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 Cannibal by Sigmund Scharf.
Plot
The 34-year-old Tom Meyer, who is no longer classified as mentally disturbed and now apparently cured, is released from the psychiatric clinic after 22 years after he had a serious nervous breakdown at the age of 12 and murdered his parents. However, he has to take various medications regularly to get his disorders under control. Tom moves in with his girlfriend Ursula Jahn, whom Tom met in 1966 during a visit to the psychiatric clinic and who they have kept in touch with by letter since then.
Together with Friedrich and Gudrun Bleimann, a young couple who are friends with Ursula, Tom and Ursula go on a camping trip in the middle of the huge Riethwald forest, where they are all driven by Ursula's father. The trip doesn't start off great for Tom, as he realizes that Friedrich and Gudrun are secretly judging him negatively because of his past, and he loses all his medication after he accidentally falls over and the medication falls into a lake, which he keeps secret from Ursula.
The next day, problems arise. Animals ate up all the food supplies during the night, and Ursula's father will not pick them up again for another 5 days. While Ursula, Friedrich and Gudrun try to make the best of the situation
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.