Cannibal Girls (1973)

 

An early Ivan Reitman film with some of the SCTV troupe involved.  A couple are stranded in a small town where three cannibal girls and their svengali are residents.

A great opening scene as a couple (Julie Thilpot and Douglas Ganton) are attacked making love on the beach.

Someone with a pickaxe murders the man

The woman has her shirt torn open and the killer puts a fingerprint of blood on her chest.  This will make sense later as it is a ritual of the cannibal girls.

Gloria Wellaby (Andrea Martin) and Clifford Sturges (Eugene Levy) are a couple who find themselves stuck in rural Farnhamville when their car breaks down.

I can't believe Andrea Martin is actually really cute in this movie.

In a Farnhamville tavern, an out-of-towner Felix (Allan Price) is picked up by a woman way out of his league.

Leona (Mira Pawluk) lures him back to her place - an old farmhouse on the outskirts of town.

The residents of the farmhouse are the three cannibal girls: Leona (Mira Pawluk), Anthea (Randall Carpenter) and Clarissa (Bonnie Neilson).

Felix finds himself here with two other dudes that have also been lured in: Rick (Alan Gordon) and Earl (Earl Pomerantz)

Rick is paired up with Anthea

Felix with Leona

And Earl with Clarissa who leads him to a bedroom

Clarissa gets naked

She stabs Earl to death with scissors

Felix has just had sex with Leona

Leona comes at him with a dagger, and Anthea kills him with an axe

The only one left is Rick

Anthea takes care of Rick; binding him to the bedpost

Anthea and Clarissa swarm on him later - he likes it first until he realizes they're murdering him.

Mrs. Wainwright (May Jarvis) works at the tourism office in Farnhamville.  She tells them of the 'urban legend' of the cannibal girls.  She offers to let them stay at the farmhouse where they supposedly once lived.

I love the 1973 version of Andrea Martin and Eugene Levy

Clifford and Gloria stay in a rundown motel

Clifford puts Andrea to sleep with his shitty music

While Andrea is asleep Clifford checks on the car - but we can see that something is up.

Mrs. Wainwright leads the couple to the remote farmhouse

There they meet the eccentric Reverend Alex St. John (Ronald Ulrich)

The reverend tells them all about the place

They are served by the cannibal girls

Late into the night the reverend keeps blabbering - but things are starting to get creepy

Gloria is drunk from the wine and they have to be led up their room

The three cannibal girls place the blood print on their chest.  This is really the only nude scene featuring all three, and unfortunately there is a obscuring lens filter.

At night, Gloria is attacked by the cannibals and runs into the woods screaming

In the morning, she's back with Clifford at the motel - and this seems to have all been a dream.

Gloria tries to use the payphone to get help, but it doesn't work.  Clifford is distracted...

By a voluptuous woman (Lyn Logan) getting out of a car.

The couple get into a fight - and eventually are stuck going back to the farmhouse

Gloria finds she's been tricked by Clifford - offered as a sacrifice to the cannibals in exchange for his own life.

Overcome with anger at the betrayal, the table is turned as she is given a mace which she slams into Clifford's stomach.

The next scene we find the cannibals eating Clifford - and Gloria is one of them now.

The epilogue has Mrs. Wainwright talking to another couple stuck in Farnhamville and she now says there are FOUR cannibal girls.  Note that Ivan Reitman plays the guy.  THE END

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 Well, it has to be said - this could have greatly benefited from more cannibal girl boobs.  Besides that, however, it is pretty flawless.  A great combination of subtle comedy amid an over-the-top cannibal storyline. Clearly, Reitman has a natural talent to tell a story and much of this was ad-libbed.. by two great comedians of the day. 

 ★★★★★★★☆☆☆7/10