Meat Is Murder

An Illustrated Guide to Cannibal Culture

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by Mikita Brottman

Creation Books

Due/Published April 1998, 224 pages, paper

ISBN 1871592909

Violent death, murder, mutilation, eating and defecation, ritualism, bodily extremes: cannibalism combines these crucial themes to represent one of the most symbolically charged narratives in the human psychic repertoire.

As a grotesque figure of power, threat, and atavistic appetites, the cannibal has played a formidable role in the tales told by members of all cultures - whether oral, written, or filmic - and embodies the ultimate extent of transgressive behaviour to which human beings can be driven.

Meat is Murder! is a unique and explicit exploration of the stories that are told about cannibals, from classical myth to contemporary film and fiction, and features an in-depth illustrated critique of cannibalism as portrayed in the cinema, from mondo and explotation films to horror movies and arthouse classics. It also details the atrocious crimes of real life cannibals of the modern age, such as Albert Fish, Ed Gein, Jeffrey Dahmer and Andrei Chikatilo.