What is Feed Me about?
Feed Me tells the story of the terminally average Jed Freeman (Christopher Mulvin) who is living a fairly mundane life until his wife dies tragically, which utterly destroys Jed. Broken and desperate to end it all, Jed is approached by Lionel Flack (Neal Ward) who has a proposition for Jed… Lionel will help Jed end it all by eating him.
Jed, still emotionally distraught, agrees to the absolutely insane idea and soon begins the slow process of Lionel taking his sweet time to dismember and devour Jed while Jed lives through it all, a process that will either kill Jed or make him realise that life might be worth living after all… and also teach him that he tastes like Michellin Star veal.
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Feed Me Review
Feed Me is a film that knows it’s got a completely sick and tasteless concept and instead of trying to be subtle with it, just embraces that tastelessness with both hands and goes for broke and thank god for that. There is no attempt to try and put an ounce of subtlety or cleanness here, it’s a film about a deranged cannibal and it looks like it was made by one in the best way possible.
It’s grungy and dirty, you want to Windex the screen after the movie has finished playing and every joke is as shocking and twisted as you imagine a joke would be in this kind of film and almost every single one just works.
If Feed Me knew what subtlety was it would be a fucking shock, there isn’t a nanosecond of this film where they aren’t playing everything to the extreme which just makes it delightful. The gore is over the top and filmed in laborious close-up, if a character is going to cut off a limb with a hacksaw then you’re going to watch as it goes through skin, muscle and sinew and somehow find a way to go even further than that.
The acting is all wide-eyed and played for the back of the room across the street, and because everyone is doing it then it works in this wild little world. Everything about Feed Me is like a Spinal Tap amplifier… it goes to 11.
The amazing thing is that despite going for broke all the time, somehow the film never fails to just keep a toe within the line of terror and can pull itself back there when it needs to. While it’s mostly a sick and twisted comedy, there are moments where the jokes stop and you’re just left with the actual horror of the situation and it sells those moments like a girl scout making quota, with absolute confidence and determination.
You can be cackling at the batshit insanity of a cannibal trying to make it through an awkward dinner date, but then something turns and the genuine terror brought on by this man is just overwhelming.
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Honestly, Feed Me mostly works because of that cannibal Lionel and the absolutely bonkers and brilliant performance by Neal Ward. His accent is all over the place, everything must be performed like he’s being actively electrocuted at all times and the hair is so distractingly bad that you will spend a solid 5 minutes just staring at it… and it’s all intentional and creates this fascinating, hilarious and disgusting creature who can literally do anything the film demands.
It’s the kind of performance that, were it not for the serious moments that elevate it, could risk feeling like a bad acting job but in full context it’s absolutely brilliant with some glorious insane choices that just work.
What’s impressive about Feed Me is that, despite its love of playing everything to the absolute max at all times, it doesn’t do so to the point of being overwhelming. It’s easy to adjust to the energy the film is giving off and just revelling in their madness. It’s certainly not playing for a mainstream audience, this isn’t like Fresh which was also a cannibal film that was playing mostly to a mainstream audience. Feed Me is for the weirdos who like their horror movies as fucked up as possible and that audience is going to dig this.
Feed Me Overall
Feed Me is nothing short of demented, but that’s what it’s trying to be. It’s aiming for insanity and it lands there within minutes. It’s sick, nasty, fucked up on so many levels and probably going to make a few people want to lose their lunch and it’s absolutely goddamn brilliant.
Obviously, this will not be everyone’s cup of tea, if the notion of cannibalism in a movie alone doesn’t turn you off then there’s a good chance something else in this film might, but if you’re in the mood for a genuinely funny twisted dark comedy that dances on the line of good taste then Feed Me is going to satisfy that craving like nothing else.
What did you think of Feed Me?
Feed Me showed as part of the A Night Of Horror international film festival at Dendy Cinema Newtown from 17th-23rd October 2022
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