Cannibal! The Musical (1993)

This film is great. Providing you like sick humour! Its funny, silly, stupid and more. The songs are excellently written and the acting is quite good. I loved this film and, providing you dont mind a fair amount of blood, anyone else should too.

Fmovies: Though i count myself a fan of South Park ive never felt that the unique humour of the shows creators has come through in films such as Orgazmo or BASEketball.Here in their first incarnation as filmmakers and purveyors of Monty Python inspired madness,can you see SP's roots."Alferd Packer"or "Cannibal"is a little gem of low/high brow wit mixed with the kind of idiotic banter that makes Cartman so popular.And the songs!to quote :"lets build a snowman/we can make him our best friend" or the Micheal Boltonesque ode to a horse that includes the lines "the sky was a lot more blue/when i was on top of you".Trey Parkers grasp of the essentially idiotic nature of musicals and such will have you hailing him as a Genius even if you hate SP (and some do)and i rate this as a must see.

The movie (from what I've pieced together, little help from the movie) is about man by the name of Alferd Packer. Alferd was head of a mining expedition, who apparently was forced to turn to cannibalism after things for him and his group didn't go exactly to plan. Becoming one of the few people in America to be convicted of cannibalism-before 1950 onwards anyway.

The movie is cheap, in production values, and laughs. But that is why it is so funny. It's just a really stupid movie. Typical "so stupid, you have to laugh" situations are what the 90 minute + movie is all about.

It doesn't say much for me that some of the songs have actually stuck in my head. Or, that I have watched it everyday for the last 3. But it must say something about the movie. Trey Parker (best known for South Park) managed to make a low budget film that easily stands up against multi-million dollar comedies that have good acting but tired plots. This offers bad acting, bad singing, the goofiest songs you'll ever hear, you'll learn some history and see plenty of America.

If you're tired of big Hollywood productions or remake and sequel after remake and sequel and the same old thing, try this. It's goofy. It's dumb. It's something you and a group of friends could probably make yourselves on the weekend. But it did make me laugh, and 3 days in a row. For that I must recommend.

7/10

Cannibal! The Musical fmovies. Rejected by every distribution company on the planet, this is a pre South-Park horror / musical, written and directed by Trey Parker. Who else would release a film so stupid, but Lloyd Kaufman, and Michael Herz, and the offbeat Troma Team Studios. This release is adapted from a University of Colorado stage production, and is ultimately very silly and cheap film camp in the Monty Python comedy vein. The subject is Alferd Paker (Juan Schwartz) who while searching for gold and love in the Colorado Territory, he and his companions lost their way and resorted to ...unthinkable horrors, including toe-tapping songs. Alferd Paker was convicted of cannibalism, and shortly after his arrest he tells his tale. In jail, with musical and gory splatter flashbacks, he re-tells the story to a news reporter of how he came to eat his friends. The local townspeople in a big production number sing 'Hang The B****rd' outside his cell window. While the film is low in entertainment, the songs are very addictive, and will have you singing right along. Troma Team DVD's are very enjoyable endeavors in exploitation barker showmanship, and feature interactive items such as: Troma Intelligence tests, and tours of troma studios.

While my statement could be provided because it is a comedy about a cannibal, I think the film is as strange as it is because it's a comedy/musical about a cannibal. I bet that if the South Park movie didn't have songs it wouldn't make much of a difference of it's greatness (despite them being classics), but in Cannibal, the songs make this film even funnier and turn it from being a lame film about a cannibal into a surprisingly funny if really dumb comedy.

Anyway, Trey Parker's first feature film is presented here and while Matt Stone isn't writing he is a co-producer along with Parker. The film focuses on the only cannibal convicted in America named Alfred Packer. It could've become an equally boring and gruesome film about the scarcely known guy, but it is actually lame for the right reasons by having songs at exactly the wrong time (where else are you going to see frontiersmen sing about dead animals and then argue about being in the wrong key). Not the greatest musical or comedy for that matter, however it is a keen, if ludicrous, freshman effort by the guys who would later go on to make a masterpiece with the South Park show and movie.

"Cannibal! The Musical" is a perfect example as to why Trey Parker is one of the most talented comedy writers of our time. Made in 1993, whilst still in college, Trey wrote this movie based upon the true story of Alfred Packer - or at least, this is what Packer said happened (minus the songs.....maybe). Working with longtime producing partner Matt Stone, the movie was made with a bunch of college friends and professors for a next-to-nothing budget. Ironically, despite casting his professors, Trey was kicked out of college for spending too much time on the movie.

But this movie was well worth the honored title of "College Drop-out". The laughs are thick and fast and the songs are pure Parker - funny, catchy and damn right genius. Although the movie can slow down in some parts, the jokes and songs quickly let you forget that. "Cannibal!" is a prime example of what every college movie should be, but never is. But if you truly wish to enjoy this film, buy the DVD, watch it with Director's Commentary and get drunk along with Trey, Matt, Dean and the rest of the cast.

"The sky was a lot more blue...when I was on top of you...." Need I say more?