Cannibal Girls

Studio: Canadian International Pictures

Mar 19, 2025 Web Exclusive By Austin Trunick

Clifford and Gloria thought they were getting away for a laid-back weekend in a quiet country town, but they were about it run into many of the same misfortunes that inevitable befall hot-blooded youngsters in horror movies: car troubles, creepy townsfolk, and a local “legend” involving a coven of comely cannibals operating out of the area’s best restaurant. What was supposed to be a weekend of innocent hanky-panky unavoidably turns into a crucible of terror.

Ivan Reitman’s Cannibal Girls (1973) plays a lot like a self-aware, semi-comic take on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre—but it was surprisingly shot almost two years earlier. The film launched Reitman’s career, and briefly became one of Canada’s highest-grossing exports when AIP released it in American drive-ins with a gimmicky bell sound that chimed before the movie’s more gruesome moments, signaling to squeamish audience members that they should probably cover their eyes. This Blu-ray thankfully includes options to watch the film with or without the goofy bell noises; while neither as bloody nor as packed with nudity as its title might suggest, the bells version is the more fun way to watch the movie with a crowd.

Cannibal Girls featured very early screen appearances from future SCTV stars Andrea Martin (Gloria) and Eugene Levy (Clifford), the latter of whom, with his incredible mop of curls, handlebar mustache, and heavy sunglasses, looks more like he should be roadying for Rush than starring in a feature film. The dialogue was largely improvised from an outline, and the looseness of the plot certainly reflects the movie’s lack of any semblance of a script. Yet, for as predictable as certain story beats are, Cannibal Girls does provide a few unexpected fake-outs, and the cast—filled out by talented stage actors—manages to act natural even with so little material to work from.

Reitman and partner Daniel Goldberg cooked up Cannibal Girls figuring that with an exploitative-enough concept and a cheap-enough production budget, they could quickly make their money back on the movie and then some. The movie was made cooperatively, with the cast and crew (mostly friends and colleagues) waiving payment in return for shares of the picture, and the rental house discounting equipment costs for partial ownership of the film. The movie was meant to shoot over nine days in just one location, but it turned out (rather unsurprisingly for an almost fully-improvised feature) that what they’d shot was way too short and full of holes. The two-week production grew into an almost two-year saga of reshoots, constant money troubles, and logistical shenanigans which ended with a triumphant sale at Cannes—this is a story that’s as entertaining as the actual movie, and is chronicled on this release by Reitman and Goldberg in an archival featurette, and in a much older interview reprinted in the release’s booklet.

Canadian International Pictures continue to preserve important pieces of Canadian cinema history, giving equal care to documentaries, dramas, and genre cheese like Cannibal Girls alike. The film has been given a new color grade and an extensive cleaning for this release, and it looks really good (the hot pink title credits really pop.) They’ve also onboarded several essential archival features, including the aforementioned interview with Reitman and Goldberg plus a lengthy interview with Levy about the film that was humorously shot inside a butcher shop. (There are also extensive outtakes from this interview that are exclusive to the release.)

Paul Corupe and Jason Pichonsky provide a new commentary track, while former Fangoria editor Chris Alexander provides two really good featurettes exclusive to this release. The first is a chronicle of Reitman’s work with Cinépix, who hired him after the success of Cannibal Girls and led to his producing David Cronenberg’s early features; the second is a longer explanation of the bell gimmick AIP added to their prints of the film. Also among the disc’s many bonus features is the entirety of Orientation (1968), a 25-minute short Reitman and Goldberg made while students at McMaster, previously unavailable on home video.

Yet again, CIP has gone above and beyond in their efforts to canonize Canada’s underappreciated film history; it would have been incredible if Cannibal Girls had received a Blu-ray that was only half as comprehensive as what we have here. It’s an entertaining movie and the oodles of bonus materials add a lot, both for the context they provide and how fun they are in their own right.

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