Cannibal Comedian will knock ’em dead on March 4 exclusively on SCREAMBOX. The horror-comedy features The Texas Chain Saw Massacre alumni Edwin Neal and Allen Danziger.

I have always been a pretty big fan of the What If…? line of Marvel comic books. They were always a fun little way to look at how things could be different in an alternate reality. Even if most of them seemed to exist solely to shit on and/or kill poor Peter Parker.

Of course, nowadays, What If…? stories take on a whole new meaning with how the idea of multiverses have invaded fiction of all levels. It used to be a really cute and quirky quick story idea. Now these alternate timelines are taking over comics, movies and television. We can’t get away from the idea of them!

But still… it’s always a bit of fun to look at one idea and imagine what if something about it was different.

This leads into today’s movie review: Cannibal Comedian. It’s not a multiverse story by any stretch, but it does take the basic Texas Chain Saw Massacre formula, shake it all up, and add the notion of “What if this crazy, flesh-wearing killer had a sense of humor?”

(I mean… that’s kind of what we got in Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2, but that’s neither here nor there)

Cannibal Comedian stars Aaron Prager as Charlie, the titular cannibal who dreams of one day taking the comic stage and knocking a crowd dead with his insightful humor into the zanier aspects of eating folks. Early in the film, he kidnaps rising musician Crystal and keeps her captive in his home.

Rather than kill her and cook her up, however, he tries to bond with his victim and express his dreams and desires to her. A scared Crystal, who just wants to survive, placates him to the best of her ability, and she convinces him to finally take the stage at a local comedy club.

But is the world (well, the desert) really ready for a cannibal comedian?

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

+ Aaron Prager is a charming enough lead who manages to pull off both fun/humorous and intimidating/threatening. He really is the definition of doing the best he can with the material he is given in this movie. He has a face that can successfully convey multiple emotions, and a stature that is quite terrifying to those around him. He doesn’t always have great material–in the script or on stage as a comedian–but he sells it all exceptionally well regardless.

He absolutely carries this film when everything around him is half-baked at best. And he can get some decent chuckles out of lines that really would not otherwise work. And, as noted, he plays different levels so well. He even elicits sympathy at times when dealing with Crystal, the girl he abducts but doesn’t have it in him to kill. So Prager might really be a talent to watch out for going forward.

+ The concept is really fun: What If Leatherface Also Wanted To Be A Stand-Up Comic? It’s a big swing and a very creative conceit. It’s a blending of such disparate elements that it really shouldn’t work. And let’s be honest: I’m not saying it ever does. But all of the credit in the world to the screenwriters behind Cannibal Comedian for even imagining this whole idea. I can’t begin to comprehend what the germ of this conceit was.

– There is this weird laugh track that is sometimes in the background and sometimes isn’t. The movie can’t seem to decide how far to go with it, so it just seems to exist when the movie wants it to. It’s wildly confusing because sometimes Charlie cracks some jokes and there is a background track playing along, and sometimes there isn’t.

Swaths of the film are like that, though, and they don’t feel wholly polished or thought out. The world of the movie is some nondescript desert out in, presumably, the southwestern United States. But we never get a real sense of the geography or population. There is enough society to sustain a small comedy club, I guess, but it also feels largely abandoned at times.

And then there is the overall story, which feels directionless. We are never given a reason as to why Charlie spares Crystal for as long as he does. When, at the flick’s end, Charlie confronts the antagonist–and there is no enemy to Charlie’s forward progress until the third act–the film ends up ditching that idea to go back to the Charlie and Crystal tale.

So what is the actual Down here? A lot. I guess the basic nature of this picture that felt like they ran with a silly idea but never propped it up with an actual story or sustainable details.

– The side characters are terribly and woefully underdeveloped. We are introduced to people like Carrey, Eleanor, and the sheriff, but none of them really feel like real human beings. They are just satellites orbiting Charlie’s life. Eleanor in particular seems intriguing as someone who doesn’t really seem to belong in the film’s setting, but we don’t really get much from her. She’s just kind of there now and then.

And the sheriff serves one role in the movie, and that’s to feed Charlie some third act information (and to play as a teased threat to Charlie for about a minute when he is introduced). The movie loses nothing if you just cut him out or have Eleanor serve his purpose.

OVERALL

Cannibal Comedian is not a great movie. It’s a fun concept, sure, but when you get into the meat and potatoes of it, it’s just not very well made or thought-out. I will give it some credit for the big swings it takes, but that doesn’t go as far as you might hope.