the audience applauded

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

This is a pretty damn bland... not particularly scary, gory, sexy or funny (which you might expect because of the leads and the director). Like a good bit of low-budget horror it pads out its running time with slooooooow scenes that are both pointless and boring. Not that I've got a problem with slow moving films... when there is some point to that pacing beyond just taking up film stock to get to feature length.Blame it on the writing. There's not really much going on with the plot or the characters... a couple wander into small town full of cannibals waylays travelers in order to eat them. No real attempt to explain the how and why this got started. There is some sort of magic ceremony involved but never gone into. There's nowhere near the gore you'd expect after seeing other 'cannibal' or zombie movies. No dismemberment or disembowelment is shown. Just splashes of blood here and there. What limited violence there is was staged very poorly.There is nudity, as kind of promised by the title and cover art... limited to the breasts of a few of the female cast and a couple of the males. It's neither titillating in a soft-core porn sort of way or strangely alienating as it is in Jean Rollin's better movies. It's just there.Despite the presence of Martin and Levy there is little or no attempt at humor. They play it straight. There's also a bit of what I call 'Porn Fancy' going on... where a movie tries to sell some element as fancy or sophisticated well past its budget and the capabilities of the cast. This film does that in places with unintentionally ridiculous results. Why pretend that it's a fancy dinner in a mansion when you don't have a mansion or the wardrobe or anyone who can play that convincingly? Just say it's a backwoods barbecue place and it won't be nearly as daft. Really, not a good movie. No reason at all to watch it unless you're a rabid fan of the two leads and/or the director.

Ever wondered what the first ventures into the movie making industry of the director of "Ghostbusters" and "Evolution" look like? Well, here's your chance but don't be too startled. Like so many other acclaimed directors (Brian DePalma, Oliver Stone, Francis Ford Coppola…), Ivan Reitman began his career as the young and enthusiast creator of grainy, amateurish and zero-budgeted horror movies that he presumably doesn't like to get remembered of nowadays. However, the name of the director (and possibly that of lead star Eugene Levy) is likely to be the sole reason why "Cannibal Girls" still enjoys some sort of modest cult reputation even to this day, as the film itself is unimaginably bad. Somewhat entertaining, maybe, but bad nevertheless. A young couple – Levy posing as a nearly unrecognizable hippie – pass through a remote and snowy Canadian region and naturally their car breaks down. They decide to spend the weekend and listen to the locals' stories about the old town restaurant that used to be run by a trio of cannibalistic girls. But that was a long time ago and now the restaurant allegedly became a fancy tourist attraction where all visitors simply must pay a visit. Needless to say the owners still cherish their appetite for human flesh and seemingly the rest of the town developed the taste as well. "Cannibal Girls" truly is a horribly inept movie from every viewpoint. The screenplay is as incoherent as can be, the stupid dialogs quickly begin to work on your nerves, the intentional funny parts are embarrassingly NOT funny, the acting (particularly Andrea Martin as this whiny girl Gloria) is infuriating and the few gory massacres are so damn tacky they wouldn't even upset a squeamish granny. There are some really bizarre and confusing plot twists near the end that'll make you lose interest entirely. At barely 80 minutes of running time, "Cannibal Girls" is a short and insignificant film but I must admit I was glad it was over.

I am BEGGING someone to release this hard to find little horror/cult gem on DVD. I would love to hear what Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin think now about having done this fun little schlocker. This film is very hard to find but it is definitely worth the search. It's a strange little film but if you can look past the bad acting, the holes in the storyline, and the inexplicable lack of gore that you would expect from any movie with the word Cannibal in the title it's actually a fun little flick. The 'gimmick' in this one is the "warning bell" which warns the viewer that a 'disturbing' scene is approaching (very William Castle like!). Still, there is just something intriguing about this cute little horror flick...check it out for yourself and you'll see what I mean!

I finally saw CANNIBAL GIRLS and was surprised by how tame it was and how little of it made sense. The producers probably didn't have a script when they started shooting the movie because the story is incoherent. It starts with a couple, played by Eugene Levy (sporting a huge Afro and mustache) and Andrea Martin (who talks like Marilyn Monroe), who meet this woman who relates a story from the town's past. We see a flashback of these three cannibal women and how they kill their male guests. Back to the future, Eugene and Andrea visit a museum of sorts where some of the cannibal women are still living there (and looking the same) and who are controlled by this man (sorta like Charles Manson). Eugene and Andrea stay at the man's house, something happens during their sleep. Andrea has a nightmare with this ugly, burly man running after her. Next day, Eugene and Andrea go on main street. Eugene wants to stay but Andrea wants to leave. There's a huge pointless scene spent on main street. Eventually, the two end up back at the weird man's house, and more things happen during the ending that don't make much sense whatsoever. The movie ends up looking like a weird blend of Twilight Zone and Charles Manson and SCTV. The film is unfunny, dark, boring and very confused. But it IS an interesting time capsule of 1970s Canadian cinema. Just don't expect to be laughing, or be grossed out or to make any sense of it.