Director – Mario Cerrito (Wall of Souls, Human Hibachi)
Starring – Lloyd Kaufman (#Shakespeare’s Shitstorm, Superman), Debbie Rochon (Special Needs Revolt!, Side Effects May Vary), and Dan Gregory (Happy’s Horror Crypt, Blood and Lust)
Release Date – 2025
Rating – 3/5
It’s not often you find a trilogy where all the films work. Hell, it’s even more difficult to find an indie trilogy with all three are enjoyable. What makes this franchise so impressive is that it has a prequel short as well that is a lot of fun. Like with any indie horror release, I was excited when director Mario Cerrito announced a new movie but in the back of my mind I had a nagging little doubt that maybe this idea had ran it’s course. Regardless, I was excited to check it out and extremely grateful when he reached out to me to review it. I want to thank Mario for sending this one over for review.
**spoiler Alert** The film follows a the leader of a cult who turns those that oppose him into a feast that is fittingly taken from the scripture. However, the crime boss that helped him get in the trend of long pig starts to worry about his sudden rise to power and sends in two others to trim the fat so to speak. **Spoiler Alert**
As I look back at my intro I think some may get the wrong idea about what I meant. I’m always excited to see a new indie horror film in production but with this one I was a little, just a little, worried that the cannibal charcuterie story had been milked enough. While that was a minor doubt, this final film in the trilogy laid all doubt to rest about if it would be good or not. However, it did raise another question and that is, is this still a trilogy if the franchise has a short prequel? I don’t know but in the words of the great Elvis Aaron Presley when he was in a retirement home in Texas, “what do I know, I have a growth on my pecker!”
The acting in this one is consistent with the previous films and fits the home video vibe that it’s going for. This is one my biggest problems with the franchise and I’m almost certain I’ve stated in reviews for the previous films which is that I dislike found footage flicks. There is a few that I like, with these films being among those, and it’s always the acting that rubs me the wrong way. While everyone in the film does a fantastic job at getting into character, it’s the small talk and lack of emotion that makes a lot of these scenes feel awkward to me. It’s not bad acting but it’s the acting needed to make found footage like feels to feel authentic and it’s not for me.
The story for this one really surprised me. As I stated earlier, I was curious as to how far could they stretch this slab of meat before it snapped. Well, the answer is clearly a lot further than I originally suspected. Taking any story into a religious setting instantly gets my attention. I’ve been a lifelong inhabitant of Appalachia which is a region steep in their religion. Religious fanatics and closeminded zealots absolutely terrify me which is why I will always have a soft spot for religious horror. Seeing the human hibachi story take religion down the path that I find frightening really had me hooked. The cult angle really works for me and then when you think the movie is going the way you predicted, you get that twist that you wasn’t expecting. The movie makes great use of it’s run time and doesn’t stretch itself too thin was well. While I would have liked to see the dialogue heavy scenes trimmed down, it doesn’t really take away from the overall film.
Finally, the film doesn’t shy away from the blood and we get a lot of fake body props. While it’s not the goriest film I’ve seen, it was able to use what little budget it had to add some of the red stuff to the film. It fits the movie very well and works for the most part. Overall, Human Hibachi 3: The Last Supper may not be the best film of the trilogy (or franchise, however you look at it) but it’s probably my favorite of them all. Religious horror, when done right, is very effective and this one did a great job with that. It is a bit outlandish but it’s fun and that’s all we can ask for a movie to do.
