Fact is Stranger than Fiction Friday (4) Japan’s Celebrity Cannibal

After a long sabbatical Fact is Stranger than Fiction Friday is back.  How often do we hear of a horror film being based on a true story only to find out that it's merely loosely based on several different events that may or may not have happened? You get the idea.  This week we look at Japan's celebrity cannibal.

If you are anything like me the nearest you have ever got to meeting a cannibal is to pop Silence of the Lambs in to the DVD player and lust over Lecter's pure abandon.  He makes you fear him and like him all at once, but that's just make believe.  Safe.  A real cannibal's need to feed is far stronger than our worst hunger pains.  And is more frenzied than any starved animal.  And just like a wild animal, cannot be tamed.

In 1981 Issei Sagawa, born and raised in Japan, invited a fellow student to his French flat to discuss literature.  Once behind closed doors and after recording her reciting some poetry, Sagawa shot his new friend Renee Hartevelt, in the neck.  He'd been planning this for a long time; to kill and then eat another human being.  But not just any human.  You see, he had issues, apart from the obvious lady eating issues he was displaying.  He thought he was ugly.  And he thought Hartevelt was beautiful and wanted to keep her.  Forever.  As far as he was concerned, devouring her was a way of taking those characteristics he felt he lacked.  He wanted to feed off people not for the sole purpose of eating the flesh but to also make him a better person.

Sagawa had sex with the body and took various photographs.  When he was done he dumped what was left of her in a Paris park, but was seen doing so.  Police traced Sagawa in a matter of days and arrested him for Hartevelt's murder.  Once examined by numerous psychiatrists and deemed incurable he was deported back to Japan. 

I first heard the full story of Sagawa about fifteen years ago in a TV documentary.  After hearing every gruesome detail recounted they revealed to an innocent me that he was in fact free, not in prison at all.  His father was rich and very influential and ensured he was release five years after the murder.  He now lives an extraordinary life as a celebrity.  So, Issei Sagawa; novelist, artist, food critic, soft porn star, cannibal.  Is he cured?  Was it a one off?  Or will he get hungry again?

Yum yum yum yum yum yum yum - Long Pigs (2009)

Some say horror mocumentaries can be a bit hit and miss. When they work they can inspire a new generation of film makers and shock audiences with their gritty realism. When they fail they are cast on to the pile with all the other low budget, bandwagon jumping flyby nights. I told you so, they say. But it's a testament to the makers of this film, as cannibalism both fascinates and repulses me, that I watched the entire movie with a smile on my face. Or maybe that just makes me a psychopath. Whichever.

Two young film makers have been given exclusive access to the self confessed serial cannibal, Anthony McAllister. He's a charismatic character with a sparkling sense of humour that hides a frightening single minded vision; humans are not special and have no more of a right to live than any cow, pig or lamb.

On the first night they pick up a prostitute. Assuming this is just another job for her she goes back to McAllister's house and as she walks in to the basement he hits her over the head. He strings her up and teaches us his ritual. It's quite meticulous. When questioned on whether or not he gets any sexual pleasure from this he insists not. It's all for culinary purposes.

The scenes with McAllister are interspersed with interviews with the police and a psychiatrist discussing serial killers and the increasing amount of missing persons in the city. At one point they even visit the father of one of his younger victims. This reminds you of the dangerous game the film makers are playing. You stop feeling sorry for them even as you see McAllister subtly luring them deeper in to his world while they remain oblivious. The friends of serial killers are easily influenced, says the psychiatrist, the killer can keep them under his thumb.

The characters are natural and completely believable. Even McAllister is a most likable monster. And like in The Rise of Leslie Vernon, the script is funny, but lacks the glossy filmic sections and is a better film because of it. You get an odd feeling of affinity with the killer when you stop recognising the victim's humanity. They're secondary, on the back burner, quite literally! Then like a slap in the face you're made to remember them through their family's anguish. Full of hope that they will see their loved ones again, but you know better.

Long Pigs is also a comment on our society's "need to know" philosophy. In our quest to know everything we should be careful who we step on in the process, as you don't know who will come back to bite you on the arse in the future. Then cook you for an hour and gobble up the rest of you with a nice Chianti.

Scare Sarah of the Dead - Zombie DVD giveaway!

It seems to be a tradition with zombie films that we must be remined that they are of the dead. And new movie Armageddon of the Dead is no exception. Zombies have taken over the world and a husband and wife set off in search of their missing daughter, chopping up a few of the undead as they go I imagine. I've not seen it myself but it looks like a family run zombie killing machine!

Metrodome have given me 3 copies to give away so enter your details below and tell me you want the zombie DVD in your best zombie voice. So easy, you can do it. If you win you can tell me what it's like! The contest closes at midday on 1st October 2010. Good luck!

*This contest is now closed and the winners were Shooting Stars Mag, Unholy Moly and Scifishocks*

Humans don't run and zombies can't play the tambourine - Land of the Dead (2005)

The dead have been coming back to life and feeding on the living for quite some time now. Not just in real life but in George A Romero's Land of the Dead. The film dives right in to a quite tantalising opener. The world has moved on from the initial shock of the zombie take over and is doing it's best to cope.

The zombies have been this way for so long now that they have begun to adapt. They've started to re-learn how society works. In their own drunk way they stalk around shops and garages, stacking shelves and holding petrol pumps. I'll never forget seeing an undead tambourine player, obviously still playing out his old life. With this new world brings inevitably a criminal underworld and this results in some rather odd Zombie snuff. They're chained up and tortured, made to fight like dogs while girls dance and have sex around them.

