Will ‘Cannibal! The Musical’ Be the Next ‘Rocky Horror’?

The musical-comedy parody “Cannibal! The Musical” seemed destined for obscurity from the moment it wrapped six years ago, an ambitious, gore-splattered student project of some film majors at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Distributed to cable and home video by Troma Films but not yet released theatrically, “Cannibal!” has nevertheless become the object of a fan cult--and not only because two of its undergraduate creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, have since emerged as the evil geniuses behind the smash Comedy Central series “South Park.” (A third writing partner, Jason McHugh is involved in an upcoming feature film with Parker and Stone called “Orgazmo.”)

The “All Singing! All Dancing! All Flesh-Eating!” live-action film will get a midnight sneak preview tonight at the Nuart in West Los Angeles--Parker, Stone and McHugh are scheduled to appear--and it now seems likely that a wider theatrical release will shortly follow.

According to “Cannibal!” co-writer, co-producer and actor McHugh, it was the enthusiasm of grass-roots admirers, “psycho fans who are embracing the picture all by itself,” that led producers to rethink its theatrical prospects.

“It has all the ingredients of a classic cult movie,” says Corey Rosen, 21, of San Jose, who has launched a concerted effort to transform “Cannibal!” into the next “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” complete with lip-synced stage show and orchestrated audience participation.

A veteran of “Rocky Horror” performances from age 12 (the Nuart was his home theater until his family moved from the Valley to the Bay Area), Rosen contacted producer McHugh last year, seeking permission to adapt the film. McHugh welcomed the idea and has since created a company, New Cannibal Society, specifically to seek a theatrical partner for bookings around the country.

A deal is in the works with Rosen to franchise his participatory stage show nationwide. Rosen, New Cannibal Society and Troma would each collect a percentage of ticket sales, and New Cannibal would sell “Cannibal!” and “South Park” merchandise at the shows.

Meanwhile, two live theatrical re-stagings of “Cannibal!” have been generated. A student company at Sierra College in Rocklin, Calif., presented its version last weekend. And in Atlanta, the professional Dad’s Garage theater company will launch its production on Sept. 18.

Sean Daniels, 25, co-founder and artistic director of Dad’s Garage, says the company made its mark by making the audience part of the show. “So this was perfect for us. We will try to get the audience to sing along with certain parts and even pull audience members on stage.”

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The movie does seem to be a natural candidate for stage treatment of some sort. “Cannibal!” is a sharp parody of brain-dead old Broadway conventions grafted onto a gore-comedy thigh-slapper whose production numbers include “Let’s Build a Snowman” (sung by gold seekers stranded in a blizzard) and the lynch-mob classic “Hang the Bastard!” (“Hang the bastard, hang him high / Hang him right up to the sky!”).

The film tells the mostly true story of anthropophagous Alferd Packer, a fur-trapper who volunteered to lead a group of gold seekers into Colorado’s San Juan Mountains in 1874. Packer returned alone from the expedition and, according to one account, looked a little too well-fed for a guy who’d supposedly been wandering without food in the wilderness.

Packer subsequently became the first man in U.S. history to be convicted of cannibalism in a court of law, and in turn became a local legend in Colorado. Annual barbecues are held in his honor in several towns, and Centennial Publications, of Grand Junction, offers the “Alferd Packer’s High Protein Cookbook” in their latest catalog. The Packer cult was especially strong at the University of Colorado, where the students voted to rename the campus coffee shop the Alferd Packer Grill.

“Cannibal! The Musical” was originally a fake trailer that Parker concocted for a film class in 1992, directing, writing (with McHugh) and composing all the songs (with Rich Sanders). Parker (billed as actor Juan Schwartz) played the title role, with Stone, McHugh and other chums in supporting parts.

The trailer was such a smash on campus that a film professor, Virgil Grillo, helped Parker and McHugh raise the cash (about $100,000) to shoot the movie for real, in 16 millimeter, on weekends over a period of six months.

“All we were thinking about at the time was making a funny movie,” McHugh says.

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In 1994, the Colorado crew submitted the film to the Sundance Film Festival, in nearby Park City, Utah. “Cannibal!” wasn’t just rejected by Sundance; the submission was ignored altogether. A guerrilla assault on the festival was launched, with McHugh and company papering Park City and screening the picture in rented conference rooms, attracting the attention of a few industry types and a film crew from MTV.

Lloyd Kauffman, of Troma Films (“Rabid Grannies,” “Surf Nazis Must Die”) snapped up the video and TV rights. A late-night showing on Cinemax last year, several months before the debut of “South Park” on the Comedy Central, followed by a home video release, was enough to get fan buzz started.

A recent Web search located a dozen fan sites devoted exclusively to “Cannibal!” Maria Viola, 24, of Stamford, Conn., who runs a “Cannibal!” fan page at https://www.wedgieworld.com/cannibal, thinks the movie has what it takes to become a cult hit on the scale of “Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

“Give ‘Cannibal!’ the same amount of time to grow, and a few more rabid fans like myself, and it’ll reach a fairly high cult status,” Viola said.

* “Cannibal! The Musical” screens tonight only at midnight at the Nuart in West Los Angeles. Filmmakers Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Jason McHugh are scheduled to appear. Information: (310) 478-6379.