SXSW 2021 Review: THE FEAST

By Jan Hamilton

Director: Lee Haven Jones, Screenwriter/Producer: Roger Williams
Over an evening a wealthy family gathers for a sumptuous dinner with guests in their ostentatious house in the Welsh mountains. Served by a mysteriously disturbing young woman, the assembled party do not realize they are about to eat their last supper. Cast List: Anne Elwy, Nia Roberts, Julian Lewis Jones, Steffan Cennydd, Sion Alun Davies, Lisa Palfrey, Rhodri Meilir (World Premiere)

Cadi, a young girl in Wales, comes to the lovely modern home of Gweirydd, a member of Parliament, to help serve a special dinner. His spouse Delyth and two sons, Guto and Gwyn are here. They are expecting a couple of neighbors and a foreign guest. The two brothers are quite different. Guto is nice and plays a guitar, while Gwyn is disagreeable and likes guns. The brothers do not get along.

In the preparation time allotted for the dinner, Delyth notices that Cadi has a spot of blood on her blouse, so she offers one of her own. Cadi goes the the master suite for the blouse and also secretly tries on Delyth’s jewelry. Cadi wanders around the house, spying on
people and generally screwing up the dinner preparation
.

Delyth fixes the things Cadi hasmessed up, but doesn’t notice the hair in the glass that their guest Euros is given. The neighbor Mair arrives but her husband Lor is absent. There is a tense dinner with the sons squabbling One will only eat raw meat. An injury to Guto’s
leg keeps growing worse rapidly and Cadi wants Gwyn to cut off his brothers leg. Guest Events keep building to a horrifying climax.

 If you like horror, this one’s for you. The sense of dread starts to build early and never stops. You don’t know what is wrong, but things just aren’t as they should be. Then everything seems to go wrong all at once. This film was very well made, and the actors are perfect for their roles. The pace is deliberately slow at first, but zooms towards the end. It has a story which could also parallel man’s misuse of the natural resources of earth.

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