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Feast III: The Happy Finish - Unrated
R1 - America - Genius Products Review written by and copyright: Anthony Arrigo (16th February 2009). |
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The Film
 Horror films that attain any level of success have both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, when a film does well enough in the minds of fans, there is the opportunity for it to have a long, fruitful shelf life on home video. On the other, that usually means things are left wide open for the sequel machine to rev up and start pumping out inferior clones of the original, usually cheapening any impact the first film had. The "Feast" series (2005-2009), now on its third installment, is a textbook example of why it’s a bad idea to go back to the well more than once. 2005’s "Feast" was the winning film from A&E’s third season of "Project Greenlight" (2001-2005). The film proved to be a hit with horror fans, so naturally the director, John Gulager, the cast and crew were reassembled for the inevitable sequel(s). Apparently, shooting two sequels back-to-back seemed like an ingenious idea. Unfortunately, it’s obvious right from the first frame of footage that budgetary limitations severely hampered any level of technical achievement for either film. "Feast" was a gimmicky, tongue-in-cheek horror/black comedy that knew exactly what it was and had a helluva time doing it. The film was fast-paced, frenzied and full of over the top, non-stop gory action. It may have had a limited budget, but that was solved with a few hundred gallons of stage blood, dim lighting and some surprisingly original monster designs. I haven’t seen "Feast II: Sloppy Seconds" (2008) because I had heard it was an abysmal film that paled in comparison to the original. I considered viewing it before sitting down for "Feast III: The Happy Finish" but decided this wasn’t the kind of film that needed much of a preface.. I’m glad I spared myself. "Feast III" starts off by replaying the last 5 minutes of "Feast II" in an effort to maintain the continuity of the two films. What’s left of the band of survivors from "Feast II" are holed up on a rooftop, attempting to find a way down so the can escape the group of monsters waiting below. Just as it seems as though they won’t be able to fend off the beasts, a mysterious man, who appears to have control over the monsters, rescues them in an attempt to lead everyone to safety. Now they have to figure a way to get out of small town before everyone gets eaten. It’s nearly impossible to provide a plot synopsis for "Feast III" without being incredibly vague or overly verbose. This is easily one of the most schizophrenic films I’ve ever seen. This is the type of film I would expect to see if someone gave a blank notebook to a 14-year old and told him to just write whatever cool stuff he could think of. Almost nothing that takes place in the film makes any sense, and I’m sure that was the filmmaker’s intention, but it doesn’t offer any excuse for subjecting your audience to 80 minutes of this. I place the onus squarely on the shoulders of screenwriters Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, the duo responsible for not only all three "Feast" films but also the latest entries in the endless "Saw" series, "Saw IV" (2007) and "Saw V" (2008). Their haphazard style managed to work, albeit in a gimmicky fashion, in "Feast", but that type of writing is exactly why "Feast III" is horrendous and "Saw IV" and "Saw V" were god awful. Characters here are ripped to pieces, shot, stabbed, suffer massive head wounds and yet, sadly, no one ever seems to die. To all the unabashed gorehounds, this is definitely a film for you. I’m guessing the filmmakers were hoping that whatever this movie was lacking in script it would make up for in gallons of blood. And there is plenty of it to go around. Insanely gory flicks are nothing new these days, and "Feast III" doesn’t really bring anything to the table we haven’t seen, but there are some interestingly grotesque moments that had me chuckling at just how absurd all of it was. Watching a monster devour someone’s head and then promptly defecate it, fully intact, into the street was something I hadn’t seen on film before. I just wish they had kept the beasts confined to the shadows as they did in the first film. As I said, the creature designs are pretty unique and original, but they don’t hold up in daylight shots. Instead, they come across just as they are: big guys in rubber suits. And, seriously, what is that last shot all about? Talk about taking things in a vastly different direction.
Video
Presented in anamorphic widescreen at a ratio of 2.35:1, "Feast III" shows all of the restrictions set upon it by a limited budget. For starters, there is a lot of green screen work here and it all looks laughably bad. The quality of those scenes is akin to what you’d expect to see in a rough cut of a film, or what you might find in a selection of deleted scenes. Likewise, black levels here are poor at best. Blacks are almost never dark and inky; they look like faded purple most of the time. Colors, however, hold up much better, and the transfer is mostly free of grain.
Audio
The English Dolby Digital 5.1 track isn’t nearly as bad as the video quality; overall sound clarity was good and dialogue held up well under the barrage of screams, bullets and ninja attacks. English and Spanish subtitles are also included.
Extras
Genius Products has released this Dimension Extreme film with an audio commentary, a featurette and a couple of bonus trailers. Below is a closer look. Audio commentary with director John Gulager, screenwriters Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan and producer Michael Leahy. It is a fairly straight ahead track, the four spend most of the film talking about the limitations imposed on the shoot because of the budget, the original ideas they had envisioned for the trilogy and how many of the actors came together and ended up working on the film. It's a lively track thanks to the enthusiasm of Melton & Dunstan; they obviously had a great time writing the films and seeing them come to life. "A Look Back at John Gulager" featurette runs for 8 minutes 29 seconds and is an oddly titled piece since it makes it sound a tribute to someone who’s dead. Thankfully, Gulager is still alive and this piece is a featurette in which he talks about his time on "Project Greenlight", what it felt like to win the grand prize, how it’s changed his life and the perils of helming his first feature. It provides a quick insight into how the timid Gulager has been slowly gaining confidence through his work. Also included are bonus trailers for: - "Feast" which runs for 2 minutes 3 seconds. - "Feast II: Sloppy Seconds" on DVD and a very short 19 second spot. Oddly, no trailer or spot for "Feast III: The Happy Finish" is included.
Overall
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