feast

$AC/GV/SL 2006 92m ENGLISH CAST: Balthazar Getty, Henry Rollins, Navi Rawat, Judah Friedlander, Josh Zuckerman, Jason Mewes, Jenny Wade, Krista Allen, Clu Gulager, Dwayne Whitaker, Diane Goldner, Eileen Ryan, Eric Dane, Anthony ‘Treach’ Criss & Tyler Patrick Jones CREDITS: Director: John Gulager; Screenwriters: Marcus Dunstan & Patrick Melton; Producers: Michael Leahy & Joel Soisson; Director of Photography: Thomas L. Callaway; Production Designer: Clark Hunter; Editor: Kirk M. Morri; Costume Designer: Julia Bartholomew; Music: Stephen Edwards THE SYNOPSIS There’s a bar somewhere in the American Southwest called The Beer Trap. It’s owned by the sleazy Bossman (Whitaker), who employs non-nonsense Bartender (Gulager) and lovely waitresses Honey Pie (Wade) and cynical Tuffy (Allen)--who reluctantly gives him sexual favors so that she may properly care for young son Cody (Jones). Some of the local boozers include the belligerent Bozo (Getty), his wheelchair-bound younger brother Hot Wheels (Zuckerman), former soldier Vet (Criss), barfly Grandma (Ryan), robber Harley Mom (Goldner), booze deliverer Beer Guy (Friedlander), motivational speaker Coach (Rollins) and wise-ass Edgy Cat (Mewes). Just another night in this rathole in the armpit of the desert, right? Wrong. The quiet evening is disrupted by the frenzied appearance of young, hunky Hero (Dane)--who’s covered in blood and carrying the large head of some terrifying creature. That’s when he gets eaten! As does several of the other patrons. In comes his pretty wife, Heroine (Rawat)--distraught at losing her husband, but rallying the survivors to work together to defeat the handful of creatures that are lurking outside. Throughout the night, many are eaten. But survival is the most basic human instinct and a few walk out into the sunlight the next morning. THE CRITIQUE Wow! FEAST is easily the most gory movie burned onto celluloid yet. It is definitely not a flick for the faint-hearted. The 3rd movie created from the Project Greenlight contest series, this one hits a home run. The unpretentious script is written by newcomers Marcus Dunstan & Patrick Melton. To say that it is not an original concept is just stating the obvious. However, tipping their hat to genre conventions and then turning them inside out, these boys may have something. With nods to such horror classics like Ten Little Indians (1965), Alien (1979), From Dusk Til Dawn (1996) and countless other we’re in here, while they’re out there-type genre movies. Call me crazy, but I also sense a little Sam Peckinpah in the mix as well, with Frontier nihilism the underlying theme in the proceedings. Just a thought. Anyway, not only is the script/plotting violent and gory, but it also happens to be (surprisingly) funny. Yes, funny like tongue-in-cheek; wink, wink--nudge, nudge; etc. Nicely-done, boys! As helmed by tyro director John Gulager (son of renowned character actor Clu Gulager), FEAST is a non-stop journey into gore...laced with Grand Guignol excess. For his first time at bat, Gulager sure slugs one out of the genre ballpark. Under his stewardship, the movie is nicely-paced, never boring and gets much out its game cast. Speaking of which, though most of them are basically walking creature-victims, the diverse cast of actors collectively gets kudos for going with the flow. Standouts include the lovely Krista Allen (hubba-hubba!) and Getty Oil scion Balthazar Getty in the requisite tough-guy hero role. My favorite aspect of this movie is definitely the cinematography. Handsomely-lensed by veteran DP Thomas L. Callaway (Wanted: Dead Or Alive/Caught Up/Night Of The Scarecrow), FEAST exhibits a textured, chiaroscuro-style, widescreen canvas chock full of oranges and browns--mixed in with blood red, of course! The movie gets another kudo from me because it was shot in a cinematic 2.40:1 aspect ratio--instead of normal 16x9 or even 1.85:1 AR. This merits mention because this $3.2 million B-movie was basically dumped onto home video without a strong theatrical release strategy. Too bad. The editing is both terrific and choppy at various points of the movie. As edited by genre veteran cutter Kirk Morri (2006’s Pulse/Mimic 2/Hellraiser: Inferno), FEAST moves right-along at an almost breakneck pace. However, there are moments in the course of the movie that produces some choppy editing and unintentional jump-cuts galore--mostly prevalent during the creature attacks. I get the idea behind the style, but the cutting does get a little annoying on occasion. Still, can’t argue about the crisp 92-minute running time! By the way, the creatures are not badly-realized (that is, when we can actually see them for more than a fraction of a second--see above paragraph). THE BOTTOM LINE A gory, rip-roaring, splatter-fest that harkens the good old days of grindhouse movies on that played on the decadent 42nd Street of Manhattan’s yesteryear. FEAST is not high art, but sure as hell qualifies as high-gore art and makes no gosh-darn apologies for it. Recommended for gorehounds and those who like a good laugh with their liver and a nice Chianti...$ shapeimage_2_link_0