A blood-soaked creature feature with distinct From Dusk till Dawn vibes that died a painful death at the box office in spite of its meager budget while being greeted with middling reactions from both critics and audiences doesn’t seem like the sort of project that would rope in no less than three supremely famous faces, but that’s what makes Feast so fascinating.
Directed by John Gulager, the grisly cavalcade of body horror and limb-shredding violence finds a group of strangers holing up in a remote bar to try and survive the night after a cabal of flesh-eating monsters descend upon their location with the intent of adding them to the menu, leading to a deliriously unhinged succession of gore-splattered set pieces.
Even though it was made for only $3 million, Feast sank without a trace during its theatrical release after earning just $658,000 in ticket sales, even if it did get a pair of sequels; as tends to be the case for any self-respecting B-tier terror. It’s not exactly a high watermark for cinema, then, but the response to an appreciatory Reddit thread does make it clear the film has plenty of fans.
Maybe Feast would have made a bigger splash had it made more mention of the fact that Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Wes Craven were all credited as producers, with the production having been funded by virtue of the pitch emerging victorious in the third season of the lifelong best buddies’ Project Greenlight TV series.
It might not have staved off disaster, but attaching such a wild concept with the unexpected marketing hook of “produced by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Wes Craven” might have seen it fare better than it ultimately did.
Published: Apr 30, 2023 03:13 am