Big Meat Eater


1h 22m 1982

Film Details

Genre
Comedy
Musical
Release Date
1982
Distribution Company
Palace Pictures

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 22m

Synopsis

Crew

Michelle Anfield

Production Assistant

Steve Babuin

Production Assistant

Peter Bentley

Sound Recording

Iain Best

Special Effects

Peter Bomar

Production Assistant

Jim Bridge

Special Effects

Don Cameron

Camera Assistant 2nd Unit (2nd Unit)

George Campbell

Camera Assistant 2nd Unit (2nd Unit)

Carole Carlton

Song Performer ("Atomic Radiation")

Barry Creamer

Song ("Big Meat Eater")

Holly Denney

Song Performer (Background Vocalist)

J Douglas Dodd

Music

J Douglas Dodd

Songs ("Big Meat Eater" "Bagdad Boogie" "Missile Love" "Atomic Radiation" "Bob'S Theme" "Mondo Chemico" "Just Hanging Around" "By The Banks Of The Bonny Burquitlam")

Michael Dorsey

Stunts

Michael Dorsey

Special Effects

Barry Erickson

Song Performer (Background Vocalist)

Barbara Etches

Camera Assistant 2nd Unit (2nd Unit)

Bonnie Ferguson

Song Performer (Background Vocalist)

Ken Fidler

Camera Assistant 2nd Unit (2nd Unit)

Candice Field

Production Assistant

Rae Ford

Wardrobe

Barry P Jones

Sound Rerecording

Laurence Keane

Screenwriter

Laurence Keane

Editor

Laurence Keane

Producer

Laurence Keane

Songs ("Bob'S Theme" "Mondo Chemico")

Helen Lecounte

Choreography

Caroline Lee

Song Performer (Background Vocalist)

Marietta Lozak

Production Assistant

Amanda Martin

Production Assistant

Todd Mcintosh

Makeup

Doug Mckay

Director Of Photography

Cyndi Mellon

Song Performer (Background Vocalist)

Big Miller

Song Performer ("Bagdad Boogie" "Big Meat Eater")

Richard Newman

Song Performer ("Just Hanging Around" "By The Banks Of The Bonny Burquitlam" "Mondo Chemico" "Bob'S Theme")

Haida Paul

Sound Editor

Lilla Pederson

Editor

David Peterson

Song Performer ("Missile Love" "Atomic Radiation")

David Peterson

Songs ("Big Meat Eater" "Bob'S Theme" "Mondo Chemico" "By The Banks Of The Bonny Burquitlam")

Michael Robison

Assistant Editor

Ray Roussel

Music Arranger (Horns)

Phil Savath

Screenwriter

Phil Savath

Song ("Bagdad Boogie")

Paul Sharpe

Sound Department

Marvin Smith

Production Assistant

Lloyd Springer

Production Assistant

Dean Stoker

Stunts

Dean Stoker

Production Manager

Gisele Villeneuve

Screenplay

Gisele Villeneuve

Additional Dialogue

Chris Windsor

Songs ("Bob'S Theme" "Mondo Chemico")

Chris Windsor

Screenwriter

Chris Windsor

Editor

Film Details

Genre
Comedy
Musical
Release Date
1982
Distribution Company
Palace Pictures

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 22m

Articles

Big Meat Eater on DVD


Though it seems to have been with us forever, the intentional creation of a "cult film" didn't really exist until the late 1970s with the mass acceptance of midnight movie screenings from coast to coast. As film school geeks got their hands on camera and paid tribute to their favorite genres, resulting in oddball hybrids like J-Men Forever, Forbidden Zone, and on the really obscure side of things, Big Meat Eater, a Canadian sci-fi/musical/monster comedy.

The jarring plot follows and eventually unites two separate story threads, with the first chronicling the misadventures of Turkish boiler attendant Abdullah (Clarence Miller) who murders the town mayor in a fit of occupational pique and winds up in the employ of butcher Bob (the excellent George Dawson), who decides to stash the unfortunate corpse in the freezer. But wait! Hovering above the small town, two aliens set their sights on the butcher's shop since his cold cuts produce a valuable resource called "Balonium." To harvest this product, the aliens bring the mayor back from the dead and arrange the construction of a "Vision of Tomorrowland" exhibit which will actually serve as their home base on Earth.

