Movies
LAFF ’10 Review: Another Taste of ‘Bitter Feast’
Yesterday I posted my review of Joe Maggio’s Bitter Feast where I said the film was “more of a potluck than a delicious stew.” Bloody Disgusting’s BC attended the LAFF premiere and has chimed in with his thoughts; see what he had to say below and watch for a release date soon from Dark Sky Films. It stars James LeGros as a New York Chef and TV cooking personality, who takes culinary revenge on the food critic (Josh Leonard), who recently savaged his restaurant in a review.
The new movie from Larry Fessenden’s Glass Eye Pix horror offshoot Scareflix, Bitter Feast, tackles something I sometimes fear: a critic being tortured by someone he panned. But in this case, it’s food instead of movies, which allows for more interesting scenarios. After chaining the critic (a terrific Josh Leonard) up, the scorned chef (James LeGros) presents him with a few “tests” – he makes Leonard – hands bound together and chained to a wall – prepare a specific dish that he had panned (not necessarily one of LeGros’). If it’s satisfactory, he can eat. If not, he goes without food another day. Thus you have the first movie in which we have a nail-biting sequence revolving around whether or not someone can prepare an over easy egg.
And for a while, it’s a really great, unique take on the “chain someone up” sub-genre, but sadly it goes off the rails in the third act. The film’s power stemmed from seeing two fairly unlikable men engage in a battle where you weren’t sure which one to root for. Leonard is technically the victim – he’s the one that was kidnapped and is getting tortured, but he’s also a cold, angry man who tears down others for his own enjoyment, whereas LeGros, prior to snapping, is simply an arrogant ass, not unlike a lot of folks. And over the course of the film you find out about individual tragedies that shaped who they are and caused them to be this way. So you’re thinking that writer/director Joe Maggio is leading toward the two men sort of seeing eye to eye (but with a tragic ending), but then suddenly a third character enters the fray, and it becomes a generic chase film, with LeGros stalking Leonard and the other character (I won’t spoil, though it’s not hard to guess if you’re watching the movie), with no irony or even much dialogue accompanying it. It’d be like if with 25 minutes left in Misery, Paul’s buddy showed up and became the main character of the film. It’s a really awkward shift, and the movie loses its edge.
In the post film Q&A we learned that the original script was far less horror-centric, so perhaps that is why it changed (they didn’t get too specific and being after midnight, I didn’t feel like asking a potentially long-winded question). Perhaps it was always supposed to focus on the battle between the two men, but in making it more of a horror film they sort of lost that angle. It’s not a total failure – there is no feeling anyone is “safe”, and Maggio has a knack for fake-fake scares (i.e. someone opens a bathroom mirror and then shuts it, but the killer is NOT suddenly behind them as expected), but perhaps a more thorough threading of the “outright horror” elements into the script would have been preferable to just sort of shoehorning them into the 3rd act.
These changes apparently came at the request of executive producer/co-star Fessenden, but silver lining – he also brought in his frequent composer Jeff Grace. As always, his score is amazing, and I’m pretty sure a CD with all of his themes would never leave my player. Perhaps he should have employed I Sell The Dead director/editor Glenn McQuaid to edit the film however, instead of Maggio’s usual guy. It’s a bit long, and certain scenes could have been tightened (or even excised, since certain plot elements never really pay off, such as LeGros taking the time to write the number on each of his padlocks and its corresponding key – the keys are never even really shown again).
So we have a horror film that’s biggest problem is that it’s a horror film. Had they toned down some of the typical stuff and kept the focus on character right up to the end, I think that Bitter Feast could have easily been one of the year’s best thrillers. Instead it’s an uneven, but still good movie. And I’m not just saying that as a scared critic.
Score 3.5/5
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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