It's not that they are able to live side by side harmoniously but the zombies seem more adept at getting on with life. But what with them being far more, shall we say, bitey, they're never going to be the good guys in this. But they do somehow become more likable and more loyal than the human characters. That's the class divide for you.

Watching this film for the first time since it's release 5 years ago, you can see how much of an impact it had in that time on Hollywood zombies and its influence over the more low key zombie films of our generation. And watching it with fresh eyes you see the deeper social comment buried beneath all the boring guns and explosions. We humans are zombified. And predictable. Even after being completely wiped out in the human sense we still eventually revert back to what we know. Which for most people seems to be going through the motions.

Coming up I have a more modern zombie DVD giveaway. Come back soon for details.

Jingle bells, Batman smells - Black Christmas (1974)

Believe it or not but the nights are drawing in, there's a chill in the air and the shops have started selling festive chocolate. Which I will eat by Halloween. My body is a temple. I've been keeping this little film on the back burner for quite some time, waiting for the weather to change.

Beginning with a classic 70's slasher feel it doesn't take long to break the mould and shock us with some deliciously foul language. I adore the Halloween films but something they miss is some dirty talk. And surely that's what your typical teen slasher is based on; debortuary. The point of view camera work lets us watch through the windows of a sorority house on the evening of a party to celebrate the end of term. We go inside and the phone rings and all the girls gather to witness what seems to be the latest in a series of heavy breather calls. But this time the man seems to want to interact a little more and we hear some of that filthy talk I was telling you about earlier.

Unlike many films of its type, the campaign isn't confined to one night. They receive calls from the demented psycho over a couple of days and nights. After the police discover a dead girl in the park and some of the other kids go missing they decide to take the calls more seriously and put a trace on them.

There are classic and dare I say corny lines and set ups all over the place. In the very first scene someone is being chastised for leaving the door open, there are two telephone lines in the house, there is an alcoholic character and all the girls seem to be deviant in some way shape or form. But these are all set ups I love.

The ending is more relaxed than it should be and heightens the urgency of the viewer. You're left thinking, save her, save her, but no one can hear you and no one comes. There are similarities with a lot of films but one that strikes a chord the most is the When a Stranger Calls original, right down to the zoom shots and bellowing soundtrack. Although in this film you know early on that the killer is in the house the whole time. The reveal here is replaced with the shock the characters get from this information and realising that we have gained a perverse pleasure in the fact that we knew all along.

Don't answer the door - Cherry Tree Lane (2010)

I loved Funny Games. In fact, home invasion horror is one of my favourite sub genres, but then you could consider me to be one sick, sick puppy. When I say I loved it, I actually mean in hindsight. At the time I felt shocked; things happened that didn't and shouldn't normally happen. There were no happy endings. The dust had to settle before I could decide what I thought.

In this experimental work by writer and director Paul Andrew Williams (The Children and London to Brighton) we see a middle class and not quite middle aged couple in a strained marriage. Their teenage son has got himself involved with the wrong crowd and they deal with it by tearing strips out of each other. While waiting for him to come home someone knocks on the door. Unfortunately for Christine (Rachael Blake) it's not her son, it's a group of his friends. They force their way in and lay in to her husband Mike (Tom Butcher) who spends most of the film tied up and helpless on the floor. Until the end that is, when he is perhaps made to do things he wouldn't normally do, merely to redeem his perceived inadequacies.

The horror here is not typical. It's the relentless determination that these boys have and the lengths they will go to in order to deliver punishment without remorse or a second thought. The whole stage felt completely normal to them. There were no rules.

The humour in some of the actor's performances are little light relief as they criticise their hostage's taste in films, frequently pause for a bite to eat and their prolific use of the word cunt (delete as appropriate). Funny Games was shocking and it worked on a level because it glamorised the violence, deliberately or not. Cherry Tree Lane is shocking because there is no glamorisation. The faultless acting not once made me doubt what I'd seen. The well lit blue setting and symmetrical props made it all pretty to watch, giving a stark contrast to the raw violence.

We don't see the sexual violence, that's played off screen. And ten minutes later you almost forget he just raped that woman. The tension and fear is created by forcing us, the viewer and the husband to constantly look away from it. The ending was perfect and left me not knowing whether to laugh nervously or gasp with fear.

And that's what home invasion is all about I guess. Your safe family home gets shaken and broken for good and there are no happy endings.

Out on DVD in the UK 13 September and in selected cinemas now.

The winner of the screener tickets and who will be making their way to London tonight is Daniel. Thanks for entering!

Free tickets! You heard me, FREE! - Cherry Tree Lane Contest!

The latest in the Great British home invasion horror is here in the form of Cherry Tree Lane. This film looks fresh and edgy and I can't wait to watch it. Looks like it's one of the first hoodie horror films!

You should have my thoughts on it this weekend. But in the meantime I have a pair of tickets to give away for this Friday's advanced screening with an exclusive Q&A with the director, Andrew Paul Williams. Want them? Can you get to the Curzon Cinema on Shaftesbury Avenue in London for 18:40 on Friday 3rd September?

Then post a comment below by 11:00 on Friday 3rd September, saying you want in. You must be over 18 and provide your email so that I can contact you as time will be of the essence. I will randomly pick 1 winner to receive the pair of tickets and will contact them by 14:30 that day. That should give you enough time to get your glad rags on! Good luck!