Diary of a Cannibal | |
---|---|
Directed by | Ulli Lommel |
Written by | Ulli Lommel |
Produced by | Ulli Lommel Jeffrey Frentzen Nola Roeper |
Starring | Trevor Parsons Jillian Swanson Michael Barbour Danielle Petty |
Cinematography | Bianco Pacelli |
Edited by | Xgin Brian Lawrence |
Music by | Robert J. Walsh |
Production companies | The Shadow Factory Boogeyman Movies International |
Distributed by | Lions Gate Entertainment |
Release date |
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Running time | 81 minutes |
Countries | Germany United States |
Language | English |
Diary of a Cannibal (also known as Cannibal) is a 2007 German-American horror film directed by Ulli Lommel. It is possibly inspired by [1] Armin Meiwes, the "Rotenburg Cannibal". Lommel's film changes the account from a "Rotenburg Cannibal" to a young Los Angeleno girl who is corrupted by her new lover, a man who talks her into killing and eating him. The film has gained infamy for its highly scathing reception by critics and audiences, and has occasionally appeared in a few lists of the worst films ever made.
A young woman named Noelle (Jillian Swanson) lies dying in a prison hospital bed after being severely beaten by female inmates. Police detectives interview her, pressing her for her account of the events that lead to her incarceration. In a flashback, she thought she found her soul mate online when she met Adam (Trevor Parsons). Eventually, they fall madly in love. Something about Adam isn't quite right, though, when he insists that Noelle eat him in order for them to be "truly one." Knowing his request is insane, she refuses and even stops taking his calls. However, Noelle finally gives in to his request. They drive out to the desert and bunk down in a warehouse. Noelle does the deed, cooks his innards, eats him, and then steps out for a smoke. A man shows up at the warehouse looking for old furniture, wanders into the grisly scene, and calls the police.
Diary of a Cannibal was shot under the title Cannibal.
In 2004, one of director Ulli Lommel's collaborators, the German actor-producer Marian Dora, accepted Lommel's assignment to make a feature film in Germany that documented the Meiwes case. Dora's finished film was rejected by Lommel as being too gory, and Dora subsequently released the movie – Cannibal – Aus dem Tagebuch des Kannibalen – on his own in Germany within months. Lommel set about producing his own version of the Miewes case.
Lions Gate Entertainment, the distributor in North America, had already used the title Cannibal when they retitled a French-Canadian production called White Skin, so they were forced to change the title of Lommel's film to Diary of a Cannibal.[ citation needed ]
Diary of a Cannibal was filmed in late 2005 in Venice, California, along the canals and in Pearblossom, California. The Venice pier location used in some scenes have been featured in several Lommel movies. The interior of the desert warehouse was filmed in Marina Del Rey, California, at a furniture store.
The dead boy's heart and other organs were taken from a pig's carcass.
The movie has received uniformly negative reviews and has bounced around the bottom-100 list on IMDb. On Yahoo Movies, [2] 24 readers give Diary of a Cannibal an "F" rating.
Dread Central published a negative review that stated, in part, "[T]he film jumps around almost at random (flashbacks and flash forwards) and even repeats scenes that already added nothing to the story to begin with (i.e. they really loved to frolic on the beach – a lot). It's all done very abstract, using minimalist dialogue, buffering scenes with every Bible quote Lommel could find about eating or sacrifice, over directed with a masturbatory amount of fancy edits, fades, black & white footage, fake scratches to the digital image to make it look like an old 8mm reel, and montages out the wazoos. Oh, god, the montages...! The film should have been called Montage of a Cannibal since I'd reckon 85% of this movie is presented in montage form." [3]
"Mein Teil" is a song by German Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein. It was released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, Reise, Reise (2004), on 26 July 2004. "Mein Teil" attracted controversy in Germany; the media dubbed it "Das Kannibalenlied" due to its lyrics referring to the Armin Meiwes cannibalism case, which helped to boost it to second place in the German music charts after its release in early August 2004. It was also a number-one hit in Spain. Remixes of the song were done by Arthur Baker and Pet Shop Boys. "Mein Teil" was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 48th Grammy Awards but lost to Slipknot's "Before I Forget".
Ulli Lommel was a German actor and director, noted for his many collaborations with Rainer Werner Fassbinder and his association with the New German Cinema movement. Lommel spent time at The Factory and was a creative associate of Andy Warhol, with whom he made several films and works of art. He moved to the United States in 1977, where he wrote, directed and starred in over 50 movies.
Suzanna Potter Love is former American actress known for her appearances in several films directed by her husband, German director Ulli Lommel, in the 1980s.
Grimm Love is a 2006 psychological horror film inspired by the Armin Meiwes cannibal murder case.
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Cannibal Girls is a 1973 Canadian independent grindhouse comedy horror film, co-written and directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, and Ronald Ulrich.
The Boogeyman is a 1980 American supernatural horror film directed by Ulli Lommel and starring Suzanna Love, John Carradine, and Ron James. The film's title refers to the long-held superstition of boogeymen beings, and its plot concerns two siblings who are targeted by the ghost of their mother's deceased boyfriend which has been freed from an imprisoned mirror.
Armin Meiwes is a German former computer repair technician who achieved international attention for killing and eating a voluntary victim in 2001, whom he had found via the Internet. After Meiwes and the victim jointly attempted to eat the victim's severed penis, Meiwes killed his victim and proceeded to eat a large amount of his flesh. He was arrested in December 2002. In January 2004, Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to eight years and six months in prison. In a retrial in May 2006, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Because of his acts, Meiwes is also known as the Rotenburg Cannibal or Der Metzgermeister.
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The Tenderness of Wolves is a 1973 West German crime drama film directed by Ulli Lommel. The story is based on the crimes of German serial killer and cannibal Fritz Haarmann. It was written by Kurt Raab, who also stars in the film, and produced by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. It was entered into the 23rd Berlin International Film Festival.
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Marian Dora is the pseudonym most commonly used by an anonymous German art director, cinematographer, actor, screenwriter, editor, producer, composer, assistant director, makeup artist, special effects/sound/camera/electricity technician, and set decorator/designer, anagram of his actual name, occasionally also credited under several other pseudonyms including Marian Dora Bolutino, Marian Dora Botulino, Marian D. Bolutino, M.D. Botulino, Marian D. Botulino, Art Doran, M.D. Bolutino, A. Doran, and Marian Dallamano.
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