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Clu Gulager battles beasts in Feast.
I can safely say I have been patiently awaiting the release of Feast for well over a year now. A product of season three of Project Greenlight, Feast’s release date had been changed over and over since last December. After months of waiting, it enjoyed a limited release in late September and then on DVD in October. The long wait was definitely worth it, and I think Feast has managed to claw its way to the top of my 2006 horror flick list!
The story is extremely simplistic: a motley group of “has-beens”, “never-weres”, and “never will-bes” enjoying a few drinks at an isolated bar in canyon country face the threat of being devoured by a pack of some sort of unknown creatures. We don’t know much about these creatures aside from the fact that they like the taste of humans, reproduce almost immediately, and will stop at nothing until all of the potential dinners are gone.
We never learn where these ungodly things came from, and we really don’t care. That kind of needless information is better suited for some sort of prequel, anyway! We simply have a random group of eccentric and neurotic (mostly) jerks locking down a bar and attempting to stay alive as long as possible. Director John Gulager gives us is a tremendously intense, mildly frightening, quite comedic, and always entertaining thrill ride into the world of gore and imagination: think Shaun of the Dead meets Alien.
There’s so much I absolutely love about this film. First, Gulager does a great job at introducing (and sometimes re-introducing) our films characters through the use of a still-frame shot of the person with usually comedic titles including their name, job, and life expectancy. It may seem like the quick and cheap way out of character introductions, but for a retro-campy horror flick it works perfectly.
The film’s main hero changes twice over the course of the action-packed 95 minutes, just one of the way’s Gulager manages to take typical genre conventions and turn them inside out. In fact, our first Bruce Campbell-esque hero (Eric Dane, and appropriately named “Hero”) is on-screen for approximately three minutes before succumbing to the hungry monsters. That has to be some sort of record! Then we go through two “Final Girls”… with obviously only one living up to that moniker.
The special effects are amazing, over-the-top, and just plain tasty. Gary J. Tunnicliffe has to be given his due props for creating creatures that are slightly ridiculous, yet believable in a campy kind of way. And I have not seen this much blood and random bodily fluids and limbs flying since my last viewing of Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive! That is a feat in itself.
Surprisingly, the acting here is good to sometimes great almost across the board. A lot of that credit should fall onto writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunston’s shoulders. Their snappy, to-the-point, and second-to-none comedic writing ranks in the cream of a usually poor horror crop. Project Greenlight really managed to hit one out of the park here.
With names like Craven, Affleck, Damon, Moore, and Weinstein in the credits under executive producers, Feast managed to attract some great up-and-coming actors… as well as one or two already-established ones. Among them is Clu Gulager, a genre favorite for well over two decades! Sure, Clu may have had the inside track here, being that his son is the director… but his comedic one-liner delivery is second only to the aforementioned Bruce Campbell. For a closer look at Clu’s horror heyday, check out A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 or even better: The Return of the Living Dead.
The cast also consists of Balthazar Getty (as Bozo) who you will recognize from various television programs including Brothers & Sisters, Charmed, and Alias. Also look for Jason Mewes (Edgy Cat) in non-Jay attire as well as Eileen Ryan — mother of the Penn brothers. Diane Goldner (Harley Mom), the director’s real-life wife, also stars. Man, another inside casting job!
While most of the cast is involved in some sort of gore effect, poor Judah Friedlander (Beer Guy) probably suffers the most. Before his eventual disgustingly brutal death (you didn’t think he was going to live, now did you?) he manages to endure a creature regurgitation that would make Linda Blair proud, a festering head full of maggots, his eyeball terrifically ripped out, epidermal purification, and finally having his head totally obliterated. All in a day’s work for a trooper like Friedlander!
The DVD is somewhat packed with the usual extras, but they are entertaining nonetheless. Beside the de facto filmmaker commentary, you really should check out the “Making Of” featurette including interviews with the director, writers, and many cast and production crew members. A second featurette focuses solely on the special effects by Gary J. Tunnicliffe. Remember that name, folks, because this guy has a bright future in the movie business ahead of him.
You will also find an entertaining blooper reel, as well as some deleted scenes which were appropriately taken out of the final cut. One of these cuts includes an alternate ending, which are always fun to watch. This discarded ending is somewhat similar to the actual film ending… only much more barebones in nature.
How could I forget the ending?! Feast proudly sports one of the best endings to a horror film in a long time. It’s not a shock ending by any means (like Sleepaway Camp or anything M. Night Shymalan tries to do), nor is it one of those summation endings (like the Saw series seems to have mastered). It’s quick, simple, and also turns a typical horror convention on its rear.
If there was ever a movie that deserved the four-skull treatment, it is definitely Feast. Wait, didn’t I say that for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning? Yeah, I did. But I really mean it this time! John Gulager is the man with a special eye for the genre, and I look forward to his next feature – because I know he is only getting started.
Flick Figures: 13 dead bodies; 1 crash and burn; head obliterated; human battering ram; throat ripped out; monster baby-eating; festering maggots; multiple regurgitations; face ripped off; legs roll; teeth roll; eyeballs roll; heads roll; door-jam neutering; Molotov cocktail-fu; bear trap-fu; squirting eye socket; and some great Clu Gulager one-liners!
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