Classic Review Revamp: Feast (2005)

Patrons locked inside a bar are forced to fight monsters.

Review

Starring Balthazar Getty (Lord of the Flies), Henry Rollins (Lost Highway) and Jason Mewes (Jay and Silent Bob), with stellar turns from Navi Rawat (Numb3rs) and Krista Allen (Final Destination), Feast is basically a masterclass in story telling, when there is no story to tell. To sum it up entirely, a bunch of people are trapped in a bar in the middle of nowhere by monsters. And that's it. 

It fires so many bangs for the buck, it's hard to keep up. The movie starts with a car crash. POV running. Cut to a bar. And then everything hits the fan. 

For a short, claustrophobic, horror, it has a big cast. Filmed in one location, and running in at 95 minutes, director, John Gulager (Piranha 3DD), uses a technique I'd never seen before, flashing up "title cards" to introduce the characters quickly and effectively. Before offing them in extremely gruesome measures.

The film isn't really scary, per se, but it is gory to the max. And it's largely practical effects too. So, win. It's paced frenetically. There's nary a moment to take in what is going on, and flatly, no one is safe. Navi Rawat, cast only as "Heroine", does a fine job of being an action hero and emoting wonderfully at the same time. Between her performance and that of Krista Allen, "Tuffy", they could have literally carried the movie as a two woman stand-off, however, if that had happened we would have never seen the great performances of other players.

Henry Rollins is excellent (but isn't he always?), as the smarmy life coach, and the turn of Duane Whitaker (Pulp Fiction) as bar owner, "Boss Man", is wonderful.

The catch-all for me is that the monsters are never explained. They're just there. And monsterous, they are.

Not for the faint of heart, Feast is thrill ride gore-fest, and definitely needs more love.