Popular reviews

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  Review by amaya ★★★★ 3

  what the average french film student's mind looks like

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  Review by DirkH ★★★★★ 13

  As far as dark satire goes, they don't get much grimmer than this.

  In this fake documentary a film crew follows a serial killer in order to understand his methodology and the way his mind works. In following him we get to see some gruesome murders, some hilarious dialogue but, more importantly, it also tries to say something.

  I love the wryness of this kind of humour. It is anything but subtle and it is as dark as it gets. Even though it is rather violent, it never is graphic. The comedy the writers have found in the situations presented to us is simply fantastic.

  This isn't merely fun though. The further we get in the film the more we…

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  Review by YI JIAN ★★★★½ 4

  A psychopathic serial killer carries out his business with a film crew behind him documenting everything. It's all fun and games until the crew starts participating. A unique low-budget mockumentary, if not one of the best of its genre.

  The film is dark, but not, oh-look-how-dark-and-edgy-I-am, dark. It's what films like August Underground failed to be. People tend to think the gorier your scenes are the more shock value you have, along came Man Bites Dog to prove these amateurs wrong. Benoit poelvoorde plays a killer who manages to repel every cliche thrown at his role, he aims his guns at old people because they make easier targets. He's both cruel and efficient, charming, too. He can recite poems, and…

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  Review by Justin Peterson ★★★★½ 5

  Criterion Collection Spine #165
  (Foreign language film)

  A savagely filthy dark comedy presented mockumentary style.

  "You can tan while you make love. When you're through you've got a brown ass."

  Just as the title suggests, Man Bites Dog presents a complete and unnatural perversion of humanity in the form of Ben the serial killer. At times I found it truly disturbing, but in other moments I found Ben's ruthless antics awkwardly hilarious.

  This film is NC-17 for a reason, and anyone sensitive to an ass hole killer who:
  - Brutally murders people
  - Talks about the differences in getting the bodies of children, little people, and old people to sink in water
  - Makes remarks about minority stereotypes
  - Gang…

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  Review by Deckk ★ 16

  Ben is a sadistic, sociopathic serial killer… with a film crew. A film crew that records his killings documentary style, while also showing the viewers Ben’s ‘humanity’: his thoughts about what he does, how he does it, and on random subjects he feels he has something to say.

  No matter how satirical, grim, or black, a satirical grim black comedy still ought to be comedic, and this wasn’t. Or at least, I didn’t think it was funny in the slightest sense. Not once did I laugh, not once did I chuckle, not once did I even crack a smile at Ben. Man Bites Dog fetishises violence and killing without saying anything of merit about it. When Ben isn’t busy nonchalantly…

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  Review by LunchEnjoyer ★★★½ 2

  my art teacher in high school told me I should never watch this and I would like to take this time to apologize to her.

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  Review by WraithApe ★½ 7

  Maybe this had more of an impact in 1992. Because watching it now, some 30 years hence, I mostly found it to be a fucking slog. Not because it's shocking - though god knows it tries - but because it's a one trick pony with an absolute bellend of a ringmaster. Benoît Poelvoorde, plays Benoît, a serial killer, whose antics are filmed by a weak-willed documentary crew that quickly loses objectivity and start to help him in his 'work'. Incidentally, all the characters share the actual names of the actors, presumably to add to the illusion of verisimilitude. Cute. Benoît is a boorish, bigoted, charmless twat and I was hoping someone would put a bullet between his eyes from about…

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  Review by Paul Elliott ★★★★½

  This micro-budgeted dark comedy which follows the production of a documentary about enthusiastic serial killer Ben, portrayed by co-director Benoît Poelvoord, is an innovative archetype of the found footage subgenre. A camera crew observes Ben as he occupies himself with his regular routines of convening with friends, calling upon his parents and indulging in his appreciation for art and culture, as well as his general livelihood of perpetrating murder for mostly satisfaction and occasionally cash

  Benoît Poelvoord delivers a powerful and potent performance as the rambunctious and machiavellian homicidal maniac, and as the film develops the camera crew which ultimately comprises of one cameraman and three sound technicians - as two of them are victims of "occupational hazards" as one crew member calls it - gradually begin to incorporate themselves into the massacres. Man Bites Dog is a fascinating satirical documentary as well as being significant as a groundbreaking found footage film.

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  Review by Mr. DuLac ★★★★½

  Once I buried two Arabs in a wall over there... Facing Mecca, of course.
  -Ben

  I lived in ignorance for years thinking I knew what it was to watch a black comedy. Apparently there's different shades of black comedy and this is one of the darkest of them all.

  Unlike other cult films that have been ripped off at nauseum, Man Bites Dog's incredibly unique premise has remained virtually unscathed. It's a mockumentary that features a documentary crew following a serial killer around in his day to day dealings. Maybe ripping this film off would be too obvious as it's so unique.

  At the center of this nihilistic romp is Benoît Poelvoorde as the serial killer Ben. When he is…

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  Review by {Todd} ★★★ 1

  "We used to laugh about it" -Ben,

  - Horror Hunt #31 (Jan '21): boxd.it/aya9m "Home Invasion"

  Funny... and messed up.

  I'm kind of surprised this movie exists, it feels ahead of its time for 1992. The found footage approach to a serial killer is a fun idea for a film and this one is really funny and really well shot. Benoît Poelvoorde is so creepy and charismatic at the same time so he feels like he belongs. I like how the film is organized, starting of fun and escalating to something a bit more intense. The content is pretty graphic and at times depraved so this is not a film for everyone but for those with a dark and twisted sense of humor there is a lot here to digest.

  I'm a fan.

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  Review by Simon Ramshaw ★★★★ 5

  "Granny Snuff, ever been snuffed out?!" - Benoît

  It's like what would happen if they made American Psycho: The Book instead of American Psycho: The Movie. I've heard that Patrick Bateman kills a kid at one point in the book, and decides he doesn't like it. Benoît is an uncensored version of Bateman. Killing pensioners, postmen, black nightwatchmen ("What a dirty trick! So you can't even see him! Who'd ever sink so low?") and, of course, children, there's nothing he won't do. And this is where Man Bites Dog finds its humour: in its irredeemable protagonist.

  Benoît is charismatic, charming and funny. Not the traits of your average serial killer. He's pure evil, but if you had to hang out…

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  Review by hollie amanda ★★★½

  just found out there are no dogs in this. shocked and upset