Feast (2005) Movie Review

Feast, 2005, Dir. John Gulager

I remember seeing this for the first time on DVD at some point in my misspent youth. My memories of it are a bit hazy, but I definitely recall enjoying it, and regarding it as “better than the rest of the new crap coming out now”. So here we are, re-watching it 16 years later. Does it hold up? Let’s find out!

So I realize now that this move falls under the banner of “comedy horror”. I’m not sure I 100% knew that the first time I watched it. The reason being, in 2005 it was kind of a thing for EVERY horror to have a hip, Tarantino sort of edge to it. I’m not exactly sure when this started, but it might actually go all the way back to the original “From Dusk Till Dawn” (1996), which Tarantino actually wrote and co-starred in. But by 2005, this “flavor” of horror movie had not only taken over, but pretty much become the go-to stylistic template for indie horror. All of that translates to; It’s kind of funny. It’s funny enough.

Any comedic credit, IMO, goes to the cast. The script is decent, but what the cast does with it is what makes the difference here. And this is no surprise; We’ve basically got a battle-royale of top-tier indie talent. Henry Rollins, Navi Rawat, Balthazar Getty, Judah Friedlander, Krista Allen, Jason Mewes… and the list goes on. We’ve even got Treach from Naughty By Nature showing up.

Now, the main thing I can appreciate about this movie is the fact that once the action starts, it doesn’t really let up, ever. It’s one of those “action packed” horror movies, so if that isn’t your thing, probably pass on this one. The basic premise is, there are a bunch of people (the ensemble cast I mentioned) stuck inside of a desolate middle-of-nowhere bar, that is being assaulted from vicious alien-like monsters. It’s really as basic as monster movies come- but between a few decent plot turns, and a very talented cast, it’s able to spin gold.

A few fun facts about this movie; It originally featured a cameo from O.J. Simpson which got edited out in post production. The film was produced by Harvey and Bob Weinstein, for the Weinstein Co. Also, Mark Whalberg turned down the lead role, and Josh Duhamel was originally cast but later dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.

The movie, surprisingly, is able to stay interesting in spite of limited set pieces and cliché premise. The pacing works really well, and builds nicely. The all-practical effects were perhaps not “top of the line”, but no doubt blow the budget-equivalent digital VFX of today’s movies out of the water. “Feast” was succeeded by two sequels, which unfortunately weren’t nearly as good as the original.

This movie is a nice little reminder of what this time in horror history was like. It, in a way, sort of marks the tail end of that era in indie horror where mid-budget movies still existed, and film makers had the resources to take a limited script and make it watchable. These days, there aren’t a lot of “middle ground” horror movies like this. Everything is either a major studio, multi-film “in universe” type of production, or it’s a movie on tubi with amateur everything and a $10,000 budget.