One of the films that has definitely made this year better when it comes to what horror is available in cinemas in the UK is The Feast (thank you, Picturehouse Entertainment) – a modern, made in Wales supernatural eco horror. It is a feature film debut for the director Lee Haven Jones, and second feature film for the writer Roger Williams.
Even though I was unimpressed by The Feast’s trailer, which in my mind suggested it is a boring sequence of close-ups, single shots and establishing shots with little that would terrify – a combo that I think a good number of (mostly independent) horror films suffer from nowadays, I ended up writing this review just as I am to go and see The Feast for the second time. And that is because I liked how the film surprised me, managing to make up for what I perceived to be its flaws with a remarkable consolidation of the agenda, which its lead character Cadi (Annes Elwy, who does a remarkably good job with her role) is there with.
First of all, there was the fact I thought The Feast is going to be a slow burn, following the approach to plot structure that’s become only too familiar these days. Secondly, the fact I thought there is going to be someone, most likely a girl who’s exacting revenge for some wrongdoing and suffering. While I wasn’t entirely wrong about any of the above, The Feast really turned out to be a different biscuit with just enough unexpected aspects to draw me in. So much so that even its moralizing nature still resonated well with me.
The moralizing and propaganda are things I happen to be acutely sensitive to; that particularly applies to the latter, and yet; the direct, in your face expressions by The Feast creators of that what is not right throughout the film managed to hook me. I’m guessing it is the honesty along with the choice of things and traits of character being brought forward that win the heart of spectator here. There is certain simplicity to it all, which, given the central conflict in the film, i.e. nature versus profits, and the rural area which serves as a perfect setting for referring to the base level, where that sort of conflict often begins, works in favour of the filmmaker.
Another aspect, which hooked me in The Feast, was the connection that’s made between earth and womanhood. In fact, the way I see it, Cadi’s agenda, mentioned earlier on, is part of this aspect; that is made quite evident on number of occasions, not least by use of flashbacks.
Cadi is there to help to prepare a 3-course meal and set the table for it. Glenda (played by Nia Roberts; well known actress in Wales, who’s also had roles in some Doctor Who and The Crown episodes) is the hostess, who’s hired the young woman. Glenda doesn’t seem bothered by the fact Cadi doesn’t talk. This is yet another aspect in The Feast, which I couldn’t stop admiring – both, Lee Haven Jones and Roger Williams have managed to make all that look so natural, it only dawns on an unsuspecting spectator about lack of words on Cadi’s part a while later.
Cadi isn’t mute however – not only there is a scene of her singing in unison with Glenda, she also has conversation with Guto (Steffan Cennydd) and to a smaller degree with Gweirydd (Sion Alun Davies) too; the two sons of Glenda and her husband Gwyn (Julian Lewis Jones) – a member of parliament. Given the latter’s occupation, which he prefers to regard not as a job, but as a privilege, the family spends most of the time in London, visiting the Scandinavian modernism style estate in Welsh mountains, built on a land Glenda had inherited, as a rural retreat from the life in the city. Exactly this fact of Glenda’s inherited land in Wales that is being used with little care for history, traditions and that how it forms a part of larger landscape there is what in The Feast makes for a major transgression and a crime against womanhood.
The use of the term “transgression” isn’t without a reason here for there are not too subtle references to Catholic deadly, mortal sins in this film. (Seen in this context, it’s interesting to see how Catholicism works as a part of the sense of what is traditional alongside folk beliefs of clearly pagan nature.) Glenda’s sin is avarice, and I cannot praise enough the performance of Mrs. Roberts who navigates through duties of housewife, those of mother; a somewhat clueless wife who’s husband is looking for certain sort of “friends” as well as that of transgressor obsessed with wealth and comfort, being essentially removed from the local surroundings as Glenda’s conversations with one of the nearby landowners Mair (Lisa Palfrey) attest to.
Gweirydd, who is obsessed with his own body, can be found guilty of the sin of pride as well as that of lust, which Cadi ends up dealing with in a manner consistent with the mood of relatively simple folk horror. Meanwhile, Euros (Rhodri Meilir), who is one to help the family to profits from the transgressive use of land, is guilty of the sin of gluttony. In The Feast everyone ends up paying for their sins and transgressions.
In the second paragraph of this writing I have mentioned flaws. Ok, firstly, young guys who play electric guitars and are hopelessly addicted to drugs is altogether a cliche, which can be made worse by suggesting they wouldn’t care what they are injecting. Secondly, punishment of a character for gluttony, in my opinion, should have been done with a more substantial and realistic case. I personally hate the idea of fracking, for instance, and I would have applauded should Euros had been explicitly representing fracking industry, but in The Feast his character looks like just anyone who is in position of giving orders to workers with drills. Was he even aware of what the Rise was? In other words, I love the sentiment, but it is off-putting when the sentiment begins to feel like its rooted in beliefs and bias rather than facts.
Peer Ynt
Read my review of 2021 South African eco horror film Gaia here.
Read my review of 2021 movie A Classic Horror Story, which plays with the folk horror genre here.
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