Sawney: Flesh of Man

SAWNEY: FLESH OF MAN is another stab at low budget torture porn, made with maximum relish. The director seems to be trying to make this film as grisly and unpleasant as is humanly (and inhumanly) possible, and he certainly succeeds in that. But while in horror terms he summons up an appropriately oppressive atmosphere, in terms of scripting and narrative this is a complete dud.

The legend of Sawney Bean is a classic slice of Scottish folklore that's interested me for a long while. I've even visited the locales where he and his clan were supposed to live, so when I heard about this film I was eager to see it. What a shame, then, that Bean is reduced to such a typical cannibal killer with nothing to distinguish him from the bad guys of a dozen low rent American slasher flicks.

The film deserves kudos for casting the creepy and imposing David Hayman as the titular killer, but then proceeds to waste him for the entire running time, filling his mouth with B-movie lines. The plot involves one character ending up in his clutches, then someone goes looking for the first and becomes the next victim, and so on. Realising how thin that plot is, the writer throws in the most predictable 'twist villain' ever, alongside a random monster, but none of these elements makes this film anything more than completely forgettable. No story, no merit...

A journalist covering the case of a gruesome murder in Scotland, is lured deeper into the story...and a trap. As he happens upon the last remnants of an ancient clan of cannibals.

They were almost wiped out...but one member survived and the clan lived on. It now consists of the elder Sawney, two deformed parkour kids, a midget zombie, a guy named Bill who works as a police detective, and their mother...who will eat literally anyone.

And he must fight for his life, if he wants to survive.

While, entertaining enough...it has some major flaws. Mainly, the timeline surrounding the abduction of his girlfriend, and him happening upon the cannibals...that just did not make sense at all. The cinematography is really amateur too, but the scenery is absolutely gorgeous.

There is lots of gore in this. You could tell they were really going for something like Wolf Creek, but they just didn't quite pull it off. Sawney comes off as mostly humorous...though twisted and ruthless. And, while it does have a creep factor to it...it's not particularly scary.

The scenery really makes this film. The outdoor shots are absolutely stunning. And they make pretty good use of it, having the cannibals living out in the boonies, with an escape/chase scene, and all.

It's not the best movie or anything, but it's entertaining to sit through...though it's no Wolf's Creek.

5 out of 10.

High-quality, well-made Scottish (British?) made horror film with plenty of practical special effects. Aftr seeing the 4.6(!) rating I took a chance anyway and was stunned at what a good flick it is. U wimps that hate horror need to STOP reviewing it already.

Trying to uncover the truth behind a rash of disappearances, a Scottish journalist traces a murderous clan of cannibals in the area and must stop them from serving up his friends for their insatiable thirst for human flesh.

This frankly turned out to be quite average overall when it really could've been something. What ends up working so well for this one is the fact that this one is really just so good at hiding the true criminals so well here that it really doesn't seem likely that it's a whole family. The deranged sons are all the focus here with their puzzling display of martial arts moves that come out of nowhere here but still contain a rather creepy edge to them so that their scenes work quite well. Put on display in the final half, with all sorts of action-packed confrontations including the tunnel ambush, the capture at the river and the cooking station shootout which makes effective use of their darkened lair and disorienting walkways for great effect with this giving off an extremely tight, dense feel for launching attacks and ambushes out of anywhere, causing this to get some chilling suspense moments here and there. Of course, none of this is really all that good compared to the effective treatment of the main killer who is utterly slimy and repulsive in great fashion. From the near-orgasmic blood-drinking on his victims, the delight of chopping and chomping bodies and the severely nasty and gruesome effects work here to make the kills look quite nasty, there's a lot to like here and this is quite effective in these scenes here. However, it still doesn't make up for several rater big flaws. The biggest issue is the fact that this one is really more of a crime drama investigating the family's actions around the town during the middle scenes which is quite dull and boring overall. Since this is played as an investigation angle, it hardly has anything happen as all we do is simply read newspaper articles, hear the investigator recite information already learned and basically do nothing while the brief intervals to acquire new meat is hardly enough to counteract this boredom. On top of that, the fact that this throws in the final twist the way it does here is quite a lame and overall stupid idea that's not even done with any real intent to do anything other than to totally screw over the audience by wasting all this time during the mid-segments that would've ended the film much earlier and causing these to just be as flawed as possible.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Extreme Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity, a Rape scene and drug use.

I have no problem with gore or the subject matter. But the way this film was executed and pieced together was atrocious. Every scene that was geared to either repulse or stir deep emotion only brought eye rolls and laughter. It was an hous and a half marathon that felt like an eternity. There's some very attractive woman in this mess, and the countryside is equally stunning. And that's where the positive notes end. We got an absolute idiot of a newspaperman doing the things one does in every low grade poorly written/directed movie. Berating the cops for not doing their job and overstepping the bounds of decorum. Tedious, predictable nonsense. David Hayman is about as menacing as a poodle with a very annoying laugh. All subplots add nothing and go nowhere. Dialogue is trite and the plot doesn't have many threads of coherency. The cinematography and editing isn't awful at least, and doesn't distract from the inane drivel unfolding onscreen. In more adept hands this movie may have been something but sadly this movie works neither as horror or thriller. Passable background while you clean the house or shop Amazon but that's about it.