Man Bites Dog is a bizarre "noir-mockumentary" in which a young film crew follow a charismatic and disturbingly chipper serial killer who goes by the name of Ben. Black humour is served by the truckload as we document Ben as he kills victims, eats mussels, visits his gran and generally waxes lyrically on subjects of his choosing. At first, the violence is jarring, but as we enter Ben's world, it starts to become more and more normalized. I think this is the point of the movie, as eventually, the film crew start to become involved in helping him out as he commits more and more serious / gratuitous crime.
I won't go any further into the plot or talk about the ending but the rate at which I was absorbed into the worldview of maybe not so much Ben, but that of the film crew, really disturbed me after the film ended. I was a spectator, along for the ride, joyously desensitized to and involved in the carnage that was being caused by the serial killer. The dark comedy of it all really threw me off as to how disturbing this film is. Interesting stuff!
Cinematically, the high-contrast black and white footage is stunning; allowing the film to be gritty and moody, as well as aesthetically pleasing.
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