Thinner

Thinner is a film about Billy, an obese lawyer who accidentally runs down a gypsy woman while she is crossing the road and the bizarre curse that is put on him by her relatives. No matter how much he eats, he can not stop losing weight. In the first two weeks he loses twenty-five pounds. Billy finds out that the only way to get his life back to normal and stop his rapid weight loss, is to find the gypsy and get him to remove the curse. The only problem is that when he finds them they refuse to lift the curse. Now it becomes a race against time to convince them to take back the curse before he dies from rapid weight loss.

  • Starring: Robert John Burke, Joe Mantegna and Michael Constantine
  • Director(s): Tom Holland
  • Producer(s): Spelling Films Inc.
  • Screenwriter(s): Michael McDowell
  • Distributor: Paramount Pictures
  • Release Date: Friday, October 25, 1996

Featured Animal Action

In one scene Ginneli, a friend of Billy's, goes into the gypsy camp to leave them a message. He goes over to some dog pens where pit bulls are barking and jumping up to the pens. Ginneli tosses meat (supposedly poisoned) into the pens and the dogs start to eat. The dogs are never seen after that shot. Other animal action consists of two scenes where dogs are seen being walked on a leash in the gypsy camp. American Humane was unable to be present for all animal action scenes. A professional entertainment trainer was not used for the film. No animals were harmed in the filming however, some questions were raised about the owners methods of training.