Side stepping a little bit we enter the world of true crime cannibalism, previously mentioned in connection with infamous and tragic real-life cases. Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a character often immediately recognized as the cannibal horror character, one of the most mainstream portrayals. 

In 1991 Silence of the Lambs focused on an imprisoned serial killer, Hannibal Lecter, known to consume his victims, being interviewed to help FBI agent Clarice Starling catch a killer. Much of the plot focuses on the interactions between Clarice and Hannibal during the investigation, Hannibal orchestrating a cat and mouse back and forth between the two. 

Lore says that Lecter, born in 1933, went from...

...being an orphan in Lithuania to a cannibalistic serial killer. A successful psychiatrist, Dr. Lecter killed his patients and others he considered “rude” or a nuisance to society. Both Dexter and a real true crime case, justification is sought and added to cruel and unusual murders that should not be justified.

While Silence of the Lambs doesn’t go much into detail other than the first and last victim early in the series, what is known about his MO is rather gross. Known to consume (or feed to dogs) his victims while holding them in captivity and torturing them both physically and psychologically. 

What is now a common Criminal Minds plot, caught cinema by a storm in 1988 with Clarice stopping the serial killer and the door being left open for Hannibal Lecter to return. In total the character appears in five movies between 1986 and 2007 with countless pop culture references and works inspired by him.

Ravenous, a 1999 “horror Western cannibal film” set in 1840s California, is a good example of survival cannibalism in horror. The screenwriter, Ted Griffin, stated that the script had been written with elements from the Donner Party and Alfred Packer stories as inspiration for the film, both instances of people being lost and forced to choose between starvation and turning on one another.

Additionally influenced by legends like the Wendigo, Ravenous also draws influence from Manifest Destiny, an ideological movement characterized most often by Americans forcibly taking land from Indigenous people while migrating west towards the Pacific Ocean. Circumstances in the Ravenous lead to a group of characters being trapped in the mountains, and like the Wendigo legend, once they consume human flesh their ailments are cured in exchange for an insatiable hunger for humans. The tradeoff for surviving the harsh circumstances trapping them is an inability to stop hunting humans for food. 

Unlike the Wendigo legend however the character in Ravenous, who is now affected, is of semi-sound mind, able to lure people out into the forest to eat them. This ability to evade simple traps keeps the cat and mouse game going with unexpected twists and turns in the trajectory of the plot. Ravenous didn’t break even at the box office, accidentally signaling a trend moving away from experimental, or first time plots in horror. After this period a drought in cannibal horror content ensued with sparse worthwhile installments.

A more fantastical portrayal of cannibalism, The Woman, dropped in 2011, following one cannibal woman’s journey. This woman, a member of a cannibal tribe on the Northeast coast of North America, is captured by a wannabe alpha male named Chris Cleek. The Woman never receives a character name other than “The Woman” which is just one example of dehumanizing women in the film. Cleek lives with his wife and children in the woods, The Woman who is camping out nearby catches Chris' attention who decides to abduct and trap her.

The Cleek family lives under the abusive rule of Chris, who seeks to civilize the uncivilized through any means necessary. Civility in his opinion aligning more with the Old Testament than compassion. Of course, The Woman presents a perfect opportunity for him to save someone, to make them civilized, with a touch of nefarious intentions. 

In his first attempt to approach The Woman once he's trapped her she bites off and eats his finger. This caused him to become even more dedicated to his “civilization program" for The Woman. While in continued captivity The Woman is assaulted by both Chris and his son and before an additional horrific attack can be carried out Chris’ daughter, Peggy, catches and stops them.

The abuse towards the women...

...in the film ramps up in violence and control causing Belle, his wife, to make plans to leave and take their children with her. Her attempts to save her family causes a violent outburst from Chris that carries into the climax of the movie. We learn that the Cleek family has a fourth child, a daughter born with deformities that they have conditioned to behave like a dog, living in their outside dog cellar. The Woman ends up escaping and murders Belle, Chris, and the son. After climactic scenes of The Woman finishing off the family members she frees the daughter from the barn. The three Cleek daughters and her walk off into the woods behind the house.

