Name: Sawney: Flesh of Man
Genre: Horror
Rating: 19
Cast: Lizzie Brown, David Hayman, William Houston, Gavin Mitchell, Fraser Sivewright

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In short: Ample blood&gore, exactly as advertised, but the story desperately needed a consistent plot and some background about local folklore I saw this film at the Imagine film festival 2013 in Amsterdam. As could be expected from the synopsis on the festival website, a lot of blood&gore was prominently showcased. Somewhat less expected is that we got it together with several quotes from the Bible, a combination that was not really explained. It was a good idea to use the journalist as binding element to tie the story together. There was also a parallel story about a police inspector, who for a long time failed to solve the mystery of the disappearing people. Of course, his superiors were not happy about it. (*** warning *** spoiler ahead ***) In hindsight, we know why he failed. His connection with the underground (literally) operations were left unclear, however. Could he be a distant relative of the "insane family of inbred killers" (quote from official film website). Maybe such an explanation is not really necessary, but I certainly missed it to wrap up the plot. All in all, I gave a so-so (3 out of 5) score for the audience award when leaving the theater: it was certainly well written and well executed, but lacked a consistent story and a plot, not even some sort of reason why it all happened as it happened. Of course, for those who are willing to read between the lines, it can be that the initial visit of a doctor to assist in the birth of a baby, being the last living survivor of a species that lived on human remains (as per the voice over), may serve as a vehicle to explain what happened after the prologue. That this cannibal family is "legendary" does not suffice for us, who know nothing about local folklore and related legends. This could have been explained better to prepare us for the desperately needed context. The 90 minutes running time is not that long that it cannot bear an extension with another 5 minutes to allow us connecting the dots. What remained is a lot of bloodthirsty killing without any purpose. The festival audience ranked this film nearly last (45th place out of 48) with average score 5.39 (out of 10).

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

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Audience Member

Sawney: Flesh of Man is terrible movie that tries to be a Scottish Wolf Creek mixed with American horror style cannibalism, but the overacting on the villain's part, and the cheap style of direction detracts any chance of enjoyment from this substance-less blood-fest. The story is a mix-up, it struggles to maintain consistency, and the stupid "twist" makes half the film worthless. Sawney: Flesh of Man has received little attention and little praise for good reason, it has nothing of value.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/23/23

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Audience Member

Spent way too much time on developing the mystery. Sawney: Flesh of Man (Lord of Darkness) is a boring Scottish horror drama about the legendary Sawney Bean and his family of cannibals. Set in modern Scotland, the bean family abducts people and eats them. One journalist wrote negatively about them and his girlfriend was abducts and eventually forcing him to investigate the dangerous lair himself. It had beautiful Scottish vista and plenty of unconvincing gore, but the story itself was ridiculous. No scares but plenty of yawning.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

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Audience Member

Ridiculous. I couldn't believe any of the characters. The acting was often wooden and the villan laughed "maniacally" like a cartoon character. This was probably just as well because visually it was really grisly - but just lacked any real psychological thrills, suspense or believability.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

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Audience Member

A nice little horror film but with a twist you can see coming. The movie info tells you everything thats going to happen with little left to the imagination - not that you will need it

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

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Audience Member

Fun little Scottish horror flick about an inbred family of cannibalistic serial killers.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

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Ricky Wood

Director

Lizzie Brown

Wendy McIntyre

David Hayman

Sawney Bean

William Houston

Charlie McGuire

Gavin Mitchell

Bill Munro

Fraser Sivewright

Waterboard Man

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Henry Northmore

The List

It never takes itself too seriously with a wicked sense of humour right up to the blood-soaked final showdown.

Rated: 3/5

Feb 26, 2013

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Synopsis

A psychotic killer stalks the towns and cities to find victims for his cannibalistic family.

Director: Ricky Wood
Screenwriter: Ricky Wood
Rating: R (Grisly Images|Brief Drug Use|Bloody Violence|Language|Some Sexual Content)
Genre: Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 25, 2013
Runtime: 1h 30m

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