Family Dinner

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.

Peter Hengl is one sick puppy, and I mean that as a compliment. He is both the writer and director of this wicked German film.

A teenage girl seeking to lose a few pounds is left with her aunt by her mother six days prior to Easter Sunday but do not expect a big bunny rabbit with colored eggs for the Holiday celebration.

Instead, the best selling author of diet books takes the young girl under her supervision with a crash diet program of no food for the six days leading up to a wonderful dinner with the aunt, her young son and her live-in boyfriend.

The diet coach is a strange woman filled with what seems to be a new age kind of religion. Earth mom is not playing with a full deck.

The ending was not a surprise to me but I still recommend Family Dinner.

One will need subtitles, as the film is in German. Aunt Claudia and Uncle Stefan and son Philipp live on an isolated farm in the countryside. Simi, a bit overweight is to visit and arrives the Tuesday before Easter, thinking she would stay through Easter. But she is informed that Easter is a very special and private time, and they didn't expect her to stay that long. Claudia is a nutrition expert, and puts Simi on a diet. Diet is the wrong term, as it is to be NO food until Easter, and she is then invited to stay longer. She has to share the room with Filipp, and it is clear he doesn't like her. Claudia says he has a personality disorder and often runs away. It is slow paced, very moody, and there are many undercurrents to the story. As Easter approaches, Stefan says he doesn't agree with the entire ritual, but it is very important to Claudia, so Simi should just go along with it. I can't really consider it a horror movie in the true sense, as there are no jump scares or other things associated with horror movies. It is decent movie, well acted but not really special.

The film was advertised as a domestic horror film and the mood and the location was very well met. In terms of action, the whole film takes place on a farm in the countryside (Lower Austria), the actors are all very convincing and were well chosen. Pia Hierzegger is of course fantastic as the aunt, very believable.

The label horror film is too strong for me, although it certainly fits into the genre, but measured against today's usual horror films, the film is already rather harmless, more psychological thriller. Also, the film offers little surprising.

The story: overweight teenager Simi visits aunt Claudia, a nutrition expert, in the countryside (with hopes to be helped with dieting), with (newly married) uncle Stefan and cousin Fillip (from the first marriage of the aunt). Simi feels uncomfortable from the beginning, the cousin a creep, the aunt strict, the uncle too nice?

I felt they got inspired by films like "Get Out," "The Wicker Man," as well as some Hammer films from the sixties. Without giving more away, you definitely guess what the whole thing is leading up to in the course of the film. That's what I meant by unsurprising. I was missing a twist that would change your view of the story and question your perception, so to speak, but that twist doesn't come. Conclusion: well done, but not top notch.

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.