The Week of the Killer (1973)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

¨The Week of the Killer" its correct translation of the original Spanish title results to be a grisly, superbly amusing horror story with vivid performances from the mature employee well played by Vicente Parra , also producer , as he is admirably enigmatic and mysterious . In spite of the English title "The Cannibal Man", this is not a movie about cannibalism. It's a Spanish slasher classic of the chilly grotesque with a convincingly gruesome playing . This suspenseful movie is plenty of thrills, chills, high body-count . Entertaining shocker about vicious killer terrorizing people deal with a worker (Vicente Parra) , working as a butcher, accidentally murders a cabman. His fiancé (Emma Cohen) wants to go to the police so he has to murder her too. He then goes berserk and has to kill his brother (Charly Bravo) , his brother's fiancée (Lola Herrera) and his father (Fernando Sanchez Polack ), who have become suspicious. The butcher origins a slaughterhouse and gets rid of the bodies by taking them to the butchery . Meanwhile a neighbor (Eusebio Poncela) is watching the creepy events .Eloy De La Iglesia's great success is compelling directed with well staged murders plenty of startling visual content , though was submitted to censorship. The picture packs atmospheric blending of eerie thrills and creepy chills combined with a terrific finale. It displays lots of guts and blood but it seems pretty mild compared to today's gore feasts. It's an unrelenting shock-feast laced with nice acting by the Spanish stars that deserves its cult status . Vicente Parra plays his part to the hilt, unafraid of Eloy De Iglesia's unsympathetic camera and the viciousness of his character . The early 80s UK video made a prohibited list and was successfully prosecuted, but only made the list due to it's 'cannibal' title . Apart from some massacre footage, this is not a very violent film, and would almost certainly be released uncut in the UK if it was submitted now.Passable photography with juicy atmosphere by Raul Artigot, but unfortunately turns too much murky in some video print , being necessary a a correct remastering . Good casting with usual Spanish secondaries as Rafael Hernadez , Ismael Merlo , Jose Franco , Valentin Tornos , Antonio Del Real , among others. The motion picture is professionally directed by Eloy De La Iglesia , a good Spanish movies director. He began working in cinema in 1966, though he became notorious in the years of the Spanish transition to democracy with provoking and polemic films as ¨El Pico 1 and 2¨ , ¨El Diputado¨, ¨The priest , ¨Clockwork terror¨ and many others . Drugs, delinquency, terrorism and generational problems are the habitual subjects in his films , as well as the gay world , here represented in Eusebio Poncela's character who falls in love with Vicente Parra's role . Rating : Acceptable and passable .

Thanks to a few moments of bloody violence (including some graphic slaughterhouse footage), The Cannibal Man earned itself a place on the official Video Nasty list during the 1980s. However, despite its 'notorious' reputation, the film is not simply a mindless gore-fest, but rather a depressingly nihilistic psychological thriller and a commentary on class divide and social intolerance in Spain during the rule of Franco, thus elevating it above many of the titles vilified by the BBFC.Vicente Parra stars as Marcos, a blue-collar worker in an abattoir at a Spanish soup factory, who attacks a taxi-driver who beats his sexy girlfriend Paula (the gorgeous Emma Cohen). When the driver is reported dead in the next day's paper, Paula wants to go to the police to explain what really happened, but Marcos is convinced that, being poor, his side of the story will be ignored; during the resultant argument, Marcos strangles Paula and stashes her body in his bedroom, an act that sees the young man slipping into insanity. Over the next few days, Marcos is compelled to kill again and again to keep his terrible deeds a secret.With the number of corpses increasing daily (and becoming all the more smelly thanks to the oppressive summer heat), Marcos decides to try and dispose of the evidence by chopping up his victims and sneaking body parts into the meat mincer at his workplace. During this time, Marcos develops a platonic friendship with fellow social outcast Néstor, a rich gay man living in a high-rise apartment overlooking Marcos's house, who possibly knows more about his neighbour than he is letting on.Featuring great performances, solid direction from Eloy de la Iglesia, a chilling minimalist electronic score, well executed moments of tension, a very effective atmosphere of death and decay PLUS gratuitous sex, brutal violence, and a hilarious homo-erotic swimming pool scene for good measure, The Cannibal Man is one video nasty well worth seeking out, particularly if you're a fan of 70s Euro-horror.Oh, and for those who say that the title is misleading because no cannibalism actually occurs—well, I reckon that's open to debate: at one point, Marcos tucks into a bowl of soup before discovering that it is from his own factory and realising it may well contain meat products other than those on the ingredients label.7.5 out of 8, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

