Editor's Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on September 27, 2006, and we're proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files.
“Don’t you normally talk about the movie when you do commentaries?” asks someone (I believe it’s co-scripter Marcus Dunstan) at the end of the talk track on Dimension/Genius Entertainment’s Feast DVD (coming October 17). It’s a fair question, one that a listener might also pose after hearing Dunstan, his fellow scribe Patrick Melton, director John Gulager, producers Michael Leahy and Joel Soisson, FX creator Gary J. Tunnicliffe and (I believe) editor Kirk Morri spend most of the discussion goofing on the film, the shoot, the cast and each other rather than getting down to the nitty-gritty of Feast’s development and production.
But it’s an understandable impulse, given that this gang spent almost the entirety of Feast’s production under the microscope of the Project Greenlight cameras, their every move on (and quite a few off) set scrutinized, constantly queried in on-camera interviews about how the movie was going. As such, with the intense and troubled shoot over and the movie finally completed, these guys can be forgiven for taking the opportunity to kick back and have some fun enjoying the fruits of what Greenlight viewers know was a lot of often arduous labor. Perhaps they assumed that their season of Greenlight (like the previous two) would be issued on DVD simultaneously with Feast, but inexplicably, no announcement even seems to have been made about the show hitting disc.
In any case, the fun is contagious, and we do learn a few Fun Facts not revealed on Greenlight: The basement scenes were lensed on a borrowed set for Wes Craven’s Cursed; Feast’s first-draft script was 135 pages before being pared down to a level (almost) manageable on the prescribed budget; the unexpected death of one character was originally much, much worse in that early version; and the first monster-attack sequence was captured in bits and pieces throughout the shoot. The tension that arose during filming is touched upon briefly, as when Gulager insists that he and cinematographer Tom Callaway, who had a contentious relationship on set, are friends now, and references to changes insisted upon by “our spineless producers” come up now and then. Occasionally there are tantalizing hints of other alterations, or attempted ones, that go unelaborated on, as when someone says of the creatures, “They don’t talk…Joel.”
Considering all the turmoil involved in its making, Feast turned out pretty well, and the amount of coverage in the rapid-fire action sequences is kinda remarkable considering the tight schedule everyone worked under. The result no doubt played great in its recent midnight showcases, and probably a little better there than it does at home; it’ll likely help to watch it with a TV room full of enthusiastic horror fans. For all the wit of its character introductions (freeze-frames with brief, snarky descriptions, including life expectancies that you just know are going to be subverted) and frequently amusing dialogue, the movie doesn’t really give you anyone to connect with emotionally, and thus the fun mostly lies in waiting to see how gorily its bar full of motley folks are going to die.
The answer is often very much so, with blood spurting, splattering and streaming everywhere as the beasts decimate their ranks. Gulager’s hyperactive camerawork and cutting in the action setpieces sometimes gets too hyper, making it hard to tell who (or what) is doing what to whom; this works in the early going as it reflects the characters’ disorientation, but by the end you might be wishing for a better look at the action. It has been suggested by a few onlookers that this approach was taken to keep viewers from getting a good look at the monster FX, but Tunnicliffe’s work comes across quite well, and the critters are never less than convincing. Same goes for most of the cast in roles that are generally as functional as their names, and as far as the characters go, the film is stolen by Clu Gulager, bringing no-bullshit attitude to Bartender, and Judah Friedlander, who’s hilarious as the even-more-ill-fated-than-the-rest Beer Guy.
Feast’s evocative visuals also belie the quick-and-dirty filming conditions, and are given a sterling presentation on the disc. Suffused in darkness, bruise-yellow lighting and atmosphere smoke, the images are nonetheless replicated with sterling clarity in the 2.35:1 transfer, complemented by a vigorous 5.1 audio mix. The extras also include “A Small Feast of Outtakes” (very small, actually—only three minutes, ending with a funny bit involving the elder Gulager), deleted scenes and an alternate ending (nothing too remarkable) and a pair of featurettes. One focuses on Tunnicliffe and his FX, with the artist sharing a funny recollection of first telling his father he wanted to go into makeup and sharing his secret for cinematic blood: “The trick…is to make it brown.” A few of the cast comment on working with the Feast beasts on set, and we also get behind-the-scenes footage of the performers getting hit with the red—er, brown stuff; Friedlander, we learn, was especially enthused about working with it.
The actor is even interviewed wearing his prosthetics in “Horror Under the Spotlight: Making Feast,” which as its title suggests deals with the difficulties of making a movie while a whole second camera crew documented the process. The most notable part of this piece, however, is its behind-the-scenes footage of the one area of Feast’s production not covered on Greenlight: the pickup shots lensed by Gulager earlier this year (some on Super-8) without the support of the studio. This bespeaks a commitment and gumption that didn’t always come across on Greenlight, and backs up the praise given him by several of his collaborators. It is stated here that Feast proves Gulager to be ready to take his place in the mainstream filmmaking world—but the featurette ends on a lovely final image that suggests where the director’s independent heart truly lies.
