Feed

Phillip, Australian cyber crime officer, searches the seedy side of the internet, seeking illicit porn and snuff sites. After his last assignment in Germany, arresting a man wanting to eat himself and his accomplice. Phillip finds a site for Feeders and Gainers, where people (the feeders) feed food to the gainers, making them overtly overweight unable to move. Running the site, Michael Carter has his latest woman to feed, Deirdre, with an abundance of food for her to beg for. Without authority, Phillip flies to America to track Michael and stop this disturbing act.

At a time when Australia is rebuilding its film industry; with great films Look Both Way, Wolf Creek, Little Fish and The Proposition, it was only a matter of time for a movie like Feed would make its way out of the woodwork. Feed is a twisted, very twisted, film on humanities consumption and the amount of food we're eating. With our society so concerned of being thin, Feed spins that notion on its head, where bigger people are more beautiful; while taking it to the n'th degree with Dedrae weighing over six hundred pounds.

Like many films of this caliber, the hallmarks of a small budget are easily seen, yet isn't that the 'charm' of these films; rough camera work, corny dialog, overblown acting and a plot that doesn't completely make sense. As Feed starts off interesting, it takes a turn for the worst. Dropping the psychological mind game Michael was playing with Phillip, Feed turns into a chase film, becoming tedious with an overly drawn out ending. Its the move into familiar, predictable territory, where it was so unfamiliar to start off with.

Like before, the acting is so overblown. Patrick Thompson's tormented cop verges idiotic, gruffing his way along. Alex O'Loughlin fails to evoke a creepy vibe for Michael. The best acting came from Gabby Millgate, donning the fat suit while repeating "Feed Me".

Does Feed put you off food, no; Morgan Spurlocks documentary Super Size Me had more of a revulsion towards food.

The basic plot: cyber investigators from Austalia stumble on a fetist website about women who literally get feed to death of their own volition.

This movie will have a limited target audience. Fans of gross out movies will enjoy it, but there is no way an average person who pays to see movies like King Kong, The Transporter or Pirates of the Caribian will enjoy this. This target audience is a little more...less mainstream.

It's gross. At times it's hard to stomach 600 pound naked women being force fed then puking. It's a different kind of gross from movies like Cannibal Holocaust, Salo, Hostel, Se7en. It's more disturbing simply because of the subject matter, rather then the gore. But at the same time, I watched the whole thing, so I guess it wasn't bad.

Both the acting and direction were a pleasant surprise, I was expecting a mid range B movie, but got a real movie instead.

Two things I would have done differently...1. Dwell a little on the 'fans' of the fetish in question (they weren't even addressed), and 2. either more of the cannibal issue from the start of the movie or take that scene out completely or tie it into the force feeding later on.

I did stop eating though when I was watching it. A perfectly good tub of Orvil movie style popcorn, thrown away. So I suppose it accomplished what it set out to do.

I won't rate this movie though. I will only say, it was well done overall, and if you think you can stomach the subject matter, seek it out and watch it.

In Sidney, the Interpol agent Phillip Jackson (Patrick Thompson) investigates crimes in Internet with his partner Nigel (Matthew Le Nevez). After a mission in Hamburg, Phillip has troubles in the relationship with his liberal girlfriend Abbey (Rose Ashton) that tags him "chauvinist pig". While researching the web, Phillip finds a bizarre site where a man shows obese women being fed by him. He finds the origin of the site in Ohio, and without authorization, he travels to USA pursuing the pervert Michael Metszencalmpf, a.k.a. Michael Carter (Alex O'Loughlin). When Phil meets Michael, he surprisingly knows who Phil is; further, Michael tells that what he is doing is not wrong since he is releasing fat women from the standards of thinness imposed by the society. However, Phil discovers the true motives of Michael, beginning a personal war against the deranged criminal.

"Feed" is bizarre, sick, disgusting; I have no doubts about it. However, it is also a scary and original story, with well developed characters and situations, and very well acted and directed. The association of the unpleasant plot with "Se7en" or the first's works of David Cronenberg or Takashi Miike is quite immediate. Michael is a clever psychopath, and his explanations about evolution and fashion standards are very impressive. Phillip is an impulsive detective that goes deeper in his investigations, but has his own demons in the closet. The result is a fascinating mouse and cat duel with a surprising conclusion. The gruesome "Feed" is not recommended to audiences of blockbusters or commercial movies; but for viewers that aim for a disturbing film that breaks taboos, they will certainly enjoy this movie. My vote is se7en.

Title (Brazil): "Feed – Fome Assassina" ("Feed – Assassin Hunger")

"Feed" tells the grotesque and fascinating story of psychopath,who feeds his victims to death.He keeps seriously obese women in his dead mom's house where he feeds them junk food and calorie-rich slop to their hearts desire.Australian cop tries to stop this disturbed fetishist..."Feed" by Brett Leonard is an undeniably unique addition to the psycho genre.Alex O'Loughlin is excellent as the resident lunatic Michael Carter.The film is quite gross,but having seen tons of extreme stuff I wasn't shocked or disturbed.Still the subject matter is morbidly fascinating and there is enough nudity,vomit and deviant behaviour to keep exploitation fans happy.Give this tense and slightly repulsive thriller a look.The nods to German cannibal case of Arnim Meiwes are especially notable.8 out of 10.

"Feed" is an impressive new psycho-thriller, definitely not without flaws or weaknesses but nonetheless capable of providing a compelling story as well as a handful of genuine shocks and/or repulsive images. The plot often gets compared to the overrated 90's thriller "Seven", but "Feed" is a lot more realistic, or at least the most basic elements in the screenplay are. This movie primarily handles about extreme sexual fetishes and, as much as we'd all like to deny it, they really do exist. The movie opens with a fictional re-telling of the Arnim Meiwes murder-case. This odd German guy cooked and ATE a man whom he met through the internet, because they both deeply desired to experience this. Onwards to the main storyline, which revolves on a twisted persona who fattens a helpless woman until she weighs more than 600 pounds. His intentions with her may be typical movie-material (he video cams her on his internet pages and accepts bets on when she will die), but actual fetishes like this are real and they're nearly impossible to understand. The scenes in which Michael nourishes his obese muse Deirdre disgusting hamburgers and even shoves funnels and plastic tubes down her gullet are unpleasantly perplexing and, yes, maybe even a bit disturbing. However, "Feed" loses a lot of its power as soon as the story too obviously turns into a typical power showdown between the evil mastermind and the obsessive copper. Aussie cyber detective Philippe Jackson, whose passionate sex life we also get to see in great detail, stumbles upon Michael's well-protected website and single-handedly travels to the States to put a stop to it. The maniac once again turns out to be traumatized since childhood and, naturally, he's very eloquent and always has a genius speech ready whenever someone points out his sickness to him. These are some clichés "Feed" regretfully suffers from, but it remains a clever thriller and SO much better than the mainstream crap that reaches the theaters. Brett "The Dead Pit" Leonard's directing is solid and he surely makes the most out of a tiny budget. Alex O'Loughlin's portrayal of the weirdo Michael occasionally reminded me about Ted Levine in "Silence of the Lambs", and that's always a good thing. The make-up effects are pretty convincing, most notably the jaw-dropping fat suit they put on poor actress Gabby Millgate. The creators' twisted sense of humor is extra emphasized by the soundtrack, which contains ambiguous 60's songs like "Yummy Yummy, love in my Tummy", "Cherish" and "Lips like Sugar". Time to wrap up with some food-related terms & expressions: "Feed" is at times finger-licking good and certainly recommended to the horror-connoisseurs among us!