Particularly interesting throughout The Woman is the juxtaposition of Chris’ claims of civility and the abuse levied towards the women in his life. His own behavior pushes past the boundary of evil while negatively judging the women in his life for normal human behavior. He is evil personified, committing sexual assault, incest, and physical assault and ordaining himself the moral leader while doing it. As with many of the other examples of cannibalism in history and media this one points out a stereotype; the “savage” is the one that gets justice for the victims and herself.

Unique storytelling makes Raw, a 2016 French-Belgian movie, more fascinating than gross. The main character, Justine, has lived as a vegetarian her whole life alongside her family, both parents working as veterinarians. Jumping right into the action Justine is hazed along with her cohort of veterinarian school classmates. This hazing concludes with everyone eating a rabbit kidney which Justine, as a lifelong vegetarian, is opposed to. 

Unfortunately, Justine is forced to have the rabbit kidney which results in an itchy rash to form all over her body that is diagnosed as food poisoning. Justine’s desire for meat grows, making her insatiable. An accident causes her older sister’s finger to be chopped off and Justine to eat it in a rather gross but well-acted scene. Alexia covers with their parents for Justine.

Now aware that Justine is experiencing the same thing Alexia takes her to a road and causes a car to crash, consuming one of the passengers and directing Justine to consume the other. Rather than go along Justine is horrified and runs away from her developing reality. 

Justine falls further into...

...her cannibalistic desires after assaulting a boy mid-make out and biting her own arm to stop her from attacking her friend, Adrien. Cut to another party and Alexia gets Justine very drunk only to record her trying to take bites out of a corpse and pass that video around the school. 

The sisters' relationship reaches a fever pitch as they fight and bite one another's arms in a standoff. In retaliation Alexia kills and eats Adrien, but rather than report her Justine helps clean up. Alexia is shown to be in jail only to find out that their desire to eat people is a genetic trait passed down to them from their mother, who consumes pieces of him, their father, to survive. 

The final twist and reveal of the family secret going beyond the sisters is interesting and not expected upon first watch. Overall Raw is a good, interesting story about family dynamics and coming of age under strenuous circumstances. It makes sense to have come out later in the 2010’s as more unique stories, and foreign to the US stories, got funded and mass released on streaming platforms.

A busy year for reimagining cannibalism, The Neon Demon, also came out in 2016; part commentary on the fashion industry in LA and part examining female competition the story is hard to put into one box. Crossing multiple genres and taking various twists, what seems to be a coming-of-age story quickly devolves into one young woman’s ravenous rise and fall from grace. 

Young model, Jesse, moves to Los Angeles to model. Upon arrival she meets Dean who invites her to a photo shoot where she meets a makeup artist named Ruby. Through Ruby, Sarah, and Gigi, two other models are introduced as nosey women getting a little more desperate with age in the harsh LA modeling world. 

Jesse ends up being the new, fresh face that LA fashion is looking for after a successful photoshoot with a known fashion photographer. As Jesse gets further into the seedy underworld of young models breaking into the industry, she catches more ire from Sarah and Gigi, even being attacked by one in a bathroom. 

The recognition and desire go to...

...Jesse’s head immediately and she finds herself running right into the arms of danger after narrowly avoiding a break in and subsequent assault at her hotel. With Jesse now in Ruby’s home the three older women, Ruby, Sarah, and Gigi attack her, dismembering and consuming her. The women bathe in her blood, and it’s revealed that Ruby has tattoos of an occult nature. 

More of a through line to spiritual cannibalism the women in this film are revealed to be participating in a ritual of sorts. Post consuming Jesse the two models, Sarah, and Gigi, are irresistible and back on fire with a famous photographer. Their intention is not to consume human flesh but rather want the effects of consuming her power; their cannibalism is a byproduct of them being willing to go to any length to fulfill their desires.