Long Pigs

A truly great indie horror flick that flew way under the radar. Think Man Bites Dog + Behind the Mask + Street Thief, but with a charismatic cannibal as your murderous main character, and some gloriously morbid practical FX. Track this one down, it deserves a bigger fanbase.

It's the rare indie genre film that transcends its low budget with a balance of character work, witty humor, gore, and being engaging start to finish. Without spoiling much, an amateur film crew follows around a serial killer and connoisseur of human delights, Anthony McAlistar, documenting his murderous day-to-day routine, and eventually find themselves lending a hand in the ritual.

One thing that makes the film so enjoyable is the main character, played by Anthony Alviano. His performance as serial killer / human flesh connoisseur Anthony McAlistar elevates a micro-budget faux doc to an entertaining indie gem worthy of repeat viewings. He's calm, charismatic, menacing, and kinda likable (for a guy who kills and eats people).

Another asset worth mentioning are the practical FX. In one scene, after dispatching a prostitute with a club, we watch McAlistar completely dismember the body like an animal in a slaughterhouse. It's brutal, unforgettable, and won't disappoint gorehounds.

In a more "lighthearted" moment, the film crew documents McAlistar as he gleefully prepares a pot of human stew in his kitchen. As he slurps a spoonful for a taste-test, he waxes poetic about the decadence of eating human meat. It's a clever nod to Hannibal Lector, giving the archetypal cannibal a hilarious "foodie" touch. Brilliant stuff.

Long Pigs is screaming to be rediscovered. Easily one of my favorite indie horror / found footage / faux doc flicks, I hope to see it garner a sizable cult following someday. Whether or not that'll happen, I'm happy to have a copy in my collection.

Odd Canadian film has two obviously first time documentary filmmakers following around a cannibalistic serial killer as he first stalks and kills his victims, then prepares them in stews and barbecues for consumption.

The way this is all show in nonchalantly and in such an off-hand manner adds to the dramatic effect as he literally hangs his prizes upside down, decapitates them and hacks them apart piece by piece, extracting "the best parts" for consumption along the way. The practical effects are absolutely amazing I must say. There is one incredible scene where they show him preparing an entire body in a very fast forward sequence that must have been a gruelling long shot.

The performances are all pretty credible here, and the movie is well shot. The winter Canadian scenery is nice to look at with one scene in particular showing New Years at the Toronto City Hall.

Fun fare for fans of the genre.

Direct to video pseudo documentary. Aren't we done with this phony format? And this one makes zero sense. What film crew is going to follow around a dude while he kills and eats women? It's amateurish and dumb.

The Plot

A documentary by two desperate young filmmakers who stumble upon the ultimate subject, a 33 year old cannibalistic serial killer named Anthony McAllister, who has agreed to let them document every aspect of his horrifically violent life-style. Initially terrified, the filmmakers get to know Anthony as a person. They even begin to identify with his ecological and philosophical justifications for his cannibalistic lifestyle. It's only when they investigate further that the filmmakers begin to doubt Anthony's accounts of his past. Tensions noticeably rise as the filmmakers continue to confront Anthony on his conflicting stories and ever-changing philosophies. During an awkward interview, the filmmakers interview Merle, the father of a young girl who was abducted and never found. This abduction was Anthony's first child victim. Merle welcomes them into his home and gives them a heart-felt experience that even Anthony is touched by.

Two young directors film the hunt and butchering of a prostitute by a local cannibal serial killer. This is interspersed with footage of a grieving parent, a psychologist and a detective. How will the story unfold?

There are some minor complaints to be made. For example, the cannibal (Anthony Alviano) seems younger and nerdier than expected, which took away some of the realism. The same for the police officer (Shane Harbinson) -- seemed very young, but presented himself very professionally. A fine actor, he easily could have passed for a real cop.

The radio DJ (Roger King) was the strongest and best-written role. His words were well-scripted and well-spoken, and the way his scenes book-cased the film really worked well. The film would have been good without him, but this pushed it from good to very good... perhaps almost great.

I appreciate the argument made that "how can it be wrong if it tastes so good?" This is reasonable. God or nature has made edible things palatable -- we learn what to eat by whether or not our taste buds enjoy it. If man was created tasting good, something would seem to be supposed to eat it. Why not other men? (There are moral questions here, of course, but at the very least, why do we not eat the flesh of those who have died?)

More than anything else, I have to call attention to the very good use of effects on the corpse... very, very good. The body contained skin, flesh, meat, guts, bones... I do not know how this was accomplished, but it may be the greatest corpse effect in movie-making history. I believe this honor belongs to Chris Bridges, who has been involved in the field for over a decade on a number of notable projects.

I would endorse this film. It is an interesting faux documentary, and with the work of Chris Bridges, it may have you doing a double-take. Did they use a real body? It is almost too difficult to be sure.

Even though I'm not a big fan of mockumentaries, ( I prefer pure fiction or pure documentary, the mix is often neither fish nor fowl ), I had somewhat high hopes for this. But what can I say? I understand the reasoning behind the film; to give us a matter-of-factly view into the motives and actions of your next-door cannibal, contrast his unspeakable deeds and grotesque philosophical musings with his more mundane everyday-activities, and out of these contrasts horror shall grow. And often this recipe works very well, perhaps because this is so close to reality, many serial killers are often unassuming and tedious in their sheepish guise, the type nobody would suspect to be a killer. The film that comes closest to Long Pigs is of course Man Bites Dog, but in that film everything works and the end-product is a diamond.In Long Pigs on the other hand this approach doesn't work at all, and what you are left with is a boring man's life spiced up with a couple of scenes of slaughter for good measure. You know something is wrong when two thirds of the film is a yawn-fest of smalltalk, and one third is spent on the actual deeds. And even the sections of slaughter doesn't really convey any sense of menace and horror, fair enough the special effects are great ( hence the three stars ), but I could just as well have enjoyed an episode of Hell's Kitchen, at least there you get a certain sense of dread. Here, on the other hand, it is non- existing, and that, in a horror-film is a mortal sin. If you want a brilliant mockumentary, watch Man Bites Dog, if you want a proper cookery-class, watch Cannibal Holocaust or Cannibal. Avoid this snoozer.