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Jonathan DemmeThe Silence Of The LambsJodie FosterSir Anthony HopkinsDr. Hannibal LecterHannibalThe Silence Of The LambsJorge Michel GrauWe Are What We Are15 Most Disturbing Cannibals in Movies
The People Under The Stairs
15. THE BASEMENT-STRICKEN INBREDS IN THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS (1991)
Though he’s known for the horror franchises A Nightmare On Elm Street and Scream, director Wes Craven’s output has included a few memorable stand-alone movies, including 1991’s peculiar The People Under The Stairs. The title refers to a small army of cannibalistic inbreds held as prisoners in the basement of a nutty yet powerful husband and wife. Featuring an early turn from a then-unknown Ving Rhames, The People Under The Stairs, as a whole, isn’t particularly scary, but the freaks beneath the living room are deformed and creepy enough to rank amongst the best of movie cannibals.
Offspring
14. THE BACKWOODS CLAN IN OFFSPRING (2009)
One of the best horror-fiction authors writing today, Jack Ketchum’s stories are in-your-face nightmares firmly planted in real life, minus supernatural undertones or fantastical beasties. Offspring, an especially brutal Ketchum novel, was, sadly, adapted into a low-budget shit-show in 2009; director Andrew van den Houten’s super low-budget flick isn’t without its charms, though. Seemingly aware of his productions inefficiencies in every other department, he dropped the bank on gore effects, most of which were used to show how the movie’s feral clan of woods-dwellers buries hatchets into body parts and then dines on the severed remains. The acting sucks, and the powerful novel’s impact is all but squandered, yet Offspring’s bloodshed is effectively gruesome.
Cannibal! The Musical
13. TREY PARKER AS ALFERD PACKER IN CANNIBAL! THE MUSICAL (1996)
Before South Park, there was co-creator Trey Parker’s directorial debut Cannibal! The Musical, and, yes, it’s every bit as subversive and humorous as you’d expect. Parker stars as Alferd Packer, a real-life prospector and lone survivor of a doomed traveling party found partially devoured in Colorado in 1873. Cannibal! The Musical opens with an over-the-top showcase of human-on-human dining, played for laughs yet still quite disturbing. Whenever you can laugh at the sight of a man pulling skin off another guy’s neck like it’s dangly cheese from pizza, it’s only natural to feel a smidge perturbed.
Doctor X
12. PRESTON FOSTER AS DR. WELLS IN DOCTOR X (1932)
It might seem tame by today’s standards, but think about what passed for horrific back in 1932. Blood was virtually non-existent in films, and Universal owned the horror genre with the fictional monsters Dracula and Frankenstein. But director Michael Curtiz’s (who went on to shoot Casablanca nine years later) Doctor X, packaged as a serial killer mystery, explored the nastier and more reality-based subject of cannibalism. A homicidal maniac leaves a trail of cannibalized bodies and a case of hidden identity for a reporter (Lee Tracy) to uncover, and, though Doctor X doesn’t show much teeth-to-flesh activity, it implies a great deal of grossness perfectly suited for strong imaginations and weak stomachs.
Ravenous
11. ROBERT CARLYLE AS COLONEL IVES IN RAVENOUS (1999)
Director Antonio Bird’s horror pic Ravenous starts off quietly, making the viewer believe that it’s simply a run-of-the-mill exercise in historical fiction. Set during the Mexican-American War, this deranged black comedy shows doesn’t take long to show its true colors. Guy Pearce plays Lieutenant Boyd, a wounded U.S. officer who encounters a sadistic colonel (Carlyle) with an appetite for human flesh. Eventually, Boyd tastes a corpse-tinged stew. Equal parts gory shocker and uncomfortable laugh machine, Ravenous handles cannibalism with a fiendish glee that’s rather unique. Seek this one out at your earliest convenience.
Frontiere(s)
10. THE NEO-NAZI FAMILY IN FRONTIERE(S) (2007)
French writer-director Xavier Gens’ ultra-violent Frontiere(s) is what you’d get if you took the scripts for Hostel, Saw, and The Descent and mashed them up in a blender. Scatter-brained and a bit derivative, the film does have a certain anything-goes feel that’s admirable, if not entirely copasetic. You’ve got four young ruffians trapped under the control of a family of Neo-Nazis. As if homicide and post-war Hitler worship weren’t bad enough, the fam also enjoys a nice side of flesh with their entrees. Their appreciation for human meat is shown during a bizarre dinner scene that essentially rips off The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, though with tons of style and insanity.
Soylent Green
9. THE SOYLENT CORPORATION IN SOYLENT GREEN (1977)
Technically, the members of the Soylent Corporation aren’t cannibals themselves, but, rather, maniacal opportunists who secretly turn everyone else into people-eaters. Nit-picking details aside, they’re still sick bastards. Soylent Green, starring Charlton Heston, takes place in year 2022, a time when food is tough to get due to over-population. As a result, the Soylent Corporation quickly makes and sells wafers known as “soylent green,” made from the best stuff on Earth: corpses taken from an assisted suicide facility. After watching Soylent Green, you’ll never look at an Oreo cookie the same way again; Hydrox, on the other hand, will still taste like chocolately cardboard.
Motel Hell
8. RORY CALHOUN AND NANCY PARSONS AS VINCENT AND IDA SMITH IN MOTEL HELL (1980)
Motel Hell is one of those cult horror gems from the 1980s that’s hard to find today, but well worth the effort. It’s the story of the pleasant Smith couple, owners of Motel Hello, which attracts all sorts of motorcycle riders and late-night truckers. The man of the house, Farmer Vincent, is known for his delicious smoked meats, but the townsfolk don’t know that he kills the motel’s clientele and uses their flesh to make the goods. He doesn’t just kill them, though; Vincent captures them in hidden booby traps, buries them neck-deep in a garden, feeds them “special food” and waits until they’re properly nourished before ending their lifelines and cooking. To cows on their way to becoming steak dinners, Motel Hell is justice-serving comedy.
