I’ve been a fan of Project Greenlight since its inception a few years ago, spearheaded by Live Planet, a company created by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Chris Moore.  If you don’t know, PG is an Internet contest for inspiring filmmakers and allows the winners of both a screenplay and directing contest to make their own movie, low budget of course.  To finance the contest, Live Planet sells the rights to air a reality show that follows the making of the film — full of drama as the novice filmmakers are pressured to perform in front of millions of viewers.  

The first two films that came out of Project Greenlight weren’t big successes and only moderately well received by critics.  The third installment of the contest/TV series gave us a unique director in the form of John Gulager, a schlep of a guy, 40-something, introverted but with a great visual eye.  He comes from a family of show people, with an acting father whose credits seem to include almost every show on television during the 60s and 70s.  Gulager won the contest because of his talent, certainly not because of his personality (Matt Damon was his champion).  But it was his stubborn, family-oriented, and determined qualities that not only made him interesting to watch and root for during the airing of the TV series but allowed him to work within the confines of the mini-studio system to make a great film in an oversaturated genre.

The winning script, Feast, was written by the team of Patrick Melton and Marcus Dustan as a big tent pole, horror action picture that would have cost on the high side of $40 million if changes were not made from the original winning script.  Dimension Films (part of the Weinstein Company) only gave them a few million and they picked up some more cash from Vegas hotel magnates the Maloof Brothers, but even so, the script had to be pared down tremendously for this production.  The writers did an excellent job, and I can’t see how throwing more money at it would have made the film better.  The low budget made the writers and director Gulager use more Hitchcockian techniques that create more tension from what you don’t see than from anything very graphic. Though, the faint of heart are advised to stay away from this film because there is plenty of gore, blood, and guts flying every which way you can imagine.

Feast isn’t a remarkable film and has many flaws, but considering it was made with a bunch of cameras capturing all the scrapes, scuffles, and tiffs that go on during the production of any movie, the filmmaking team did a fine job.  The film depicts a night in the middle of the desert as a clan of cannibalistic creatures of unknown origin descends to have dinner at a run-down roadhouse.  The only thing is, they have a penchant for human flesh.  It’s up to the low-lives, drifters, and wayward drunks to try to stay alive, barricaded inside the bar as the creatures try every means to get inside and eat them. Gulager smartly doesn’t take any of this quite seriously and, though the characters are serious, the tone of the film winks at us in the audience to let us know it’s okay to chuckle.  Those who love the thrill ride of such horror slasher films as this won’t be disappointed for there are plenty of scary moments that make you jump out of your seat.

Having watched the TV series, then the film, and finally interviewed the director, John Gulager, I am more impressed with the film than I thought I would be.  I am certainly not a big fan of gore-fest horror films but, because this one has fun while the blood splatters, that makes it okay to watch.  I had some problems with the editing and flow of the scenes, but knowing how they needed to cut here and change there from direction of the studio and the test audience reactions, it’s understandable that a low-budget film would have such problems.  If you like horror films and gory ones at that, then Feast is the perfect date night film (if you’re trying to get your girlfriend to grab on to you or hide her face in your chest).

Feast will be released as a midnight movie on September 22 and 23 across the nation.  It’s scheduled to come out on DVD on October 17 just in time for Halloween.  The film stars Balthazar Getty (Alias), Henry Rollins (The Henry Rollins Show), Jenny Wade (8 Simple Rules), Krista Allen (Paycheck), Judah Friedlander (Zoolander), and Clu Gulager (Wagon Train, The Gambler) with a cameo by Eric Dane (X-Men, Grey’s Anatomy).  I urge you to go to the theater to watch the film in support of Project Greenlight.  Maybe a strong showing at the box office will help keep PG going in the future.  The film is rated R for obvious reasons.

Rich Burlingham