Man Bites Dog
A Belgian 1992 Black Comedy Mockumentary directed by and starring Benoît Poelvoorde, Rémy Belvaux and André Bonzel, following a Serial Killer as he goes about his business.
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The original title is C'est arrivé près de chez vous, which literally translates to 'It Happened in Your Neighborhood.'
The film was made on a shoe-string budget and therefore made as cheaply as possible. Everything was filmed in black-and-white and the three directors are also the three main actors. Supporting actors are friends and family members, which only adds to the realism. Despite its financial limitations it became a powerful, sometimes funny, often disturbing satire on television's obsession with real-life violence. The film also became a Cult Classic outside Belgium.
- Affably Evil: Benoit is thoroughly charming and murderous.
- Black Comedy
- Deliberately Monochrome: possibly as a result of the low budget the directors/producers/actors were working with.
- Found Footage Films: Implied by the ending.
- Leave the Camera Running: At all times the crew keeps filming, even when things get ugly...
- Mockumentary
- Peer Pressure Makes You Evil: Despite every crime Benoit commits the film crew keeps coming back to him and are even invited to join in, which they do without batting an eye.
- Professional Killer: It's implied that Benoit makes some of his income this way, although he prefers to get money by ransacking his victims' homes.
- Consequences are incurred when one of his victims turns out to be from a Mob family, who start sending other Professional Killers after Ben.
- Running Gag: Members of the camera crew keep getting shot and accidentally killed.
- Satire
- Serial Killer: Benoit
- Snuff Film: If this film were real it would certainly qualify as one...
- Villain Protagonist
- Wicked Cultured: Benoit has pretensions of this; he speaks knowledgeably on such subjects as architecture and classical music, and what he lacks in actual knowledge he makes up in enthusiasm.