Feast (2005)

I heard that a new film from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Project Green Light would be showing as the midnight movie at The Kentucky Theater in Lexington.  Well, I honestly didn’t think anything about it, until I realized that it was the same film I’d been hearing about from Loyd Cryer and the folks at the Texas Frightmare Weekend: “Feast”.

The film, directed by John Gulager, is the story of a mismatched group of people trapped in a honky-tonk bar. What trapped them? Ravenously hungry maneating monsters with razor sharp teeth and claws, not exactly what you’d expect in West Texas. Reminiscent of “Tremors” the film doesn’t really spell out what they are or where they came from (the preview on the website gives the back-story set up). What is made clear, and quickly so, is that the creatures are hungry and will stop at nothing to get at the people inside the bar so they can satisfy their horrific appetites.

“Feast” uses many stock horror film building blocks, from stereotype character models to the “besieged group looking to escape” model. Surprisingly this does not detract from the film. In fact, Gulager and writers Marcus Dunstan & Patrick Melton, skillfully play on the character archetypes to help lead viewers one way then hit them with unexpected plot-turns. In addition to the story twists, Gulager uses quick, chaotic action shots to highlight the attacks. These creatures are fast and aggressive and this plays out in the cinematography as Gulager shifts the perspective to make you feel like you are in the middle of the turmoil. There is plenty of blood and gore to keep fans of the genre happy, and the frenzied camera action intensifies it as flashes of grizzly scenes splatter the viewer and then are gone, burned in your mind like a camera flash. Overall this effect works well, but at times it does make following the action difficult when the viewer can’t tell who just got their head ripped off!

Project Green Light isn’t known for its contributions to the horror film genre, but “Feast” is a worthy entry into the field. From what I’ve seen in “Feast” I’d say we can expect more gruesomely good things to come from the creative team behind this one. So for a really good blue-plate special of horror, put “Feast” on your menu, but bring the antacid, this one will go down rough! I give “Feast” an eight out of ten.

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