By Simon Thompson
Writer/director Aimee Kuge’s Cannibal Mukbang is a movie that is best avoided if you have a stomach ropier than Indiana Jones in a reptile house. This is a horror movie which, to its credit, and counter to a lot of other horror movies made in the last 10 years or so (with the exceptions of Sinners, Kill List, and Green Room) isn’t afraid to revel in a level of gore that would make a pre Heavenly Creatures Peter Jackson proud.
The plot of Cannibal Mukbang, starts off via Kuge employing one of the oldest tricks in the screenwriting book – the meet cute. Mark (Nate Wise) is a shy retiring type with commitment issues stuck in a stifling job, as well as being brow beaten by his more successful cocky brother Maverick (Clay Von Carlowitz). To clear his head Mark takes a routine trip to his local supermarket, where suddenly he’s hit by a car belonging to Ash (April Consalo). Ash takes Mark back to her apartment to fix him up, they begin chatting about themselves, with Mark discovering that Ash makes online mukbang content (a form of content originating from South Korea where the host of the video eats a gigantic amount of food whilst filming themselves and interacting with the audience).
Mark isn’t perturbed by Ash’s bizarre line of work at all, and quickly falls in love with her. As Mark and Ash become closer and closer however, the dark nature of Ash’s life begins to become apparent to Mark, leaving him with the ethical quandary of staying with her or leaving.
Cannibal Mukbang is a movie which utilises both old and new. Much of the enjoyment comes from Kuge taking influences from 80s-90s B-movie classics e.g. Frankenhooker, Braindead, and Maniac Cop and combining them with relatively sharp social commentary on modern relationships and dating, the nature of privacy in the age of the internet and social media, and the mukbang trend itself.
This combination is reflected in Harrison Kraft’s cinematography. Certain locations (for example Ash’s bedroom) are given the most on the nose 1980s look this side of GTA Vice City possible, and the tight claustrophobic camera angles will be familiar to anybody familiar with any Troma movie or Sam Raimi’s early work.
Nate Wise and April Consalo have a tangible chemistry throughout the film, with Wise doing a good job of highlighting his character’s passivity over the course of the narrative and Consalo providing a sense of believability to a character that is slightly outlandish ( in ways that I don’t want to be specific about otherwise it’ll be spoiling everything). Clay Von Carlowitz is well cast in the role of Maverick, to the extent that he does such a good job of portraying how much of a knob the character is that I found myself wishing I could punch him through the screen.
What sadly lets Cannibal Mukbang down, a bit, is its script. The movie suffers from both being a little bit too predictable in certain sections, and being far too repetitive and on the nose with its social commentary in others. Still, though, if you want something that recaptures at least some of the charm of an 80s B movie, you could do a hell of a lot worse.
Cannibal Mukbang is available now on digital platforms.
Bloody Flicks 