It’s rare to see a Welsh film in its native language, but The Feast is just that, a fantasy horror of slow creeping atmosphere and some enjoyable imagery, if not a completely memorable experience.
In a remote modernist mansion, Cadi (Annes Elwy) arrives to help prepare a feast for the owners, a family of an MP, his wife, and their two sons. As the evening passes, weird occurrences start to happen, and the reason why may be found in local agricultural planning.
The Feast brings decent intrigue to its set-up that it, unfortunately, doesn’t manage to pay off effectively. Strong imagery that gradually mounts up isn’t backed by an interesting or creative enough revelation, while the titular feast itself is more a low key affair. Some of the issues stem from the characters themselves that feel a little flat, either cliché (an electric guitar playing, tattooed drug-addicted son) or unnecessarily odd (a son training for a triathlon who eats chunks of raw meat and touches himself in his athlete’s uniform). But it keeps you interested for much of the running time with well-shot images but comes undone with a seen before revelation and a not strong enough moral message.
Still, The Feast is a solid, if disappointing, film, nicely shot and crafted but without the muscle behind it to really make it memorable or for it’s message to be properly effective.
The Feast is at UK cinemas on August 19th.
