The Feast, the latest horror offering from IFC Midnight and director Lee Haven Jones, brings viewers into the secluded home of a wealthy family for a simmering mystery that turns into a bountiful bloodbath. The Feast is another slow-burn horror indie flick in an era chock full of them and it can’t always breakout out from this denotation.
To say The Feast is slow and doesn’t hold viewers’ hand is a drastic understatement. The film continually withholds information in an attempt to create a more mysterious, unsettling precedent making it tough for the audience to connect with the film as you’re constantly left with questions whose answers never seem apparent. You don’t even know why this important feast is taking place until about halfway through the film. Also, the mysterious behavior and visions surrounding the family’s new waitress Cadi (Annes Elwy) feel confusingly random.
The Feast certainly asks a lot of its viewers. They must hold on for dear life through its remarkably slow pace. Those that can hang on, however, might find some interesting themes and a bloody payoff. The beautifully captured landscape of this secluded property as well as the clear issues internal family relationships would lead you to believe that The Feast will simply be about this family turning on one another. However, there are deeper themes and secrets within the film as the familial strife can be enough to hold your attention, but the arrival of their guests, mainly neighboring farmer Mair (Lisa Palfrey), strikes a different tone entirely.
Mair comes to dinner so the wealthy matriarch (Nia Roberts) and patriarch (Julian Lewis Jones) of the family can try to convince her to sell her land for lucrative mining operations — all while distinct themes of privilege stem from their conversations. The way they attempt to devalue Mair’s view of her and her husband’s living situation in order to sway her into just giving in speaks to how their lifestyle and wealth makes them feel entitled. Although they have one small, secluded property in the land, they feel that they own the mountain and put their own values and views of life over everything else. This sense of privilege really embodies the issues and fractured relationships within the family and plays a role in the film’s final act reveal.
There are interesting environmental themes that come into play through the family’s desires to dig up the land and that ends up being their demise. For most of the film, you’re left wondering what horrors haven’t been unleashed yet. There are plenty of skin-crawling visuals and a sense of eeriness, but they don’t carry much meaning in the moment until a big reveal connects Cadi’s behavior to the family’s mistreatment of the land.
The visions and strange horrors certainly do their part in giving The Feast a creepy vibe, but they don’t even compare to the craziness of the film’s final chapter where it feels like the family’s actions are coming back to haunt them in devastating ways. Once the true horrors of The Feast are unleashed, it turns into a total bloodbath full of terrifying visuals that will leave your stomach turning. Certain instances that seemed random at first connect in gut-wrenching ways with one use of a broken bottle shard being particularly depraved and chilling — especially for male viewers. It’s the kind of sudden turn that catches you off guard in a memorable way and leaves you completely unsettled even after the credits roll.
The Feast’s incredibly slow pace and abstract approach make it tough for most to get hooked. However, those who are able to stay on its course will be rewarded with some interesting themes as well as disturbing horrors that will make even the most thick-skinned horror fans shudder and cringe.
