The Cannibal Man

"Cannibal Man" by Eloy de la Iglesia is a notorious Spanish shocker about slaughterhouse worker named Marcos.He works in a canning plant attached to the local slaughterhouse.One night,he kills a taxi driver in self defense and then strangles his girlfriend,the only witness to the crime.Desperate with fear,he murders several other people."Cannibal Man" is a slow-paced Spanish shocker that contains some graphic gore.The film is also extremely stylish and the atmosphere of decay and frustration is simply overwhelming.It certainly gained some notoriety as a former video nasty in the UK,but it's nowhere nearly as explicit as for example Lucio Fulci's gorefests.However the most interesting fact is that Eloy de la Iglesia was one of the major directors to push Spanish censorship boundaries with this film and a number of powerful gay-oriented films like "El Diputado" or "Los Placeres Ocultos".So if you are a fan of Spanish horror give it a try.8 out of 10.

I saw this for the first time recently.

I think Abel Ferrara's The Driller Killer borrowed idea from this movie n improved on the idea of an ordinary fella slowly descending into madness.

Coincidentally both the movies landed in the "video nasties" list.

I found both the movies darkly comical n at times poignant too.

The stress list n reasons for going bonkers were too many for the lead character in Driller Killer, whereas in this movie Marcos was just trying to hide his crime.

I finally watched this overlooked Spanish film and I have to say that I enjoyed it a lot, much more than I expected. I rarely heard anything from it and the reason I saw it was because I'm collecting VHS tapes released by Anchor Bay during the late 1990s and CANNIBAL MAN was part of those horror films. It's a horror film but the horror aspects are not what makes it work. It's more the tone, the actors and the whole look which are all excellent and unique. In fact, the horror elements are at times pretty weak and unconvincing and anyone watching it as a horror film will probably be disappointed. The killings or the repetitive reasons for the man in question to kill are not always convincing but that's because the film is totally symbolic of the time it was made. When you view CANNIBAL MAN as that, the film becomes unique and almost brilliant. I won't describe anything about the film itself. I'll just leave it up to you to see and decide.

The closest thing I can compare it to is APARTMENT ZERO, which I now believe was probably , eh, "inspired" by CANNIBAL MAN. The ending is a bit murky but the better for it. It gives me something to think about. Well worth watching for fans of quirky cinema.

Most commentary I have seen on Cannibal Man focuses on the psychological horror, but the political side of the story seems more important to me. The film seems to place more blame on the society of Spain under Franco than even on the killer, the ultra cool swimming pool sequence is very reminiscent of Chaplin's "the Great Dictator".

The alternative title "Cannibal Man" is very misleading, because this film is not a gory splatterfest about the sick mind of a serial killer, it is more a drama about a man whose life falls apart aroused by a chain reaction of unhappy circumstances. You might compare this film to similar movies like "Henry" for example, but this one is more a portrait of the situation in the early 70s when the dictatorship of Franco ruled the Spanish nation. "La semana del asesino" is full of macabre minor details and polished dialogue sequences. Not like the typical horror mass productions, more an unusual outsider cinema...