FEED

Australia, 2005, 101 minutes, Colour.
Alex O’ Loughlin, Patrick Thompson, Gabby Millgate, Jack Thompson.
Directed by Brett Leonard.

Here’s one for the ‘don’t have to see’ list. It’s a police investigation story with touches of horror – and plenty of ugliness. It states that it is based on fact – and has a scene reminiscent of the recent German cannibal to prove it. It is a story of a psychopath who feeds obese woman and members of an internet club place bets as to when the women will die.

Once upon a time, American director, Brett Leonard, made some interesting Stephen King adaptations (Lawnmower Man, Hideaway) and the thriller, Virtuosity. Here he is in Australia, with the help of Jack Thompson, and with Thompson’s son Patrick as producer and star.

It’s not quite as gross to watch as the plot suggests but it is unpleasant, the sociopath being a psychosexual criminal and the detective being something of a psychosexual obsessive himself. The characters elicit very little empathy, even the victims, so we are left with the bizarre and the ugly.

1.The impact of the film? Ugly? Sickening? Entertaining?

2.The Sydney settings, the police work? The transition to the United States? Ohio? The Carter household? Credible or not? Musical score?

3.The character of Phillip Jackson, as a policeman, sexual deviant crime? His visit to Germany? The issue of the cannibal and his case? His relationship with Abbey, her infidelity, his sexual relationship with her? His becoming obsessed with the website, the clients involved in fat? Overfeeding girlfriends? The disappearance of the women from the site? His idea of the site owner, feeding the women to death? Bets on the time of their death? His explaining this to his colleague, to his boss? Abbey leaving him?

4.His travelling to Ohio, his looking for the website operator, Michael Carter? Carter’s sister? His intrusion into the house? Carter throwing him out? The hotel, Carter giving him drugged coffee?

5.Carter, his victim, Deidre? The background of Carter killing his fat mother? The kidnapping of Carter’s wife? The victims and their remains? Carter’s mode of operation, feeing Deidre? Deidre not wanting to leave? His gun, wounding Carter, Deidre shot?

6.The finale, Jackson, Carter’s sister, eating, Carter as emaciated, chained in the attic?

7.The B-budget, the acting style? The ugliness of the characters and stories? The possible use of symbols for a consumerist society and its eating itself to death, destroying victims? Or reading too much into what is a low-budget horror film for genre fans?