Movie Night - Fine Young Cannibals

As anyone who follows my pointless rambling on Twitter already knows, last weekend I had a dream that I was captured by cannibals. They had me tied to a chair at a table, and were force feeding me deep fried body parts. As to be expected with the kind of movies that I watch, I have weird dreams a lot, but this one was particularly vivid. When I woke up from it, it was still the middle of the night, and it took me a couple of hours to fall back asleep. Might as well add to the trauma with an all-cannibal movie night, right? I think so too.

I'm ashamed to admit, but my dvd collection is a bit lacking in this particular category. This fact was really driven home when I started looking around the internet for "best cannibal movies" lists. I saw lots of mentions of movies like Cannibal Holocaust, Cannibal Ferox, and Eaten Alive, none of which I've seen. I know, I know... you're disappointed in me. I am too. But I'm going to start working on fixing this particular oversight on my part. So any suggestions as to where I should begin would be appreciated. As for what I do have in my collection, here's what I'm planning on watching...

Boy my past with this movie is long and well documented. It took me FOREVER to finally get a copy for myself, and my copy is of the original run, not the new "Blair Witch 2" inspired cover. I've always said this one was cannibalism for grown ups, meaning that it's a smart film, well written, well acted, and while it is definitely gory, it's not done in a childish manner. It also goes beyond just the usual trappings of a cannibalism movie, by dealing a bit with the idea of vampirism, or gaining power from consuming another human being. Deep stuff to say the least. It also happens to have one of the most suspenseful scenes I've ever seen put to film, which I watched with one eye through my fingers. It's been a couple of years since I last watched it, so I'm really looking forward to revisiting Ravenous.

I will follow my favorite cannibalism movie of all time with the granddaddy of all cannibal movies, the one and only Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I have nothing to say about this one that hasn't been said a million times before, except that I find myself all by my lonesome in my inability to decide between the original and TCM 2 as my all-time favorite of the series. What can I say, the original is a classic and is due every bit of the praise it gets, but there's just something about the utter insanity of 2 that I absolutely love. For Cannibal Night though, the original gets the nod.

I have a few other candidates that might make a third option if I get through these two, Hills Have Eyes, Doomsday, and of course The Silence of the Lambs. There was also an After Dark Horrorfest entry a couple years ago that I didn't hate, Tooth and Nail. Only watched it once, maybe worth a second look. Still, as stated my options are limited. Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments, I'm hungry!