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Feast, 2005
In a rural bar, a half dozen patrons shoot pool and drink their sorrows away, until a woman known only as the Heroine (Navi Rawat), bursts into the place followed by a monstrous creature. Soon the bar is under siege, with bloodthirsty and lustful monsters launching attack after attack on the patrons. They must band together to survive, but some of them are only looking out for themselves.
Too glib for its own good, a dearth of real emotion or character development make this one hard to invest in.
I remember the release of this film, notable because it was the result of the third season of the competition series Project Greenlight, where filmmaking hopefuls pitched their films to a panel of A-list investors. My main memory of its reception was overall positive, with a few caveats. I’m afraid that with even those caveats, I did not feel the love.
There were some strong points. I like the overall premise, which is simple but effective. And while I was largely indifferent to the characters and their fates, I did really enjoy one subplot: Beer Guy. Early in the film, Beer Guy (Judah Friedlander) takes a face full of alien goo, which he ineffectively tries to wash it off with the low-flow bar sink spout. But the lethargic washing doesn’t do the trick, and soon Beer Guy’s face is decomposing, an eye socket crawling with maggots. All through the film, he lifts his bandage to hopefully ask the others if it’s “healing up”. It’s a fun, gross-out gag that manages to stay funny through the whole runtime.
But that’s about the end of the nice things I have to say about the film. Almost every choice in the movie seems designed to keep the viewer at an emotional distance from them. Despite Rawat repeatedly yelling that her KIDS ARE OUT THERE!!!!!!, her character is never even given a name. None of them are. Rawat is The Heroine. We’ve already talked about Beer Guy. There’s actually a decently deep cast of characters, but they made little impression on me. I was happy to see Henry Rollins show up as Coach, but I think it’s telling that I had to look up his character’s label while writing this review. This is a cutesy touch that isn’t worth it. The combination of labels and lack of development leaves them all as caricatures.
But really the death knell in this one for me was its obsession with sex and sexual violence in a way that feels simultaneously juvenile and upsettingly aggressive. Sure, plenty of movies have creatures whose design is suggestive, or use sexual violence as a threat. But in this film, there seems to be an intention not to actually be scary, but to demean the (mainly female) characters. This is a movie where rape and penetration is power, and whether it was the camera needlessly ogling a female character getting undressed or actually watching a woman be viciously sexually assaulted, I was not there for it. It’s not good horror, and neither is it done with a joy or sense of humor that would make it campy fun.
I have a real soft spot for independent filmmakers, so I was rooting for this one. Sadly, it couldn’t meet me halfway.
Feast, 2005
In a rural bar, a half dozen patrons shoot pool and drink their sorrows away, until a woman known only as the Heroine (Navi Rawat), bursts into the place followed by a monstrous creature. Soon the bar is under siege, with bloodthirsty and lustful monsters launching attack after attack on the patrons. They must band together to survive, but some of them are only looking out for themselves.
Too glib for its own good, a dearth of real emotion or character development make this one hard to invest in.
I remember the release of this film, notable because it was the result of the third season of the competition series Project Greenlight, where filmmaking hopefuls pitched their films to a panel of A-list investors. My main memory of its reception was overall positive, with a few caveats. I’m afraid that with even those caveats, I did not feel the love.
There were some strong points. I like the overall premise, which is simple but effective. And while I was largely indifferent to the characters and their fates, I did really enjoy one subplot: Beer Guy. Early in the film, Beer Guy (Judah Friedlander) takes a face full of alien goo, which he ineffectively tries to wash it off with the low-flow bar sink spout. But the lethargic washing doesn’t do the trick, and soon Beer Guy’s face is decomposing, an eye socket crawling with maggots. All through the film, he lifts his bandage to hopefully ask the others if it’s “healing up”. It’s a fun, gross-out gag that manages to stay funny through the whole runtime.
But that’s about the end of the nice things I have to say about the film. Almost every choice in the movie seems designed to keep the viewer at an emotional distance from them. Despite Rawat repeatedly yelling that her KIDS ARE OUT THERE!!!!!!, her character is never even given a name. None of them are. Rawat is The Heroine. We’ve already talked about Beer Guy. There’s actually a decently deep cast of characters, but they made little impression on me. I was happy to see Henry Rollins show up as Coach, but I think it’s telling that I had to look up his character’s label while writing this review. This is a cutesy touch that isn’t worth it. The combination of labels and lack of development leaves them all as caricatures.
But really the death knell in this one for me was its obsession with sex and sexual violence in a way that feels simultaneously juvenile and upsettingly aggressive. Sure, plenty of movies have creatures whose design is suggestive, or use sexual violence as a threat. But in this film, there seems to be an intention not to actually be scary, but to demean the (mainly female) characters. This is a movie where rape and penetration is power, and whether it was the camera needlessly ogling a female character getting undressed or actually watching a woman be viciously sexually assaulted, I was not there for it. It’s not good horror, and neither is it done with a joy or sense of humor that would make it campy fun.
I have a real soft spot for independent filmmakers, so I was rooting for this one. Sadly, it couldn’t meet me halfway.