Family Dinner

I would call this a great breath of fresh air if the movie's inherent atmosphere wasn't so suffocating.

I am puzzled by some of the really negative user reviews. Is it a Hollywood movie? Is it an actual horror movie? No to both. It is a very European movie. Not flashy, no special effects, just a gently paced, mounting sense of dread and discomfort. The cold set and lighting contribute to a sense of impending tragedy.

Overweight Simi is cleverly made to look and feel like an outsider among the painfully thin Aunt Claudia and her partner Steffan. Aunt Claudia is a famous nutritionist whom Simi hope will help lose weight. It soon appears that Claudia's techniques have become a little extreme as indeed has her mental health.

Gently paced but ultimately very tense and frightening with really strong and. Nuanced central performances.

Give it a shot.

A slow moving, atmospheric, uncomfortable viewing is not going to be everyone's cup of tea... but there was something I quite liked about this one. It viscerally makes you uncomfortable and I love when a movie is able to do that. The acting is pretty great all around as well, everyone had very solid moments.

There truly wasn't all that much to the story here. There were hints of folk horror aspects here and there but nothing was ever really explained or elaborated on. This kept up the air of mystery, but I would have loved a little more just as far as a semblance of a solidified story's sake goes... that was a little lacking for me. But as a whole experience, it was a positive for me. 5.5 rounding up to a 6. Would recommend.

I wouldn't consider this a real horror movie, it's more of a slow paced psychological thriller with some horror elements towards the third act. Usually I'm not a big fan of slow-paced movies but since this was an Austrian horror movie which we don't see a lot from I was intrigued.

It follows Simi, an overweight teenager who's staying at her aunts farm in her holidays. Her aunt is a famous writer and nutrition expert and is teaching Simi a lot about eating healthy. The aunt portrayed by Pia Hierzegger immediately has a weird presence and also her husband Stefan sometimes just seems too nice and is creating an uncomfortable sexual tension between the teenager and him. He also doesn't seem to like the aunts son Filipp. Filipp is acting creepy and keeps weirding out Simi even telling her that he thinks that his mother has evil plans for him. The movie slowly makes its tension-filled way towards the final act where you get the answer to your questions. Some might say it was predictable but I still enjoyed it and think it was a decent watch. [5,6/10]

Family Dinner is the feature debut of writer and director Peter Hengl, who had only produced short films previously. However, the bold red title font emblazoned across the opening credits, hint at the pedigree of the filmmaker as it reminds the viewer that he is a past student under the tutelage of the legendary Michael Heneke (Funny Games, Hidden) at the Vienna Film Academy. Hengl wears this influence on his sleeve as he crafts a morbid, murky, and brooding film that would garner praise from his former professor.

An overweight teenager (Nina Katlein) spends the Easter holidays at her famous nutritionist aunt's farm in the hope of getting help to lose weight, but soon after her arrival, she begins to suspect that something is very wrong and that her family should not be trusted.

Experienced horror fans will have no problem predicting where Family Dinner will go at its conclusion, but the journey will be mesmerising and harrowing. The German-language film is very deliberately paced in the rich history of elevated European cinema, but each scene crackles with intent and intensity. The viewer is left unnerved and unbalanced with each new interaction between characters who clearly have hidden motives.

Nina Katlein is a revelation as the determined Simi. The character sets her mind to something and fully commits to it and the actor beautifully manages to capture the duelling parts of Simi's personality as she struggles to make sense of the escalating tensions in the home of her aunt. Katlein effortlessly shifts between determination, compassion, fear, and bravery, as she crafts a fully-fledged three-dimensional person with specific goals and uncertain boundaries. She grapples with her unhealthy habits, but remains focused on body positivity and staying true to herself throughout the attempt to lose excess weight.

Pia Hierzegger is equally superb as the jittery and manipulative Aunt Claudia whose dialogue is layered with venom and disdain. Her performance is grotesque, unhinged and hypnotic, with each scene building momentum towards a brutal outcome which our protagonist is oblivious to.

The sound design for Family Dinner is a character in its own right as it gets under the viewer's skin. Creepy, but fun sound-effects make connections between the food being consumed, the physical changes the characters undergo and the continuous build-up of tension. The audience becomes a complicit voyeur, as Hengl immerses them in a strained and weird, but relatable, family dynamic, while the pacing keeps us, and Simi, mystified by the unsettling and perplexing events. The foreshadowing wonderfully pays off as a reward for anyone paying close attention to the unfolding madness.

Family Dinner is a deviously delicious recipe of psychological manipulation and macabre horror that combines effectively into a feast of a meal and gives us a cinematic first; a horror film set during the Easter period. Move over Halloween and Friday the 13th. Give way Killer Santa because the Easter Bunny has a malicious and creepy tale to tell.

Who cares what genre it is; it's a combination of all three, and while you've seen films with similar plot lines like this before, you know what to expect and even how it might turn out, but it's still worth the watch to get there.

This is a slow burn film, with no wasted scenes or padding, with believable and sympathetic actors, and you don't really have to suspend disbelief because the girl and the boy act like real kids would act around parents and adults. True, the girl is a bit smarter at the end than you may have thought she should be, but since it's only one small contrivance, it was acceptable as it was needed to get to a satisfying conclusion.