Big Meat Eater

This movie is truly one of the strangest and most remarkable things ever produced by pop culture. Lurking beneath its absurd, low-budget exterior and impossibly convoluted story is a bizarre, ironic kind of intelligence. One gets the sense that the gawdawfulness one is witnessing is actually carefully orchestrated in some sense, but it's vague and hard to grasp...

My friend stole the only copy of this film that I have ever known to exist from a local Hollywood Video where he worked. We treasure it like it were a newborn child, this arcane product of the darkest side of North American film that seems to mock you as you watch, entranced and baffled...

The music is especially awesome. You're ready to dismiss "En Mundo Chemico" and the mayor's weird "After Death" song as ripoffs of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" and Andrew Lloyd Weber's "Phantom of the Opera" theme...until you realize that this movie predates both by several years!!! My friends and I formulated a theory based on this fact that "Big Meat Eater" was in fact a critical turning point in our culture. Especially since that "Heat Seekin' Missile" song changed the way we all though about our...members.

The aforementioned subtle orchestration comes to the fore in the movie's final ten minutes (or so, I don't know), which constitute a cinematic orgasm of inexplicable occurrences. My favorite story related to this movie is how two friends of mine (let's call them "Dave" and "John," because those are their names) saw it together for the first time, but John had to leave ten minutes before the end. Later, when John asked the Dave to fill him in on those final ten minutes, it took Dave over HALF AN HOUR to recount all of it.

I may very well possess the only copy of this masterpiece in the galaxy. If you see it anywhere, GRAB IT and RUN!!! Don't even PAY for it for fear that the cashier will see what you've found and try to take it for him or herself!!! In fact, KILL anyone who sees you with it!!! Kill them before they kill you!!!

And for God's sake, don't forget your daily gum massage!

I saw this movie at Staines ABC cinema (I don't think it's there any more) about 1985-1986. It was a late night double-bill, with 'Videodrome' being the main feature. I remember the movie being quite bizzare, and pretty funny. Still remember Abdulla's song with the raw meat, and the part of the butcher's opening song 'Meat to please you, Pleased to meet you!'. Clever. Videodrome seemed quite mild in comparison!

Aliens locate a rare radioactive element under the butcher shop in a quirky Canadian town being stalked by a mysterious, fez-wearing, singing, murderous meat-cutter of unusual size. The film is a Canadian entry into 'internationally bad' genre: camp films angling for cult status that were usually marked by poor special effects, amateur acting, excessiveness, and meta-humour - all deliberate. Since the intention is to subvert most of the criteria by which films are judged, all that remains is whether the move is a witty/clever satire ('Big Meat Eater' is not) and/or whether it's entertaining/enjoyable (personal taste). 'Big Meat Eater' has a couple of interesting song and dance numbers, and blues-musician Clarence 'Big' Miller is amusing in the title role; otherwise, it's a silly time-waster that will only appeal to fans of the genre (of which I am not).

When I was young and impressionable, I saw this on TV, very late at night, and I didn't realize it was a spoof. I was terrified by the whole egg-beater hand thing, and a rotting pig's head: oh no! But now, years later, I've finally wrangled a copy of the film, and I have to wonder two things: 1) How could I ever take this seriously? and 2) Why isn't it a cult classic yet?

This is an incredibly detailed film; every minute is filled with weird comments, dialogue, music, characters, effects, and then more music. The dinner-table conversations (especially the 50's-ish obsession with kitchen appliances), the butcher's goofy rants about his invented language...these are classic!

And the music is -- believe it or not -- good music. It spans many different genres and does a good job in all of them, but watch for the incredibly strange, Devo-esque chemical song; the guy's new wave dance will scare you far more than any of the creepier moments in the film.

As for the plot, who cares? It isn't important; in fact, I don't think the plot is there to keep you interested or to make sense; it's just an instrument to set up weird dialogue, songs, and gags. And yes, though it sometimes tries too hard, it usually succeeds.

Ever wonder what you can do with a lot of talented, enthusiastic nobody's and a miniscule budget? Check it out and see.

Utterly, utterly indescribable...but I'll try anyway.

Okay...a friendly butcher in a small town discovers that the meat he is discarding in his basement has turned into the super-energetic element Baloney-ium.

The mayor of the small town fires Abdullah, the stoker for the city hall furnace. Abdullah gets angry and kills the mayor. He hides the body in the butcher's shop.

A youthful inventor builds a spaceship out of his car, but needs an energy source.

Aliens descend from the skies and turn the mayor into their undead slave. He breaks free from the butcher shop and acquires a prosthetic limb - an egg beater hand.

The town is celebrating their centennial. The undead mayor hires the butcher to design a "Town of the Future" pavillion (actually an alien landing site) and gets the father of the youthful inventor to build it.

Abdullah is hired as the butcher's assistant and starts serving up the town's residents and dogs.

The youthful inventor is changed into mutant and later poses as his fortune-teller grandmother to...I give up.

And so on. Big Meat Eater is actually quite funny...lots of singing and dancing numbers, horrible production values, the cheapest aliens of all time, and a climatic space battle at the end.

Hardcore jazz fans may recognize Abdullah as "Big" Miller, the Alberta jazz-man. Seeing him on film, it's very easy to see where he got his nickname. He's one of the largest men I've ever seen who could still walk around.

The only real criticisms I have of it is that it tries too hard in spots...sometimes it becomes a little too much of a self-conscious spoof. Also, the sound quality is poor at times. Abdullah is often inaudible, as is the inventor's sister.

This movie...well, it's a hidden gem to say the least. I know of only two other people who have seen it. Once in a very rare while it will be shown on late-night Canadian TV. I have it on tape, if anyone's interested in getting a copy.