Long before Trey Parker became a household name with the extremely successful, South Park cartoon series he created a brilliant cult oddity called ‘Cannibal! The musical’. Set in 1873, Colorado it follows the tale of Alferd ‘Alfred’ Packer the only man in America to ever be convicted of cannibalism.
This was a silly fun film featuring cowboys, violence, a Cyclops, bucket loads of gore and some hilarious musical numbers. Though not top of many peoples wish list, The Revival Theatre Company has deemed this worthy of a theatrical remake.
Within the opening minutes it’s already clear that this is going to be disappointing. The opening of the film follows Packers murders, but those expecting to be delighted with over the top showers of blood all over the stage (and possibly the audience) like the films opening are instead shown a re-enactment of his murders on screen in the style of a silent movie. From then on the disappointments keep coming.
The large cast of 14 do their best with the material but with a production that is largely built around gore and bodily functions, when these are removed, so does a lot of the humour. This makes the generous 75 minute runtime almost unbearable in places as they randomly float from one twisted situation to the next. Other jokes due to bad comedy timing miss the mark completely and leave the audience in confused silence.
There is still many giggles to be found as the cowboys begin their quest and with such cheerful songs as, When I was on Top of You and Lets Build a Snowman sung beautifully by the cast there is plenty to enjoy.
Fun, twisted but nowhere near as much fun as it should be.
2/5 
Martin Miller
