Much like how Lion's Gate tried to make Motor Home Massacre look like a Haute Tension style thriller, they've also manipulated the cover art for Cannibal to make it look like a gory horror film, when in fact this puppy is actually a French Canadian artsy-thriller originally titled Peau Blanche, or, White Skin. Why they continue to do this is anyone's guess and only their marketing department knows for sure, but the fact remains that this movie has little to do with better known cannibal films like The Man From Deep River or Cannibal Holocaust and has little more than an extremely tenuous thematic connection to similar arthouse cannibal movies like Marina de Van's oddball 2002 effort, In My Skin.

Thierry (Marc Paquet) and Henri (Frederic Pierre) are two college roommates in the lovely city of Montreal, one black the other white, who begin the movie by discussing racial issues and how they can affect people. From there, Henri begins to feel a little sorry for Thierry who hasn't had good luck with women in the past and so he takes them to get some prostitutes. They take the girls back to their apartment, and in separate rooms, they do their thing. It all takes a very strange turn when Thierry hears his pal screaming in the room just down from his own and when he busts in to see what's wrong he finds that Henri's hooker has pulled a knife on him and slashed his throat. Thankfully, Thierry gets Henri to the hospital without wasting a moment and he survives the ordeal.

Shortly after the events of that night, Thierry meets a gorgeous redhead named Claire (Marianne Farley). Earlier on he'd stated that he didn't like redheads, their veins are too easy to see underneath their pale white skin, but he falls pretty hard for her regardless after he spies her busking at a subway station and decides to follow her. The two of them soon hit it off, and after she pushes back a few times, they start seeing each other. Their relationship starts off as little more than physical attraction though it soon becomes obvious that Thierry is falling in love with her and wants more than just someone to have sex with – Claire, on the other hand, seems quite content with the shallowness they share together.

Regardless, Thierry keeps on top of things and eventually Claire submits and brings him back to meet some of her family members. Thierry is excited about this, seeing it as the next step in their relationship, until he recognizes Claire's sister as the prostitute who tried to kill his roommate. From here on out, Thierry begins to suspect that there is more going on with Claire and her sister than he first realized, and in fact he's right in that they share a rather ominous secret.

A few things that stand out about Cannibal (aside from the rather silly re-titling of the movie!) are the look of the film and the cast. First time director Daniel Roby, working from a script by Joel Champetier who also wrote the novel the film is based on, has really done an excellent job of keeping the movie atmospheric by way of some slow, languid cinematography and well paced editing. Though the movie moves slowly in a few too many spots, it always looks good and at times the rather languid tone of it all does add to some of the nightmarish qualities that the movie holds in place. Additionally, the three lead performers are very much look the part – the two men completely believable as college students and Farley as gorgeous as she needs to be in order to be right for the role of the harpy she is. The film is very well put together, it looks great, it has atmosphere, and it is an interesting idea and a very unorthodox approach to what is, without wanting to spoil the film, a horror movie cliché that has been played out ad naseum.

That being said, the movie is also quite disjointed. The racial issues that start the film off are soon more or less tossed to the side and subplots are introduced only to be quickly forgotten. Unfortunately, too much is left unresolved for the movie to work as well as it should have and while there is oodles of potential in here and a few really great moments, it doesn't stop the story from becoming a bit of a mess towards the end of the film. Even with that in mind, the film does get more right than wrong and it is worth seeing for those who enjoy trippy little horror cross over films, though the slower spots may put some viewers off.