'The Feast' will leave you satisfied | SXSW review

The Feast is a Welsh folk horror tale that follows a family that reaps the consequences of their greed during a dinner party

The Feast is slow and somewhat simple, but it’s also a deliciously satisfying folk horror that quite literally says “eat the rich.”

The opening scenes of The Feast, a new Welsh folk horror that premiered in the Midnighters section at the 2021 Online SXSW Film Festival, give you everything you need to know about the wealthy family at the center of the film.

There’s matriarch Glenda (Nia Roberts), the picture-perfect politician’s wife, her Parliament member husband Gwyn (Julian Lewis Jones), a no-nonsense caricature of a politician, and their two sons. There’s recovering drug addict Guto (Steffan Cennydd), who is confined to his family home until he kicks the habit and can return to London and Gweirydd (Siôn Alun Davies), a narcissistic former doctor obsessed with training for a triathlon.

And while The Feast is the slowest of burns, it immediately sets up its dark and dread-filled atmosphere with its setting at the family’s remote home on the Welsh countryside — Glenda takes pride in everyone inch of the impeccably designed modern estate — and a highly effective score by Samuel Sim.

We’re soon introduced to Cadi (Annes Elwy), a local waitress who has been hired by Glenda to help with a dinner party she’s throwing for a local land developer and the neighbor they hope to convince into selling their land. However, there’s something about Cadi. Perhaps it’s the blank stares off into space or the creepy folk tune she hums while walking down the dark corridors or the soil that seems to appear on every surface she touches.

The majority of the film consists of atmospheric horror that primes you for the diabolical third act that some could see as gratuitous, but is exactly what The Feast needs to build up to to work. The nightmarish imagery throughout and the hypnotic cadence of the Welsh dialogue is enough to keep you engaged — although some moments of levity in the bleak story would have been a welcome respite from the gloom — it’s when the mystery comes fully into view that the movie truly satisfies your craving for folk horror.

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Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter here. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.

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Karl Delossantos

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Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.