Unveiling the Grisly Origins: Exploring the Human Hibachi Franchise

Human Hibachi are a collective of found footage horror films, written and directed by Mario Cerrito. Chronicling a woman's 35th birthday party from start to finish, which ends in her gruesome demise, several rich cannibals frequent a Japanese owned restaurant and pay for the owner to prepare their victims for consumption. The second installment follows a clan that lives deep in the woods who have a taste for flesh. Through different tactics they find ways to lure unsuspecting campers or those that trespass on their land to their camp where they party and then butcher them for a good home cooked meal. The third entry “The Beginning” showcases the origin of the series' start. 

Really thought I would be turned off by the title alone. Instead I'm only impressed with how ambitious and thematically dense this is for a directorial debut. Cannibal stories have been highly popularized in film throughout history, especially for the last few years with films like Bones and All, Fresh, and Raw and now we have Human Hibachi. 

After the international success of Mario Cerrito’s cannibal films, Human Hibachi and Human Hibachi 2: Feast In The Forest comes a prequel that shows the origin story, Human Hibachi: The Beginning.

Cerrito has made 3 installments in this ongoing franchise and shows a lot of promise for a future filmmaker. Cerrito is certainly a talented guy and seems to be inspired by cult classics such as Hostel, which would definitely explain the series' ghastly horror take. 

The most intriguing thing that Human Hibachi has going for it isn't particularly the gore factor, but simply how it arrives there.  Cannibalism is a social metaphor as the zombie genre used to be. Position, power, and wealth makes this all one crazy hell of a ride. What Cerrito is doing for cannibals is what George A. Romero was doing it for the zombie genre. Cerrito’s career is only getting started and he’s surely a name to keep in mind when looking for gnarly horror pictures to look for!  

Love Movies then check out our official Nerdthusiast Movie Podcast!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nerdthusiast-movie-podcast/id1599731947

By: Danny Manna @Cinemanna24