Showtime for Cannibals

Abstract

The article discusses cinematographic representations of cannibalism: from the first screen cannibals in silent fi lms to the post-apocalyptic cannibal of the present. The interpretations of this theme that had been set at the dawn of cinema – metaphorical cannibalism (Greed), survival cannibalism (Gold Rush), colonial cannibalism (West of Zanzibar), deferred cannibalism, and cannibalism per se (Sweeney Todd) – in many ways defined the framework for further on-screen life of cannibals. The author examines different paradigms of cannibalism in movies and various conversions of the cannibal which is assuming an international and universalistic shape in contemporary cinema.