Salvaging Corpses

Long Pigs (Chris Power & Nathan Hynes, 2007)
*** (A Must-See)


Chris Power and Nathan Hyne’s feature Long Pigs is about two Toronto filmmakers making a documentary on a cannibal serial killer, Anthony McAlistar (Anthony Alviano). The term Long Pigs is defined as “human flesh as food for cannibals.” Over the course of the film Anthony picks up a prostitute and a few other victims and creates these scrumptious meals from their corpses. Chris Bridges, who has worked on the special effects for Diary of the Dead and 300, provides some abominably realistic decapitations. There is a scene where Anthony, in a stunning long-take, slowly carves into a hooker and in a other scene he goes to a farm to examine hanging meat products. All the while he has a normal life and routinely hangs out with his friends and plays hockey. Edward Keenan who wrote an extensive article on Long Pigs at Eye Weekly has a cameo on the rink. Similarly to Robert Morin’s The Body-Sculptors, about the Montréal Olympic games bodybuilders, the two films have a straightforward structure as well a meta-commentary by experts on the subject - for Morin it is a physiologist and for Power and Hyne’s it is a criminologist - that allow a wider view on their subjects. These scenes explore Anthony’s pathology from a variety of perspective and try to humanize the guy. Essentially, for the filmmakers and actors and everyone involved, this is a worthwhile product of a labor of love and however shocking and frightening the story got, being able to see it in Ottawa at the Mayfair was a charm. Good luck with everything guys!-David Davidson

(The Mayfair Theatre, 1074 Bank Street, 6/08, 11:55PM)