The Insane Cannibal
| The Insane Cannibal Der wahnsinnige Kannibale | |
|---|---|
 Original release movie poster from 1969 | |
| Directed by | Helmut Rommel |
| Screenplay by | Helmut Rommel |
| Based on | Forest Cannibal by Sigmund Scharf |
| Produced by | Helmut Rommel |
| Starring | Lisa Albrecht Egon Möller Peter Butzbach Katharina Vogel Volker Partau Emanuel Niederklaus |
| Music by | Georg Adam |
| Distributed by | Flingor Studios |
Release date | 24 October 1969 |
Running time | 1h 40min |
| Country |  Besmenia |
| Language | Besmenian |
| Budget | BS 2.2 million |
| Box office | BS 9.4 million |
The Insane Cannibal (Besmenian: Der wahnsinnige Kannibale) is a 1969 Besmenian psychological horror splatter film adapted, produced, and directed by Helmut Rommel, based on the 1945 novel Forest Cannibals by Sigmund Scharf.
Plot
The formerly mentally disturbed and now apparently cured Tom Meyer is released from the institution. To celebrate, he, his wife Ursula and the other young couple Adam Holzmann and Larissa Holzmann go on a camping trip in the deep Hanbei forest. After a while, the two couples get lost in the forest and cannot find their way back. When the food ration runs out, Tom develops his mental disorder again out of fear and anger. So it comes that Tom is annoyed, in a bad mood, imagines voices and noises and threatens his wife Ursula to give her a slap. While looking for food, Tom accidentally kills a hunter and, because of extreme hunger, feeds on the hunter's corpse. This gives Tom a taste for huhuman flesh and he later hunts Ursula, Adam and Larissa with a chainsaw found in an abandoned hut. In the end, Ursula is the only one who makes it out of the Hanbei forest. The film ends with Tom being attacked and killed by a group of carnivorous wolves.
Production
Filming began in December 1968 and ended in June 1969. Some of the scenes in the Hanbei forest were shot in the Summingian forest.
Leagcy
Despite the almost 30 year ban, the film was a great success for Rommel and the actors and developed into a cult film among horror fans.
Trivia
- The first broadcast on Besmenian television was on November 24, 2000 in the night program of BTV.
- On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the film, The Insane Cannibal was shown again in a restored version in November 2019 in several Besmenian cinemas.