Attack of the B's!

C'est arrivé près de chez vous (1992), Rémy Belvaux
Man Bites Dog: It Happened in Your Neighborhood

Man Bites Dog continually appears on movie reviewers' most disturbing movie lists, and for good reason. We follow a (faux) documentary film crew as they gather footage on Ben, a charming serial killer who proves to be quite the Renaissance man. While he is sexist, racist, possibly homophobic, and an all-around asshole, he is also very knowledgeable about art, music, film, poetry, architecture... and various ways of killing and disposing of corpses.

It is not explained how the film crew stumbles upon Ben, or who the intended audience of this "documentary" is, but we follow the crew from Day 1. To amend my previous statement that Ben is a "serial killer," I'd like to add that he very rarely ever kills innocent people, it is almost always for money. I'm not really sure what you would call that. He seems very intelligent and well-read, one would think that Ben could get a "real job" with no problem, but he really seems to enjoy his chosen profession.

The crew quickly goes from being horrified of his capabilities to becoming more and more involved with his 'job'. At first it is mostly just disposing of bodies, but one fateful night when a crew member dares Ben to spend an evening in the suburbs, they end up participating in the suffocation of a young boy. Next thing you know, they are gang raping a woman and sleeping next to her innards after one too many Dead Baby Boys. (Sounds pretty good actually, a gin and tonic with an olive tied to a sugar cube dropped inside- hence the name "Dead Baby Boy." When the cube melts and floats to the top, you eat the olive. Yum!)

Things really start to go awry when the quarry into which they have thrown all the bodies dries up. In addition to that mess, it becomes pretty clear in the beginning of the film that someone other than the film crew has been following Ben's exploits. The movie grinds to a shocking and terrifying halt, as everything comes together.

I should probably mention that this is a black comedy. The juxtaposition of humor and violence makes you wonder if you should really be laughing. If you're laughing, you get it. If you're not, then you should probably stick to Sex and the City or whatever you were watching before. Filmed in black and white, with then unknowns acting as both cast and crew, I was reminded a bit of The Blair Witch Project, particularly at the end. It just seems so horrifyingly real. I wouldn't be surprised if, much like Blair Witch, some people believed that the movie was actual documentary footage when this was released.

Grade: A+