Hunks of Meat: Homicidal Homosociality and Hyperheteronormativity in Cannibal Horror

Cannibalism and male homosexuality are inextricably linked in modern cannibal horror. The associations between male homosexuality and cannibalism in horror films from the 1990s and the first decade of the twenty-first century are the result of a twofold drive. On one level, these films profoundly “Other” narratively-irredeemable villains, while at the same time providing another point of deviance for sympathetic villains to discard. At the same time, these films have a dramatic interest in creating villains and situations that maximize the audience’s revulsion and discomfort (and thus the catharsis via confrontation in a controlled setting, and transcendence through leaving the theatre). These films depict cannibalism as a homosocially transgressive act—a transgression that may not be immediately apparent to the victim of cannibalism. Cannibal horror depicts a threat to the presumed-normal and socially-accepted heterosexual and homosocial relationships that transcends mere moral panic or anti-gay hysteria. This genre develops cannibalism into a taboo even more horrifying to the viewer than societal mores would already have him or her believe. This abjection-association attempts to make monsters of those whose homosocial relationships in any way deviate from the heterosexual standard—most notably, homosexual men. Modern cannibal horror decries any sexual expression beyond tightly-constrained and strictly-defined heterosexuality as not only socially deviant, but also intensely repugnant, morally transgressive, and, ultimately, punished by death.