Debbie Rochon’s new movie Model Hunger is a low (looow) budgeter exploring issues of fat shaming, standards of beauty, and infomercials, all against a backdrop of serial killings and cannibalism. Kind of like Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the suburbs with a kindly southern lady as Leatherface. Does its reach exceed its grasp? Read on and find out!

Ginny Reilly (Lynn Lowry) is an older ex-model, living out her days in upstate New York.  We know that she’s a little nutso because one of the earliest scenes in this movie is of her inviting in a couple of fund-rasing high school cheerleaders, berating them for succumbing to society’s pressures (read: being too skinny), knocking them unconscious, tying them up, cutting them up, and then eating them.

Yep.

New neighbor Debbie Lombardo (Tiffany Shepis) is having difficulty just getting out of bed, much less getting out of the house and meeting the neighbors. What she can see from her window already makes her a bit suspicious of Ginny. And Ginny seems to be worthy of suspicion, since everyone who crosses her path ends up dead, dismembered, and in her belly: cheerleaders, a Jehovah’s witness, a car mechanic, a hitchhiker. It could have been a slightly more comical Eating Raoul, except that everything is played so damn serious.

Except for Suzi’s Secret. Every single person in this movie (every. single. one.) watches Suzi’s Secret, a TV show (that seems to get replayed over and over again) hosted by an obviously thin woman in an even more obviously fake fat suit. Suzi (Suzi Lorraine) spends her airtime decrying the current size-ist culture and encouraging larger-sized women to be themselves. This is accompanied by shots of very large models (at least one of whom appears to be a man in drag) in very skimpy clothing.

None of this is very convincing or the least bit suspenseful or even interesting. There are individual shots where I perked up, thinking that the narrative had finally gotten its stuff together, only to be let down again in the next moment by overly talky dialogue, or stilted amateur acting, or even scenes that are just plain out of focus.

Does director Debbie Rochon intend this movie as an indictment of, or at least commentary on, our obsessive pursuit of the perfect skinny body? It would seem so, but the over-the-top (and under-the-bottom) acting and obvious script are as subtle as a sledgehammer. Also, by putting the hostess of Suzi’s Secret in a fat suit, and making the other models in the show nearly-grotesque parodies of big beautiful women, it comes off as less empowering and more mocking.

To sum up, Model Hunger has a lot of decent ideas that it tries to explore, but ultimately it is a muddled mess, filled with bad acting, inept camerawork, and no surprises. Uncle Mike sez: feel free to skip this meal. The trailer is below.