Cannibal Flesh Riot! is a half hour short (29 for the "festival cut and 34 for the directors cut) that follows to ghouls as they go about their business one dark night.
Under used amongst classic monsters The Ghoul is a humanoid flesh eater. Not to be confused with Vampires who though sometimes are depicted as munching the flesh of the living (though normally just suck blood) or Zombies who eat the flesh of the living or dead. Unlike Zombies (and vampires in some tales) Ghouls are alive and though they do eat human flesh, they are content to munch on the dead (at least in director Gris Grimleys realisation of these mythical prowlers of the night).
Cannibal Flesh Riot! follows a night in the lives of two modern day American Ghouls called Stash and Hub. On the night in question they are once again hunting for dinner and that means grave robbing. Having knocked out the drunken caretaker all that remains is to find the cadaver of a recently deceased man Stash read about in the newspaper obituary. What follows is a routine (for the ghouls) night of searching the grave yard, while stash offers a variety of opinions on condiments and how they can be used to spice up a one food diet. Hub is somewhat afraid of condiments having once watched and educational cartoon for kids which features food people drowning as a warning to kids about putting too much on their food.
The project originally cam together when ex Nekromantic (a psychobilly band) guitarist Peter Sandorff approached multi talented artist Gris Grimly to see if he could combine their music and art. This had me worried as I thought "Oh god it’s going to be a clichéd extended guitar driven music video". How ever Peter Sandorff scoring is great adding a real atmosphere to the short and he keeps things pretty understated until the track over the title. Which is fine I have no problem with a full on song for the titles. The short takes place in a 50's style B movie setting and considering its shot on what was then the best consumer digital video it surpasses many films shot on much more expensive equipment. Grimley artistic eye has transferred well to "film" from fine art and comic style illustration. Cannibal Flesh Riot! Is one of those short films that are not trying to be a feature cut down. Its a shame that like short fiction there is not really a wider outlet for these films too short to really sell outside of a dedicated fan base and only real seen by festival audiences. I say that because like short fiction short film is an art in and of itself when done right and Cannibal Flesh Riot! is a great example of good short film making. I loved the combination of silent era style make up, Rami styling (Within the Woods, Evil dead) the 50's style set and dashes stop motion. Especially the stop motion, its something I personally just love to see used. I also thought it was brilliant the way Stash and hubs extended dialogue is witty, but routed in the mundane.
Grimley, Sandorff and crew have created and excellent short that's well worth going out of your way to see. If you can catch it at a festival or it becomes available to buy I highly recommend you. They spent a measly $6000 once again proving that while low budgets will always place restrictions, a healthy dose of talent can often deliver the goods anyway.
A lovingly crafted and brilliantly realized short from a very talented director and crew. 9/10
Cannibal Flesh Riot! - official website | www.myspace.com/cannibalflesh | Trailers
