PRESSURE DROP 3: MAN BITES DOG, the movie that'll teach you all about killing people

Fuck it,

I'm having one of those very busy month when you can slowly feel yourself turn into something ugly and dangerous. It's when I started planning various assassination plans towards random people in the street that I felt like I needed to drop some real pressure. I remembered the perfect movie to calm down my killer instincts...while enjoying the satisfying sight of staged but nonetheless terrible murders.

C'est Arrivé Près de Chez Vous (It happened next door) or Man Bites Dog in its english version is a Belgian movie released in 1992. The story is pretty simple: three students follow a serial killer who makes a living by killing people in order to make a documentary about his life. The movie is shot in POV from the only camera the crew has and in black and white.

A few things make this movie particularly good. Its realism is the first element to grap you in: you believe in everything you see and the movie is made in such a way that you'll quick feel very close from the crew and from the killer himself.

The movie is,of course, also extremely dark. If you're not found of dark humour, jokes about death, sick people, dying kids, midgets...(seriously who doesn't like that) this definitely isn't for you. However, I must say that the director was smart enough to keep it from becoming a tasteless fest of offensive scenes.

The actors, especially Benoit Poelvoorde playing the killer, do a tremendous job. What keeps you from being disgust by what's happening on screen is his capacity to act in a way that feels completely divorced from his actions. his character never realises the gravity of his actions, makes jokes about it like you'd talk about your own job. As an example, one of the many cult scenes see him explaining the rate to apply when attaching stones to a body before dumping it in water...and how it applies to elderlies, kids or midgets, with all the serious in the world.

As for the story itself, it's brilliant. If at first you might think the premise is too shallow to allow a satisfying development you'll be happilly surprised. The crew slowly glides from an observer point of view and starts taking part in the killer's daily chores...for a disastrous result.


So if you feel like going postal, sit yourself in front of this pearl of satirical comedy. here is a trailer, cause I like you.


Do you have any black comedy that helps you to go through a borderline mental state?
Thanks for reading,
Fouapa