Review of Man Bites Dog (1992) by Joey S — 11 Jul 2013

Man Bites Dog is an intensely disturbing movie that, despite having frequent moments of dark humor, is shockingly violent and very difficult to watch. In the movie, a (fictional) documentary crew follows charming serial killer Benoit around in his day-to-day routine.

Ben is a vicious and remorseless killer, yet he is also witty, intelligent, and very charming, making his murders all the more terrifying. He is completely devoid of any guilt for what he does, and he even casually points to a concrete wall at one point and says that he had stuffed the bodies of two Arabs in the wall, "facing Mecca of course.

" He starts off every month by killing a postman and even teaches the documentary crew about the correct amount of weight needed to weigh down different corpses underwater. Gradually the filmmakers begin to assist Ben more and more with his murders until they become just as bad as him in a horrifying rape scene.

The movie acts as a satire on our society's morbid obsession with violence, and it definitely makes a point to disgust its audience with violence. The movie opens with Ben suffocating a woman to death onboard a train, and it doesn't get much tamer after that.

His victims range from small children to elderly women, and it's all shown onscreen. Needless to stay this is a challenging movie to watch. Despite the (deliberately) appalling violence depicted, Ben is carefree and casually makes remarks that are funny in the sickest of ways.

I wouldn't surprised if someone characterized this movie as a dark comedy, because it's intended to be funny much of the time, but this humor is mixed with brutal violence to create a sort of nightmarish paradox of a movie.

I wouldn't dare recommend Man Bites Dog to a friend, but for those who are willing to take a major risk and watch it, it's a fascinating and well-made, albeit very disturbing, movie with a very dramatic way of expressing its themes.