I never knew a wolf could cry

Hello, friends! I come to you with a weird movie recommendation.

A year or two ago, I watched a low-budget crime/horror movie called Grimm Love. It is heavily inspired by the real-life case of consensual cannibalism committed by Armin Meiwes. I’m still thinking about this film.

In this movie, a grad student in Germany is researching the lives of Oliver and Simon. Oliver has been put in prison for killing and eating Simon, a victim who willingly offered himself up to be eaten.



The narrative bounces between the grad student, Katie, and the past events of Oliver and Simon’s lives. I’ll be honest — the framing device of Katie researching the case is pretty weak, aside from the ending.


The main thing here that shines for me is the exploration of Oliver and Simon as adults. Even before the pair meet, we see how well matched they are. Since childhood, Oliver has fantasized about eating another human, and ever since Simon was a child, he has fantasized about being eaten.

There are other parallels between the two beyond that. These two men are queer and are deeply lonely outsiders. Oliver has never been close to anyone in his life aside from his overbearing and emotionally abusive mother, and although Simon has a loving boyfriend, he’s still traumatized by the suicide of his mother, fruitlessly seeking for something to heal that wound.

Oliver eventually comes to the conclusion that if he eats somebody, he will never be alone again. He’ll have someone with him forever. Simon’s desire to be devoured is rooted in something somewhat less romantic and abstract. It seems that he blames himself for the death of his mother and feels that being eaten will somehow help him atone for her death.

Once the two connect online, they have instant chemistry. I found myself somehow wanting things to work out for them, for them to realize they could bond over this shared fantasy but that they didn’t have to take it to a deadly conclusion.

But, of course, things do not end well, which isn’t a spoiler, as we know from the beginning of the movie that Oliver is in prison for killing and eating Simon.

When the two meet in person, there’s that same feeling of simultaneous hope and dread as you watch them interact.

Even though you know Oliver is going to kill Simon, many of their interactions are oddly tender, and you get the feeling that these two people really do understand each other on a level that others don’t. But their interactions are also quite tragic. Of course, their cannibalistic fantasies don’t quite live up to reality, with Oliver mournfully saying at one point, “It was supposed to be perfect,” and you honestly feel for him despite the circumstances. The fact that both of them got to live out what they wanted but remained lonely and unfulfilled is so sad.

And, like I said, I don’t think that the framing device really works, except for the ending. At the end, Katie has decided she wants to see the video Oliver filmed of the murder, thinking it will give her some insight into the two men. She is able to get her hands on the tape and does watch it, but halfway through watching, she’s traumatized and sobbing, and she, too, realizes that she got what she wanted, but it wasn’t what she thought it would be.

This movie is rough around the edges, I won’t lie. It’s low budget and from the early 2000s, and you can tell. But if you can get past that, I think there’s something pretty interesting and introspective at the core of it.