Rating: B-
Dir: Aimee Kuge
Star: Nate Wise, April Consalo, Clay von Carlowitz, Kathryn Whisler
“Mukbang“? I had to turn to Chris for an explanation of this Internet phenomena, since she’s something of a fan. Basically, it’s videos where you watch someone eat food. A lot of food. For example, BeardMeetsFood on YouTube, where an affable Yorkshireman travels the globe taking on restaurants’ challenges, e.g. eat this 64 oz steak in 30 minutes and it’s free. Quite amusing. However, she pointed out the streamer here isn’t consuming the volume necessary to be a true mukbanger. “She’s just getting paid to eat a hamburger,” said Chris, with a slight sniff. “It was much more about the cannibal than the mukbang.” And she’s right: the Internet side of things here could easily be discarded entirely.
What would be left is still fairly entertaining. On a late-night trip to a convenience store, the terminally insecure Mark (Wise) bumps into the lovely Ash (Consalo). She shows immediate signs of attraction to Mark, which he finds inexplicable – his brother (von Carlowitz) is the handsome one in the family, and far more of a babe-hound. As their relationship develops, he keeps waiting for the shoe to drop, and eventually it does. Given the title, it’s hardly a spoiler: Ash eats people. But she is at pains to point out, only bad people, whom she lures in, kills and consumes. She’s like Dexter, with an appetite. Mark is now her accomplice, helping her dispose of the bodies (well, the non-edible parts, I guess), until there’s a line even he won’t cross.
For her first foray into film-making, writer/director Kuge came up with the script while she was going through a period of eating disorders and toxic relationships. They say “Write what you know,” and I hope there’s some literary exaggeration involved here. It does have some interesting ideas beyond that, such as the taste of human flesh being addictive. What if the reason for the cultural taboo against cannibalism is simply that we are really tasty? I also saw rather more of myself in Mark than was comfortable. He writes movie reviews. [inclines head] Mostly in the horror, SF and action genres [shifts awkwardly]. Is there something Chris isn’t telling me? What are those packs of meat she has in our freezer?
It does spend too much time on the relationship side of things than I’d have liked. I am not here for millennial angst about romance. I am here for vigilante cannibalism. No great surprise in where this ends up – the pieces were all there, simmering in a nice stock probably. But the journey is entertaining enough, helped by some lovely use of colour in the photography, and solid performances from both leads. There’s a slight sense of tongue in cheek, and also unreality, helped by a couple of dream sequences, which keep it on the restrained side of offensiveness. It would make a fine double-bill with Some Like It Rare.
[The film is available now to stream, through Apple TV, Amaxon Prime, etc.]