Cannibal Ferox
7. THE NATIVES IN CANNIBAL FEROX (1981)
Back in the late ’70s/early ’80s grindhouse days, Italian filmmakers were cranking out some of the nastiest movies imaginable, such as Umberto Lenzi’s Cannibal Ferox (also known by the delightful title Make Them Die Slowly). Three poor sons-of-bitches go on a trip through a rainforest in Brazil, where they hope to prove to themselves that cannibalism is a thing of the past. Skeptics, be damned. Just to make sure that their favorite pastime isn’t taken for granted, the natives scoop out a guy’s brain and eat it and cut another man’s Johnson off and—that’s right—eat it. Good luck trying to enjoy fellatio after seeing this icky flick.
The Man From Deep River
6. THE THAI TRIBE IN THE MAN FROM DEEP RIVER (1972)
If you’ve ever vomited profusely while watching a trashy 1970s Italian horror flick set in a jungle, you’ve got Umberto Lenzi, director of the seminal The Man From Deep River, to thank. Considered as the first popular example of Italy’s cannibal sub-genre, Lenzi’s pic follows a British photographer on an assignment within a Thai rainforest; there, he gets in deep with a native tribe that’s at war with an even dirtier group of cannibals known as the Kuru. While it’s not as important to film’s history as The Jazz Singer (the first feature-length movie with dialogue), The Man From Deep River is an important trend-setter for any guy who collects old horror movie posters, wears Cannibal Holocaust T-shirts, and generally scares off women as soon they first step foot in his bedroom.
We Are What We Are
5. THE FAMILY IN WE ARE WHAT WE ARE (2011)
For the three screwed-up kids in the twisted new Mexican horror flick We Are What We Are, home is where the heart, and ritualistic cannibalism, is—instead of mom-cooked meals, they eat the whores and deviants that dad kidnaps. As the film begins, though, their father suddenly drops dead, leaving Alfredo (Francesco Barreiro), Sabina (Paulina Gaitan), and Julian (Alan Chavez) under the control of their looney-tunes mom. She’s hell-bent on adhering to the family’s cherished “ritual,” which involves killing someone, strapping his or her body to a table Dexter-style, and then prying their victim’s chest open in order to eat their inner-makings. And you thought your home-life was tough.
Dumplings
4. MIRIAM YEUNG AS MRS. LI IN DUMPLINGS (2004)
One of Asian horror’s strongest entries is the anthology Three Extremes, which includes Hong Kong native Fruit Chan’s gross-out “Dumplings.” Two years later, the segment was lengthened enough to warrant its own feature film rollout, hitting theaters in Britain with the original story still intact. Yeung’s Mrs. Li is aging and insecure, desperate to reinvigorate her looks by any means necessary. A chef makes her some special dumplings, said to have rejuvenation powers. What Mrs. Li doesn’t know, however, is that there’s no pork or veggies inside the tasty appetizers—the chef’s special ingredients are unborn fetuses taken from abortion clinics. We dare you to order Chinese takeout for dinner tonight.
Dahmer
3. JEREMY RENNER AS JEFFREY DAHMER IN DAHMER (2002)
Less-informed movie heads know Jeremy Renner as the now-twice-Academy-Award-nominated scene-stealer who’s set to play Hawkeye in next year’s The Avengers. But lovers of all things serial-killer-cinema should undoubtedly recognize him as the star of 2002’s squirm-inducing biopic Dahmer. Playing the notorious mass murderer, Renner lures dudes behind closed doors so he can photograph them, masturbate to the pics, and then conduct vile experiments on their bodies before chopping off limbs for later snacks. Unlike the other cannibals on our list, Dahmer is real, and that, our friends, is what’s truly disturbing. Makes you never want to leave the house, doesn’t it?
Cannibal Holocaust
2. THE YANOMAMO TRIBE IN CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1980)
How messed-up is Italian filmmaker Ruggero Deodato’s infamous exploitation flick Cannibal Holocaust? Try this on for size: Deodato was arrested for obscenity immediately after the movie’s 1980 release in Italy, charged with making a snuff film. That’s how raw this incredibly nasty film is—calling its final act “nauseating” is like labeling Brooklyn Decker “kind of attractive.” One of the original found-footage horror movies, Cannibal Holocaust shows the discovered tapings of a fictional documentary crew that disappeared in the Amazon Rainforest. Turns out, they killed one of their team just to watch the natives chow down on his innards, then they gang-raped a young female member of Yanomamo tribe. As cruel and unusual punishment, the Yanomamo sickos engage in some raping, beheading, and, of course, consumption of flesh. Needless to say, Cannibal Holocaust is fun for the whole family.
The Silence Of The Lambs
1. ANTHONY HOPKINS AS DR. HANNIBAL LECTER IN THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)
Playing the now-iconic serial killer Hannibal Lecter, Anthony Hopkins took a character from author Thomas Harris’ same-named novel and turned it into the world’s most charismatic flesh-eater. Sure, Lecter feasts on human coverings and insides with the class of a rich man snacking on caviar, but he’s someone who’ll simultaneously drink high-priced Chardonnay. With intelligent discourse and a velvety smooth pitch, Lecter is the most dangerous kind of villain: A brilliant charmer who’s also a skin-devouring baddie. Your mother would be defenseless.