Rating: 3.5/5
Hooptober 8.0 | 2/34 | Countries 2/6 | Spain
Marcos works as a butcher in a slaughterhouse. The film opens with graphic footage of workers stringing up cows and draining their blood, bit by bit, into buckets. While this happens, Marcos stands outside eating a sandwich.
Marcos lives in a run-down house surrounded by high-rise apartment buildings. From one apartment, Nestor watches Marcos through his binoculars. In one scene, Nestor watches as Marcos masturbates to the pin-ups pinned to his wall.
Marcos’s girlfriend, Paula, urges Marcos to be more ambitious and increase his income to escape his current life. She is significantly younger than him — a symbol of his masculinity. Though Marcos is content with his life, he wants to marry Paula. So, he promises to get a promotion.
Out late, Marcos and Paula grab a taxi home. The taxi driver becomes infuriated as the couple passionately kisses in the backseat. Marcos asks the driver if he’s a homosexual. The driver pulls over and forces them out. Marcos refuses to pay, so the driver pushes over Marcos and goes to attack Paula. Enraged, Marcos grabs a rock and bashes the driver in the head.
Don't worry. You can only kill a person as easy as that in the movies.
The following day, the taxi driver’s death was in the newspaper. Paula begs Marcos to go to the police and tell them everything.
Police will only listen to the rich. And a lawyer costs too much money.
Marcos tries to dissuade her. Eventually, she mocks him, saying he is content to live in squalor. This insult drives Marcos over the edge, and he strangles her to death.
Marcos calls on his brother, Steve, to help him with Paula’s body, but Steve also insists that they go to the police. He’s open to inventing a story. But he knows Marcos won’t get away with it. Marcos bashes Steve’s head with a wrench.
Carmen, Steve’s fiancée, shows up looking for Steve.
Do you see a pattern?
The boss gives Marcos a promotion, telling him the factory “is as much his as it is ours.” Marcos works a strange machine that takes animal meat as the input and processes it through unknown means. So, Marcos cuts the bodies into pieces, bringing bits in a gym bag to work, where he empties the bag into the machine, mixing human and cow meat.
Meanwhile, his coworkers resent him for getting a promotion, suggesting he’ll soon live in one of those high-rise apartments.
Nestor creates “chance” encounters with Marcos. He hints at knowing more but remains tight-lipped. Nestor and Marcos grow closer as Nestor tries to provide a way out for Marcos.
The American title for this movie is misleading. Marcos is not a cannibal. In fact, at the diner he frequents, they give him a soup made from the meat at his factory. Once he learns that fact, he becomes nauseous and leaves — the only time we see him physically react to what he’s done.
Director Eloy de la Iglesia was an openly gay socialist, and the film came out a few years before Franco’s death.
Though the Spanish censors rejected several versions of this film, the result is still a social critique.
The film examines the class disparities between workers, such as Marcos, and affluent individuals like Nestor.
When the two go out for a drink, the police check their IDs. Marcos quickly pulls his ID out, spilling his drink. Nestor tells them he left it in his high-rise apartment. The police soften towards Nestor and kindly request he remember it next time. This encounter reinforces Marcos’ earlier lament about the police only helping the rich.
As Marcos spends more time with Nestor, he questions why Nestor wants to help him. Nestor tells him that the rich solve their problems so easily, so he enjoys watching someone work at it.
The film also suggests a gay relationship between Marcos and Nestor. This relationship becomes more overt when Nestor invites Marcos to go night swimming, and the two playfully interact and share a shower afterward. An earlier film version included a scene with the two men kissing. Of course, the censors demanded that de la Iglesia remove it.
We can see the violent murders Marcos commits as repression manifesting as violence. While Nestor’s wealth affords him the ability to be more open about his sexuality, Marcos has lived with a machismo mindset and doesn’t see the possibility.
Also, Marcos becomes the slaughterhouse, killing with little regard for the consequences. As he eats a pastry, he ponders what to do with one body, mirroring the opening scene.
The murder scenes are visceral. They are likely why several countries banned this movie and why the UK put it on their Video Nasties list. But this film is closer to Pasolini than it is to Deodato.
While a flawed movie, this strange blend of slasher and art-house is surprising and more complex than its promotional material suggests.