Originally conceived as a satire of Canadian mores with monster trappings, this peculiar hybrid was the brainchild of three Canadian film students, Laurence Keane, Chris Windsor, and Mike Chechik. Though its style was likened at the time to comedic names like the Firesign Theater and National Lampoon, the end result actually cannily foreshadows the affectionate ribbing and emulation of classic '50s monster movies found in the likes of The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra and Ed Wood. That said, it's significantly less polished than those later works and suffers from the inevitable consequences of its scattershot approach; while the song and dance routines contrasted with grisly plot twists are undeniably effective, the climactic teen-against-aliens trappings get old long before the final scene. It's not quite as maddening in its random desperation to please as, say, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, but we're definitely in the same territory. Most of the participants in front of and behind the camera didn't go much further than this, but they did manage to pull off a curiosity with more than its fair share of pleasurable moments in between its occasional lulls.

Barely released theatrically and shuffled off to very early home video cultdom just long enough to startle a few unprepared rental customers, Big Meat Eater has remained an underground secret for decades and will likely remain so. Nevertheless, the DVD presentation is respectable enough with a watchable if not stellar video presentation (better than the tape but not by much), while the noticeably improved sound mix at least gives some welcome punch to the numerous depraved ditties. Unfortunately there's a dearth of bonus material to give any context to these shenanigans, so unprepared viewers are left completely to their own devices.

For more information about Big Meat Eater, visit Koch Vision. To order Big Meat Eater, go to TCM Shopping.

by Nathaniel Thompson
Big Meat Eater On Dvd

Big Meat Eater on DVD

Though it seems to have been with us forever, the intentional creation of a "cult film" didn't really exist until the late 1970s with the mass acceptance of midnight movie screenings from coast to coast. As film school geeks got their hands on camera and paid tribute to their favorite genres, resulting in oddball hybrids like J-Men Forever, Forbidden Zone, and on the really obscure side of things, Big Meat Eater, a Canadian sci-fi/musical/monster comedy. The jarring plot follows and eventually unites two separate story threads, with the first chronicling the misadventures of Turkish boiler attendant Abdullah (Clarence Miller) who murders the town mayor in a fit of occupational pique and winds up in the employ of butcher Bob (the excellent George Dawson), who decides to stash the unfortunate corpse in the freezer. But wait! Hovering above the small town, two aliens set their sights on the butcher's shop since his cold cuts produce a valuable resource called "Balonium." To harvest this product, the aliens bring the mayor back from the dead and arrange the construction of a "Vision of Tomorrowland" exhibit which will actually serve as their home base on Earth. Originally conceived as a satire of Canadian mores with monster trappings, this peculiar hybrid was the brainchild of three Canadian film students, Laurence Keane, Chris Windsor, and Mike Chechik. Though its style was likened at the time to comedic names like the Firesign Theater and National Lampoon, the end result actually cannily foreshadows the affectionate ribbing and emulation of classic '50s monster movies found in the likes of The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra and Ed Wood. That said, it's significantly less polished than those later works and suffers from the inevitable consequences of its scattershot approach; while the song and dance routines contrasted with grisly plot twists are undeniably effective, the climactic teen-against-aliens trappings get old long before the final scene. It's not quite as maddening in its random desperation to please as, say, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, but we're definitely in the same territory. Most of the participants in front of and behind the camera didn't go much further than this, but they did manage to pull off a curiosity with more than its fair share of pleasurable moments in between its occasional lulls. Barely released theatrically and shuffled off to very early home video cultdom just long enough to startle a few unprepared rental customers, Big Meat Eater has remained an underground secret for decades and will likely remain so. Nevertheless, the DVD presentation is respectable enough with a watchable if not stellar video presentation (better than the tape but not by much), while the noticeably improved sound mix at least gives some welcome punch to the numerous depraved ditties. Unfortunately there's a dearth of bonus material to give any context to these shenanigans, so unprepared viewers are left completely to their own devices. For more information about Big Meat Eater, visit Koch Vision. To order Big Meat Eater, go to TCM Shopping. by Nathaniel Thompson

Quotes

Trivia

Miscellaneous Notes

Released in United States 1982

Released in United States 1982