Unearthed Films’ latest disc release hits online stores this week and it could be one of their strangest titles yet, and that’s saying a lot for a label known by extreme horror fans for releasing such downbeat masterworks as A Serbian Film and The Untold Story. Directed by Brett Leonard who also helmed 90s cyberpunk flicks The Lawnmower Man (1992) and Virtuosity (1995), this Aussie film also has the American director going down under for another dark cyber infused tale.
The film in question, Feed follows Australian cop Phillip (Patrick Thompson) who belongs to a special unit that hunts the worst of the worst from internet chat rooms. When we meet Phillip, he’s just coming off a consensual cannibal case that didn’t go quite as expected, and he’s just starting to fray at the seams. Looking to get back in the saddle and looking for leads, he gets an odd vibe from an American “feeder” website. Now for those not in the know, being a “feeder” is fetish that involves someone who derives sexual pleasure from feeding someone, usually until they are overweight and dependent on the feeder. This film has our suspect feeding women not only until they are bedridden, but until he literally kills them with food while streaming and documenting online for his paying customers.
It’s a morosely fascinating premise that is peppered with some bizarre character work, that all feels like everything has been punched into overdrive. Take for example our cop protagonist Phillip, who seems to imbue every toxic movie cop stereotype imaginable. He’s a drunk, he has a lot of rough sex with a girlfriend half his age, whom he also beats up. When he’s caught crying in the bathroom, he’s denied traveling to America to investigate the case, but he of course like any movie cop, goes anyway. This is opposite our antagonist, who never misses an opportunity to monologue and get naked to show off his various religious tattoos. He’s also got this weird bro-ey pseudo feminist philosophy, that he never misses a chance to mansplain, how what he is doing is actually empowering women and going in the face of unrealistic beauty standards.
The film even has the two debating one another in scenes that feel somewhat surreal and firmly rooted in the early aughts cinema with how you’re supposed to believe our alcoholic cop would just stand there and debate a serial killer in a very Seven-ish sort of way, instead of shooting him in the face. That’s a film this film has a rather large debt to, because while Seven spent the runtime alluding to the heinous things John Doe did, Feed is more than happy to let you gaze into the abyss. It’s not an easy watch either, as we see Michael force feed his 700 pound naked victim weight gain slurry with a funnel. But just when you think that’s as hard as it goes, trust me it still has some crumbs left in the cookie jar for the sickos.
As far as the film goes in its portrayal of obesity and beauty standards, I would say it’s slightly dated and fucking bizarre to be honest, but that’s part of its charm. I don’t exactly know what the intention here is, there are scenes of explicit rough sex with Philips’ waif like girlfriend running side by side with Michael slathering a 700 pound naked woman in chocolate sauce, which is jarring as it is surreal. The more time we spend with both men, we come to the realization that both are just different flavors of terrible. So I feel like this film exists simply for shock value, and it achieves that locking the viewer in with its story of two lunatics on either side of the law fueled by the most toxic of masculinity I’ve seen on film in a hot minute. That said in its defense it’s pretty damn entertaining in the same way as something like The Sadness.
Feed is essentially like Seven’s creepy drunk uncle. It’s familiar enough, but it goes hard and dark, fueled by heaping helpings of surreal melodrama and gore. I feel like an unexpected side effect of the heightened performances is they manage to take the edge of some of the more grisly moments. If you know what you’re signing up for given the distro, you should definitely be good and ready coming into this film. It’s not for the masses no doubt, but for those who enjoy transgressive and extreme cinema this one for the most part is a solid and amusing watch. I will even give it bonus points given the film’s full frontal male nudity to female nudity ratio is about even, given the fact the film is about a man who runs an adult site for men.
