The great thing about writing reviews is you get to step back out of the experience and examine a movie in a very conscious way. That's helped me realize that Ingested has a plot. A group of obnoxious, privileged white folks take an island cruise, they wind up stranded on what they believe to be an unoccupied island, only to discover that it houses a small tribe of cannibals.

If only it were that simple. What's immediately noticeable; there is really poor looped dialog throughout the movie, and our heroes are total slimebag dorks, including a Ron Jeremy doppelganger that brings loathsome to new, sunburned depths. His super-hot consort seems turned on by the even more corpulent ship's captain, while the thin bitchy ones fight about staying clean-and-sober, and Ron Jeremy snorts coke off his chickee's back. It's a really nasty, soap-opera mess of trivial irritants. As poor continuity and jokey porno music punctuates certain scenes, it becomes clear that director Sofian Khan just might be sending up '80s Italian Cannibal Movies. As we scratch our heads in disbelief, it becomes clear that not only is this a send-up, it is also a sincere send-up, minus the smirking, self-interested contempt you'd find in most similar efforts, no matter how misguided they all might be.

But it gets weirder still, this time not in any attempt at one-upmanship, but through multiple shifts in tone and direction, including pursuit by a cannibal who resembles Rob Pilatus of Milli Vanilli. Slowing, becoming more serious, the movie makes you begin to fear what's in store, while you're struggling to understand what you've just witnessed, and then the zombies appear, (yes) and then at the 75-minute mark your good luck abruptly runs out.

Clever camerawork forms the glue that holds this thing together. If you didn't know there was a sane mind behind it, you'd dismiss it as garbled and misguided. But every now and then a shot crops up with the power to jolt you, and the fact that there's no rational reason - other than sheer perversity - to enjoy or even comprehend this movie, is forgiven. Tepid gore might disappoint those looking for a true Cannibal spoof, but the baffling nature of everything else will at least genuinely intrigue lovers of weird cinema.

The DVD

Video:
Our CDR screener isn't representative of final product, but other than a fairly lo-fi transfer - posterizing is a main contender - the 1.85:1 widescreen presentation looks pretty good, with rich colors.

Sound:
Ditto goes for the sound, can't say definitively, but I didn't have any problems with the mix or various volume levels, presumably final product will be at least as good.

Extras:
Final product may be different, this screener contains only a few trailers.

Final Thoughts:
What starts out looking like a gut-muncher parody starts zigzagging down the hill uncontrollably, only it comes to rest in soft sand (with zombies). That doesn't make it any less enjoyable as a mystery tour to the disreputable side of the cannibal island. If you can substitute your desire for flesh-tearing with a yen for impenetrable psychodrama, you might want to Rent It.

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