Unlike 'Cannibal', this film dedicates a large amount of time digging up the men's backgrounds and illustrating their personalities. This wraparound story is actually rather redundant, since Russell only appears on screen in order to link together all the flashbacks that build up towards the two men's fatal cannibalistic meeting. 'Grimm Love' supposedly takes place after the facts and the story is re-enacted via the research and profiling of an American psychology student (Keri Russell) residing in Germany to work on her thesis. This film is more like a 'light' version of the facts (but, mind you, still shocking enough to upset people with a weak stomach), whereas 'Cannibal' is a downright brutal and uncompromising film.
Even though both films remain faithful to the grueling and sickening facts, they are two completely different viewing experiences. Like the script states at several occasions: these two formed a perfect match. It didn't take that long before he got a response from Bernd Jürgen Brandes, another homosexual who treasured a life-long dream of having his penis chopped off and eaten.
Meiwes was a lonely and introvert homosexual who placed an internet add, looking for volunteers to get slaughtered and consumed by him. Both this film and Marian Dora's 'Cannibal' were inspired by the unbelievably inhuman yet real-life horror case of Armin 'The Rohtenburg Cannibal' Meiwes.
