Killing Has Never Been so Real: A Review of the Film MAN BITES DOG (1992)

There are few films that strive to be as cut throat and shocking as this French film MAN BITES DOG (C'est arrive pres de chez vous) that depicts a team of filmmakers who are doing a documentary on a confessed serial killer. Ben (Benoit Poelvoorde) by nature professes his day to day job as a serial killer. He has a code and a method to everyone he kills and everything he does. All this he tells to the young group of filmmakers out to make their first film.

Everything seems to be going as planned as the filmmakers watch Ben interact with his family life and friends and then kills random people as if he is just doing his daily public service in life. Things get complicated when Ben encounters a rival serial killer who also has a film crew following him and thus begins a downward spiral for all as the filmmakers are asked by Ben to participate in the murders of the rival filmmakers. They then get a taste for the blood and the thrill of the kill and soon find themselves no longer just watching Ben kill but becoming willing participants. Ben in turns finds himself entranced by the filmmakers not only because he soon finds himself their monetary benefactor but that he soon thinks of the filmmakers as his confidants and partners in crime.

As directed by Remy Belvaux and Andre Bonzel (who also star in the film as themselves - the filmmakers, this film a harrowing example of art imitating life and life imitating art. This was an independent film that was brutally honest which didn't compromise in the slightest bit. It's format has been influential to the films THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, CLOVERFIELD, and most recently in DIARY OF THE DEAD, but it has its roots even further back in film history to CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST and like that film is a film that says more about our culture and our fixation with media and our sensationalism then we ever care to acknowledge.