Man Bites Dog (1992) Review

Man Bites Dog (1992)

Man Bites Dog follows indiscriminate serial killer Benoît Poelvoorde, who is followed around by a documentary crew, detailing his daily routine as a pretty likable killer. 

To my knowledge the first NC-17 film on this page (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer was rated X upon my researching today, which is saying something), Man Bites Dog is arguably one of the most influential mockumentaries of the past 30 odd years. Think What We Do in the Shadows but with an insensitively dark approach to murder. I think what makes this so unique, and polarizing, is the outright crass, just another day approach the film takes when following the daily activities of Benoît. One minute he’s cracking jokes with his parents over dinner, and the next, he’s begrudgingly, often with the help of the documentary team, tossing bodies off of embankments into the water below, all while nonchalantly detailing how much weight needs to be in the body bag to make it sink. It’s utterly hilarious, until it’s not. 

At some point in the film, it stops becoming funny. And not because the dark, nonsensical humor dries up, but because the subject matter gets into pretty twisted territory. Though it’s played off as nothing in the moment, Benoît’s killing of the kid (and his parents, in front of him no less) marks the stark moment when things get darker. The back half of the movie then traverses from one fucked up thing to another with graphic rapes, sudden murders, and even crew members getting killed, all culminating in their sudden and shocking murder at the hands of someone else, thus repeating a cycle they started earlier in the film. 

We get a small but very effective cast in Jenny Drye, André Bonzel, Rémy Belvaux, and Benoît Poelvoorde. Poelvoorde approaches his role with such a brilliance because he is not what you expect out of a serial killer. He’s personable, ostentatious, and wickedly dark, while never failing to make you laugh, even in the face of some pretty horrific acts. The energy he brings, while literally carrying this film is terrific and is very evidently emulated in mockumentaries to this day. 

Man Bites Dog, directed by Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, and Benoît Poelvoorde (the only real actors), is a twisted black comedy that above all else, is a comment on media, and more importantly film-making, and how it perforates atrocities and forces moral and ethical compromises in front of and behind the camera in the process. 

9.7/10