Dour, moody, petulant, very masculine and unsociable loner abattoir worker Marcos (a fine, low-key, creepily nonchalant performance by Vincente Parra) and his peevish, unhappy girlfriend (the lovely Emma Cohen) take a ride in a taxi one fateful night. The irritable cab driver tosses them out when they start making out in the back of his taxi. Marcos and the cabbie have an altercation which results in the cabbie being killed. Marcos' girlfriend wants to tell the cops. Marcos, who's distrustful of authority due to his lowly working class social status, throttles his girlfriend in a fit of pique. Pretty soon Marcos becomes extremely paranoid and begins to kill every last person who suspects him of being a homicidal maniac (Marcos even whacks his own brother with a wrench). Marcos strikes up an uneasy friendship with an earnest, but suspicious gay neighbor. Things get even more tense. Meanwhile, Marcos chops up the corpses residing in his spartan, squalid rathole abode and disposes of the body parts by incinerating them in the slaughterhouse furnace.A grave, gruesome, exceedingly unnerving and disconcerting depiction of how severe self-loathing and one's miserably meager station in life can feasibly drive you murderously around the bend (Marcos registers strongly as a hauntingly sullen and scarily twisted proletarian anti-hero), this dark, stark, deeply disturbing and harrowingly plausible psychological horror portrait of everyday gratuitous violence, repressed sexuality (there's an edgy air of homo-eroticism apparent in the relationship between Marcos and his meddlesome neighbor), and seething, volatile little guy angst makes for a very queasy and unsettling viewing experience. The late, great Eloy de la Iglesia's taut, austere, fiercely humorless and deliberate direction, ably assisted by Raul Artigot's grainy, gloriously unadorned no-frills cinematography, Fernando G. Morcillo's spare, spooky, nerve-jangling score, occasional outbursts of hideously graphic and genuinely shocking violence, gradual pacing, an unsparingly solemn tone, and properly subdued naturalistic acting from the uniformly solid cast, creates a frightfully squirmy and sweaty suffocating gloom-doom atmosphere which ultimately delivers one hell of a potent and lingering kick-you-in-the-gut wallop. Anchor Bay's typically up-to-par DVD offers a nice widescreen presentation with the trailer as the sole extra.

Contrary to what it's title suggests, Cannibal Man has nothing to do with cannibals or people being eaten; it's more a story about insanity in the mould of the 80's classic Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, only the blame is deflected onto society rather than the character himself. Despite not being about cannibals, the movie features more than enough blood and the opening scene, which takes place in an abattoir, will adequately set most audience members up for what is to follow. What follows is a rampage of violence, as our character slips deeper into insanity and kills the people around him. It all starts with the (sort of) accidental death of a taxi driver. After that, our hero kills his girlfriend for fear that she might tell the police, and follows that murder up with his brother's, his brother's girlfriend's etc etc. This chain of murders could become rather dull, but the relaxed tone of the film and the way that we always focus on the escapades of the central character throughout his decent into insanity ensures that the film never turns into a riotous slash-fest.Aside from the fact that Franco was in power, I really don't know anything about Spain at the time that this was made. Cannibal Man reflects life in the country at the time, but to be honest; whatever social study there is really gets lost under the murders and putrid atmosphere of the film. Rather than looking for social comments, I recommend viewing this film more as a look at insanity, as it can be enjoyed much easier that way. If looked at as an insight into insanity; Cannibal Man is a rather potent film, which shows insanity doesn't have to be something that a murderer is born with. The atmosphere that director Eloy de la Iglesia has created is fabulous. The film feels rotten, like a slab of meat left out at the abattoir, and this helps to ensure that we always view our central character's plight with disgust and regret, rather than simply enjoying the killings. Many of the murders in the film are standard stuff, with the exception of one great one that sees a thrown hatchet lodged in some poor guy's face! On the whole, despite the homoerotic tone towards the end; Cannibal Man is cleverer than it looks and even if viewed without intelligence - the film can be enjoyed.