FROM the fictional to the more accurate, here are some of our most chilling cannibals:

MORE: Why is cannibalism so horrifying? Thesis seeks the truth

1. Hannibal Lecter

Anthony Hopkins' chilling portrayal in the Silence of the Lambs films, now backed by Mads Mikkelsen in the TV series Hannibal, has become the archetypical terrifying cannibal - smart, sophisticated, and liable to slice you up and saute you.

2. The Sawyers

What's worse than a crazed cannibal? An entire family of them! Leatherface is the most recognisable Texas Chainsaw Massacre character, but there was quite a crowd at his it was Drayton Sawyer who did all the cooking and Nubbins, Chop Top, and Grandpa were all lining up at the dinner table.

3. The Stella Maris College rugby team

Stranded after a plane crash in the Andes and faced with a choice between starvation and eating the flesh of their dead and fvivrozen mates, the decent survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 take the pragmatic course...

4. Solyent Green

In the 1973 sci-fi film, the people of New York City live on a substance called solyent green. They think its made from algae from the sea, but it's really made from human remains.

5. Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Johnny Depp plays the revenge-crazed barber that kills while Helena Bonham Carter turns the bodies into meat pies and sells them to an unsuspecting public.