Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: Extended Cut (107 Minutes), International Cut (98 Minutes)
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: (Extended Version) English and Partial Spanish DTS-HD MA Mono with English Forced over Spanish audio, (International Version) Spanish DTS-HD MA with Partial English with Optional English Subtitles.
Director: Eloy de la Iglesia
Cast: Vicente Parra, Emma Cohen, Eusebio Poncela
The latest from Severin is the 'Video Nasty' Cannibal Man (1972) from Spanish writer/director Eloy de la Iglesia, a film also known as The Apartment on the 13th Floor and Week of the Killer, both of which are more apt titles. It's a film with a sensational title but one that is largely misleading, but make no mistake, it's still an effective Spanish shocker - even if the cannibalism elements of the title is only vaguely implied.
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: (Extended Version) English and Partial Spanish DTS-HD MA Mono with English Forced over Spanish audio, (International Version) Spanish DTS-HD MA with Partial English with Optional English Subtitles.
Director: Eloy de la Iglesia
Cast: Vicente Parra, Emma Cohen, Eusebio Poncela
The latest from Severin is the 'Video Nasty' Cannibal Man (1972) from Spanish writer/director Eloy de la Iglesia, a film also known as The Apartment on the 13th Floor and Week of the Killer, both of which are more apt titles. It's a film with a sensational title but one that is largely misleading, but make no mistake, it's still an effective Spanish shocker - even if the cannibalism elements of the title is only vaguely implied.
The movie stars Vicente Parra (No One Heard the Scream) as a low income slaughterhouse worker who accidentally kills a man in self defense while on a date with his girlfriend Paula (Emma Cohen, Cut-Throats Nine). The murder happens after the couple's make-out session in the back of a taxi is interrupted by the mouthy driver who object to their horn-dog shenanigans in his vehicle. The cabbie pulls over and ejects them, which erupts into an altercation on the street, with the cabbie knocking Vicente to the ground before going after his girlfriend, which is when Vincente picks up a rock off the ground and cracks him in the skull, killing him, and then fleeing the scene.
He and Paula go back to his place and do what you do after a murder, you get your rocks off. Afterward, instead of basking in the post-coital afterglow, Paula is wracked by the guilt over the murder, and says they should report it to the authorities. Vicente has no such qualms however, and not wanting to end up in the slammer he gives her a smooch goodbye and strangles her to death, much to her surprise. He then shoves her body under his brother's bed, who is out of town for a few days.
When the brother unexpectedly returns a few days earlier than expected Vicente takes him out for drinks before confiding in him about the pair of murders. To Vicente's surprise his brother also suggests they go to the police, so.... yep, you guessed it, he murders him by bashing in his skull with a large wrench!
This same 'uh-oh, don't wanna get caught' cycle continues, each time someone comes to visit Vicente at his home, averaging about a murder a day for a week. Vicente's turn towards a mass murder is portrayed as an almost fog of delusion that drifts over him, he's an oddball murderer who is not all that malevolent, just trapped in a vicious circle of his own murderous ineptitude. His job at the slaughterhouse does prove to be a convenient way to dispose of the bodies though a new meat-pulper gizmo, and the location also offers some slickening real-life images of cows throats being sliced open gushing torrents of blood before being carved-up and slaughtered.
Another interesting aspect is that Vicente lives in a dilapidated house surrounded by new, upscale high-rise building. A tenant living in the upper floor of one of these luxury apartment is named a heavily implied gay man named Nestor (Eusebio Poncela, The Killer Is One of 13) who has been regularly been spying on Vicente with a pair of binoculars, he being privy to the unfolding mass murder below, easily able to peer in through Vicente's partial glass-ceiling. Nestor arranges none-too-accidental run-in's with Vicente, having a fascination with the killer. This aspect of it gives the film a weirdness that I find fascinating.
The overall feel of the film is an overwhelming melancholic nature that makes for an engaging watch. That Cannibal Man title is quite misleading though, if you're coming into this expecting a cheap and gory exploitation
film you're setting yourself up for potential disappointment, but the way that the killer madness unfolds and things continue to spiral out of hand are quite interesting, with all sorts of cool little socio-political digs stitched into the fabric, none of which I thought were too on-the-nose, but it's there if you're looking to dissect it. While it is not the gore-fest the title implies it is a gruesome film, with some decent bashing of skulls and the infamous machete tot he face seen in all the advertising materials, plus corpses being stacked like cordwood in the bedroom while the building stench of decaying corpses makes his home a new favorite hangout for the stray dogs in the neighborhood, though he does purchase perfumed air fresheners to try to mask the smell.
Reversible Artwork
Screensnhot Comparison:
Top: International Cut
Bottom: Extended Version:
Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA Mono w/ Partial Spanish on the Extended Cut, and Spanish DTS-HD MA Mono with partial English on the shorter International Version. The Extended Version has forced English subtitles over Spanish audio, and the International Version has optional English subtitles.
Extras include the 26-minute Cinema At The Margins with Stephen Thrower and Dr. Shelagh Rowan-Legg interviewed separately to speak about the career of director Eloy de la Iglesia who died in 2006. Topics covered include the restrictive nature of government censorship in Spain and how filmmakers like Jess Franco got around it by setting their films outside of Spain so as not to directly reflect Spanish society, and casting foreign actors. It also gets into an overview of his career in early children's films, thriller and of course Cannibal Man, and beyond. Also covered is the way Iglesia sneaks in political/social commentary into the film by transposing displeasure with the government into personal struggle, the not-that-subtle homosexual subtext, how it git caught up in the Video Nasty scandal in the UK.
We also get the 18-minute The Sleazy And The Strange with Spanish author Carlos Aguilar who also speaks about the subversive career of the director, how Cannibal Man was his intention to make the most shocking Spanish film ever, censorship issues during the script phase that demanded the character be older and not eighteen years old as originally planned, and an altered ending and much less overt homosexuality, then into his later career and drug addiction, then a re-evaluation of his work in the early 2000's. The disc is buttoned-up with a 2-miinutes of Deleted Scenes without audio that put the gay subtext front and center, and a 3-minute Trailer for the film.
The single-disc release arrives in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a reversible sleeve of artwork featuring the original movie poster on the a-side and the VHS cover on the reverse. We also get a cool slipcover with embossed features featuring artwork on both sides of the original illustrated movie posters.
Special Features:
- Exclusive Slipcase
- Reversible Sleeve of Artwork
Two Cuts: Extended Version (107min) HD, International Version (98 min) HD
- Cinema At The Margins – Stephen Thrower and Dr. Shelagh Rowan-Legg on Eloy de la Iglesia (26 min) HD
- The Sleazy And The Strange – Interview with Carlos Aguilar (18 min) HD
- Deleted Scenes (2 min) HD
- Trailer (3 min) HD
- The Sleazy And The Strange – Interview with Carlos Aguilar (18 min) HD
- Deleted Scenes (2 min) HD
- Trailer (3 min) HD
Cannibal Man (1972) is not the gore-tastic video nasty that the title and reputation would seem to imply, but it is a solid psychological character study of a man trapped in his own vicious circle of quirky mass murder. I think it's is a movie that will appeal to both arthouse and exploitation crowd in equal measure as well, a well-crafted and melancholic slice of the macabre, along the lines of cracked-psyche classics like Peeping Tom (1960), Repulsion (1965) and Sisters (1972) with a bit of black humor. Severin's Blu-ray is top-notch and features some terrific extras that dig into the director's career, which has whet my appetite to seek out more of de la Iglesia films,.
Screenshots from the Severin Blu-ray:
Extras:
