With the exception of B-movie director Ed Wood's bumbling failures, John Gulager's "Feast" just might be considered one of the worst American movies ever made, and that's what makes it fun to watch.
This joke of a movie is a bloated 83 minutes and seemed to entertain every viewer in the audience. Clearly something about the movie's lack of substance, besides the useless blood and gore, keeps the viewer in their seat waiting for more.
Gulager wasn't the only one who wounded the film in its conception. Screenwriters Marcus Dulstan and Patrick Melton also illustrate their incredibly shortsighted ambitions with each passing minute. None of the characters in this cheap horror flick have names, and even worse, they're played by no-name actors.
The skimpy plot involves a group of colorful Westerners stuck in a seedy bar while an unexplained hoard of monsters attempts to break into the bar and eat every human in sight.
The beginning of the film shows statistics and fun facts for each of the characters in the movie. For example, each character is given a life expectancy estimate and a weapon. The statistics play on common horror movie stereotypes and this videogame-like spin gives the movie a surprisingly enjoyable quality.
The film is the third installment in executive producers Matt Damon's and Ben Affleck's show "Project Greenlight." The show's objective is to pick a screenwriter and a director from a hefty number of submissions and provide them with a small yet substantial amount of money to make a collaborative independent film.
The series' previous films are "Stolen Summer" and "The Battle of Shaker Heights," which are coming of age stories about families and friends. After the critical and commercial disappointment of both films, the collaborators of "Project Greenlight" decided to try the horror genre, recruiting horror legend Wes Craven ("Red Eye") to produce and oversee the filmmaking.
During the third season of "Greenlight," several things occurred that would deter the filming of "Feast." At more than one point, Gulager tried to stretch his limited budget, which jeopardized the completion of the movie.
It seems ironic that their were problems with Gulager using too much money, seeing how the film looks like one of the cheapest horror movies made since the original Michael Myers appeared in a hockey mask.
During most of the gory scenes, the perspective is ruined due to the continuous shakiness of the camera. Even the music feels mailed in. Most of the tracks sound as if they were yanked from other horror movies.
Yet, with all of these B-side qualities, "Feast" is destined to become classic in the future. Its underground popularity may never reach the heights of "The Boondock Saints" or "Reservoir Dogs," but the movie continuously maintains a "Snakes on a Plane" sort of silliness that never fails to amuse.
To the screenwriter's credit, the film goes far out of its way to avoid every horror genre clich?(c) in existence. While this doesn't make the movie any better, it certainly offers some level of freshness.
With goofy actors like Henry Rollins ("A House on a Hill") appearing as Coach, a very bad motivational speaker, and Navi Rawat ("House of Sand and Fog") as the hard-edged Heroine, the movie doesn't fail to grab your attention.
The acting, writing, directing, cinematography, music and editing are all awful, but "Feast" may be bad enough to be good.
