Review of Man Bites Dog (1992) by Daniel D — 07 Sep 2012

This film is violent, nasty, and has some of the best black humor since Dr. Strangelove. The serial killer being followed by the documentary crew in this mockumentary is Ben. He is an expert in killing, dirty jokes, and probably majored in philosophy in college. Which is probably why he steals to pay the bills. While I wouldn't rank this near the most disturbing film like many have, there were sequences of violence that were hard to watch. Most notably the rape scene, which had an even more gruesome aftermath than the one in A Clockwork Orange.

Ben killed 34 people in this film, one of them a child. We only saw one man escape from him. All the kills were unique, the three directors didn't reuse ideas. We can only assume the countless amount of people he killed before this showbiz crew somehow found him. While the serial killer is enjoyable to listen to the cast made sure you didn't forget how bad he really was. That's a problem with some of the films that follow purely the villain, you start rooting for him.

There were a few plot holes I spotted. Why wouldn't the police seize the documentary footage? It didn't really take much away but it could be the reason this is refereed to as an exploitation film. Which is not what the directors intended. The movie could bring humor into dark areas. It was even cartoonish in a sense, Ben looked at killing as if he was animating Tom & Jerry. This made it a unique and powerful film.