Cannibal Girls

I am BEGGING someone to release this hard to find little horror/cult gem on DVD. I would love to hear what Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin think now about having done this fun little schlocker. This film is very hard to find but it is definitely worth the search. It's a strange little film but if you can look past the bad acting, the holes in the storyline, and the inexplicable lack of gore that you would expect from any movie with the word Cannibal in the title it's actually a fun little flick. The 'gimmick' in this one is the "warning bell" which warns the viewer that a 'disturbing' scene is approaching (very William Castle like!). Still, there is just something intriguing about this cute little horror flick...check it out for yourself and you'll see what I mean!

The film is about a couple, played by young Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin in their pre-SCTV days, that rent a room in a small town called Farnhamville. It is here in this rather desolated, out-of-the-way town that the two hear about an old legend about three cannibal girls and their atrocious murdering. It turns out, of course, that the legend is in fact reality and not so old as explained. The film has some bright spots including some humorous touches added by the performances of the two leads. Reitman, yes that is right...Reitman the director of such blockbusters as Ghostbusters, creates a pretty good atmosphere of bleakness especially in the town scenes.

Considering the budget used, this is a pretty good cheap thriller high on atmosphere and low on plot. The story is weird...to put it bluntly. There is a goodly amount of gore and red blood as well to contribute to the atmosphere. The sets are cheap, the film quality is cheap, the acting unknown even to this day aside from the two leads, and the story is inane. Nonetheless I can think of worse ways to waste 90 minutes, so if you get the chance...take a peek and see if your curiosity is peaked.

I saw this movie on it's original release at the Ypsi-Ann drive-in theater, now long gone, replaced by a strip mall on Washtenaw Avenue in the vacuous semi-urban wasteland betwixt Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti Michigan.

When I saw the title on the marquee cruising by in my rusted black '56 Buick Super I just knew we had to see it and WE HAD TO SEE IT STONED.

I wasn't disappointed - except I thought there would be more gory sex... of course I don't remember much, and it's no wonder, given the steamy windows and righteous clouds of smoke and gropes and throbs of randy teens in crowded car. I do remember thinking it was made by hippie freaks, just like us. This was before VCRs and DVDs and once it was gone you figured it was gone forever - no way this could make it back to broadcast TV, even on the late-late show. And to think technology exists to drag this out of it's crypt to yank our psychic triggers...

This movie is pretty boring, but it DOES have a young Eugene Levy in a big messed-up afro, sideburns and sunglasses. That aside, it's either scary or funny and I woulden't recommended it. But it's watchable, most due to Eugene Levy (the genius from Waiting for Guffman and American Pie I & II).

There is an explanation to the disjointed and jumbled storyline. From what I read, the movie was originally made in 1971 as a cheap quickie by producers Reitman and Goldberg, largely depending on improvisation. On seeing the completed footage, they felt that they could get a good distribution deal if they made some alterations... which took about two years to complete!

So it's no wonder that with all this make-it-up-as-we-go-along for two years that the finished product makes little sense - and moves awfully slow as it tries to figure out what to do with itself. It seems to have been intended as a horror comedy, but it doesn't work as such. The comedy, apart from a couple of moments that induce small smirks, is not only bad in itself, it's delivered with almost no energy. Levy and Martin show nothing of the zaniness they brought out later in their careers.

The horror moments are marginally better; the crudeness of the production does give a few of these moments an effective grittiness. There are some other moments that could have also worked had they not been spoiled by some terrible acting (voice and posing) by the actors.

I suspect you might have guessed already that this is a bad movie, considering how the movie has never received a video release or is readily available on cable or TV (at least in the U.S.) despite its association with Levy, Martin, and Reitman. Don't expect a DVD release of it any time soon - even MGM (which now owns the A.I.P. catalog) isn't *that* desperate!