing thriller. I don't want to give anything away!~

first off, when I saw this film, I went in with a prejudice of seeing a "Cannibal" film.. not a story about succubi. Which if it was titled something to reflect that I still would have watched it. But as the story progressed, the relations of the movie and what succubi are is colliding. I personally think that with the right information in place and properly used. an alter to the story line a little bit, and this could have been alot better film.

I'm not an expert on supernatural beings, but here is an except from wikipedia pertaining to succubus.
"In Western medieval legend, a succubus (plural succubi) is a demon which takes the form of a female to seduce men (especially monks) in dreams to have sexual intercourse. They draw energy from the men to sustain themselves, often until the point of exhaustion or death of the victim. From mythology and fantasy, Lilith and the Lilin (Jewish), Lilitu (Sumerian) and Rusalka (Slavic) are, in redactive Christian fables (folktales not part of official Christian theology), considered succubi.

According to the Malleus Maleficarum, or "Witches' Hammer", succubi would collect semen from the men they slept with, which incubi would then use to impregnate women. Children so begotten were supposed to be more susceptible to the influence of demons.

In some beliefs the succubi would morph into the Incubus with its newly collected semen ready to impregnate their victims. This was to account for the fact that demons could not reproduce naturally, however the incubus could impregnate women."

In the movie, They try to say that the so called succubi are able to reproduce, but only females. etc.etc. until they give birth to a male they would have to rely on the human race to survive... hopefully the above wikipedia quote extinguishes that.

And they also don't feed on the flesh of their victims, which is another mis-lead in this movie. There is a supernatural creature in myth that does such a thing, but it's not the succubi. Rumored to be immortal and able to command the dead. They feed by eating the flesh of their victims. White Wolf publications, makers of the Laws of the Night, call these beings Nagaraja.

overall it's worth at least 1 viewing.. I suggest rent it first.

I saw this movie expecting to see a standard cannibal movie. What I got instead was a well thought out story of love, desire, passion, and sacrifice. My wife had no interest in this movie at all, but after just a short time she was hooked. Don't go into this movie with preconceived notions - keep an open mind and you'll be pleasantly surprised. One note - the DVD does have English, but the film was originally shot in French. As such, the English is dubbed.

Say what ? Some one gave this lobsterfest 5 stars? My _ss.
This starts off right on the money with these two bucks picken up a couple of
hoe's at the bar and then it slows to a painful crawl.
The cast is great but I need more action in my "Cannibal" films.
Now the man meat joke and a few other inside pokes in the ribs are fun.
I think the idea of the story is cool and I am not saying it's a total waste of time
but by my standard it's to slow and plodding.