Cannibal 2006

Meiwe’s Mother reads the story of Hansel and Gretel to her young boy in the opening, a quiet start that slowly shifts into the present day. The scene follows The Man as he goes through his daily routines, dipping in and out of online chats where he searches for someone who shares his cannibalistic fantasies. He meets a number of people he had spoken with, but most either reject him or he rejects them, and in one unsettling instance, he is attacked. Yet among the attempts, one match stands out: The Flesh, a suicidal man who offers to be killed and eaten.

The Flesh travels from Berlin to The Man’s home, and a strange bond develops between them. They share intimacy, engaging in sex and frolicking in the nude both inside the house and in the surrounding spaces, drawn together by a complex mix of curiosity, desperation, and hunger.

When The Flesh decides the time has come to die and be devoured, he tries to push The Man into biting off his penis, but The Man cannot bring himself to do it, even after The Flesh drugs himself to fall asleep. Disappointed, The Flesh chastises the Man, yet decides to give him another chance when The Man pleads for him to stay just as he is about to board a train back to Berlin.

Back at The Man’s home, The Flesh drinks heavily and swallows a large quantity of pills, then instructs The Man to castrate him with a kitchen knife, a command The Man carries out. The two fry and attempt to eat the severed penis, before The Flesh seems to die from blood loss in a bath that The Man prepares and places him in.

The Man then drags The Flesh’s inert body—a body that vomits and defecates repeatedly—into a room prepared for slaughter. Before he can begin disassembling him, The Man is stunned to discover The Flesh is still alive, and he stabs him in the throat. The Man goes on to behead, gut, and dismember The Flesh, burying the inedible parts and cooking and eating the rest. He places The Flesh’s severed head at the head of the table, then masturbates to snuff-film footage of what he has done, and finally leaves.