Feast

First - let's clarify a few things which people seem to be confused about.

* Feast's budget was about $3,000,000.00, not $1 million.

* I am not sure whether the word "independent" should be used for a film which required (I assume) voluntary (donations?) 'production' efforts from Harvey Weinstein, Wes Craven, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. "Project Green-Light" or not. It's really too bad that their hourly rates don't show up in the reported budgets for projects such as this - would help to clarify a lot of misunderstandings regarding the nature of allegedly independent, supposedly low-budget releases.

* The cast is far from a group of of nobodies. Look them up right here on IMDb. For a supposed low-budget film, Feast relies very heavily on name-recognition and star power.

John Gulager does a very nice job of telling a claustrophobic, absurd, but fun tale of terror and gore in "Feast". It's an old story, but,in this case, it's told very well.

A bar full of archetypal jerks, losers and heroes are startled by a would-be hero's (Eric Dane) violent, blood-soaked entry into the bar with a gun and an attitude. The hero announces that the bar is just about to be attacked by four angry monsters with razor-sharp claws and teeth. The audience is almost immediately introduced to the film's audience participation game. Here are the (unstated, but easily understood) challenges:

* Understand that what is going to happen in this film is obvious and that we've seen it all before.

* The game is to figure out who gets it next

* If you're really good - try guessing how they are going to get it too.

The casting, editing and directing make this film worth watching. The script is fine for what it is, but that isn't saying a whole lot. And the acting is uniformly good - again, for what it is. Watching Henry Rollins ironically playing a self-help con artist with obvious problems of his own, Clu Gallagher comically reprising the roll of the ancient bartender and erstwhile retired gunfighter in a very unlikely isolated desert context, Balthazar Getty as the "Town Jackass", and Navi Rawat as the tough chick mom on a mission is well... just a lot of fun.

The special effects are heavily digitized and there are a number of very noticeable 'digital moments'. I know I am supposed to say that the special effects were brilliant for the cost of the film, but I do not trust the reported budget - I suspect that a lot of very expensive people were employed on a voluntary basis for this film, and it is obvious that their time was not accounted for in the reported budget.

Highly recommended for horror comedy fans and fans of the cast members. Not recommended for those who have difficulties with extremely disgusting gore, and not recommended for those who do not recognize at least one or two of the major cast members.

A send up of the old school Gory monster movie, that is absolutely amazing and an utter surprise. If you like the genre, you'll truly enjoy this flick

This is one of the movies that terrified me as a kid watching TV late night. The third movie in the trilogy was often aired so I got to see a few times. The first one is good. You'll get a laugh or two out of this. It has stereotypes, one liners, monsters, a bit of everything. It's the perfect movie for a rainy night. 7/10

Feast knows that it's a dirty, trashy, low-budget monster movie and it excels at being just that.

I personally rank it up there with some of the great meta horror movies like Cabin in the Woods and Evil Dead 2.

The beginning does a great job playing with your expectations before subverting them in the most over-the top way possible and sets the perfect tone for the rest of the movie.

Fans of practical creature effects, splatter house gore, and raunchy humor will be delighted by this simple, bare-bones, straight to the point plot and dark humor.

Don't go in expecting a deep story, just enjoy the campy madness of a bunch of one-note characters struggling to avoid becoming monster chow.

You may recognize some of the people on screen here, from TV roles or from other movies. Henry Rollins a genre veteran and others that is. But what really counts, are the characters they're portraying. Of course you're not going to get 3-dimensional here, but that's something you couldn't expect from the movie. What you can expect though, is a really nice story, some cool one-liners and some pretty funny ideas. One of them being the introduction of the characters. I loved that bit and was bummed when they ditched it in part 2.

If you can restrict yourself, do not watch the trailer, there is a massive (early) spoiler in there. And one that is really on the nose. Other than that, if you like a good b-movie that is out there (no pun intended), you will love this. The follow ups were not as good, but at least tried to follow the pace this set