Writing about Movies, TV, Comics & Toys. Critically and creatively.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Movie #5 Feast


I had heard of this movie series before I watched it, and I had heard it would be very bizarre. I was familiar with the movie(s) because of its writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan (the writers of the later half of the Saw series and the indie flick The Collector). I don't want to say I had high expectations for this movie going in, but I certainly did expect a lot more from this movie than I got. It's another movie like Planet Terror that knows it is purely entertainment and full of nonsense, but there is no fun to be had when watching Feast.

Feast is a monster movie that I would describe with this formula: Aliens + The Evil Dead II - the heart/soul of those movies + good gore = Feast. The down low: people trapped in bar, monsters outside want to eat them, "What do?". That's the premise.

The movie starts off strong, introducing us to characters with their name, an interesting fact, and their life expectancy in the movie. I got the impression that this would be just a fun horror movie to watch, and kept this impression for roughly the first 10-15 minutes, then things started slowing down. Since none of the characters know whats going on, there's no way that we the audience can know what's happening which I feel is the main point that Feast failed to realize. The characters are very difficult to relate to, since there are so many and none of them have enough screen time to make you start to care for them, and then as soon as a character has the slightest hint of development the monsters show up and rip them to pieces.

One thing I can give Feast a thumbs up for is it's special effects. The blood, gore, and body parts are top notch for such a low budget horror flick. There is one thing about the gore that is cheapened, and that is they make some quick cuts sometimes that go by so quickly it seems the filmmakers just hurled a bucket of blood away from the camera instead of showing us someone's body being ripped apart (though it does happen in frame a few times).

That leads me to something I can't stand about this movie, it's too dark, literally, and also very choppy. It is very difficult to tell whats happening at times, due in part to the fact that they're in a dimly lit bar at night, but there is definitely something that could have been done to fix that. Plus you barely get a good look at the monsters in the film, you mostly get split second cuts of them that you can't even make out what they are. There are a few shots where you get a better look at the monsters, but not like in monster movies like Cloverfield or [REC]. While the effects for the gore and body parts are quite good, the monsters are not (except for when the monster gives birth). The monster design is very disappointing.

I expected so much from this movie and was met with such disappointment, perhaps the second one is better, perhaps the sour taste of the first film will prevent me from ever seeing it.

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