Video Nasty #24: Cannibal Man AKA Apartment on the 13th Floor

Synopsis: After accidentally killing a taxi driver the only way Marco can avoid capture is to reluctantly silence those who discover his secret. Whilst Marco's self-preservation is leading him to relentlessly hack away at his family tree, a mysterious male admirer is watching his every move.

Experience has taught me that any film with 'Cannibal' in the title is inevitably going to be so painfully dull it will, somewhat ironically, make we want to chew my own arm off. Cannibal Man disproves this conjecture, but only because the title is pure marketing tosh. There is a man, but he is in no way a Cannibal. In fact, i'm not even sure he's a meat eater.

Misleading title aside, Cannibal Man is something of a hidden gem. The film's plot is refreshingly simple, affording the director time to focus on the slow-burning mental collapse of our anti-hero, Marco. Unsurprisingly, Marco's brooding hardman facade quickly dissolves after he's killed his girlfriend, brother, brother's girlfriend, father-in-law to be and a local waitress.

Although the plot sounds darkly comic, almost cohen-esque, the film is primarily a tragedy with only a few subtle nods to the humour that can be found in the slightly ludicrous story. Marco is a reluctant, almost accidental serial killer. As if trying to justify the kills to himself, he always offers his victims a way out, as if their persistence makes them fair game. Marco exhibits further denial by positioning the corpses of his brother and his girlfriend in a naturalistic loving embrace.

In the third act Marco finally succumbs to the advances of his over-friendly neighbour Nestor and, oddly, joins him in a homo-erotic splash in the local pool. After a sexy soft-lense shower scene Marco returns to the Nestor's apartment, situated in a modern tower-block that shadows Marco's dilapidated cottage. Nestor confronts Marco about the killings he has witnessed through binoculars and, unlike anyone else in the film, offers to help. Marco is a knife's edge away from killing the only person that's tried to help him and, in a moment of clarity flees and confesses to the police. There's clearly a subtext regarding social divide, but despite the writer's obviously strong conviction it wasn't entirely clear to me. Further reading has filled in the gaps - knowing about the huge gap between rich and poor under Franco's rule helps provides a much clearer context for the film.


Despite the high quality of filmmaking on display, some of the film's dialog is shocking, I suspect due to bad translation and dubbing. My favourites include Marco's tirade against the taxi driver who objects to Marco having sex on his back seat - 'Haven't you been with a girl before, what are you? Some kind of homosexual!? ... My suggestion to you is, shove your taxi'; and Marco's response when his girlfriend asks if there's anything in the paper about the taxi driver they killed the night before - 'No. Not at all. Oh, there was one thing - the man died'.

Cannibal Man is an atypical video nasty, probably finding its way onto the list due to its blunt title rather than the relatively moderate content. it's nice to watch a listed film that is engaging and attempts to provide an underlying subcontext, even if it's intentions are never quite successfully expressed. Whilst most of comically bad dubbing in euro-trash films makes them more watchable, it only hinders Cannibal Man; I wish I had seen a subtitled version that, I suspect, would provide better dialog and, in turn, better reflect the subtle naunces of the story.

Also, thanks to its misleading title I can continue to further recycle my mediocre 'chew my own arm off' gag in future Cannibal movie reviews. Hooray!