Grimmfest 2022: ‘Feed Me’ Review

Stars: Christopher Mulvin, Neal Ward, Samantha Loxley, Nadia Lamin, Hannah Al Rashid, Craig Hinde | Written and Directed by Richard Oakes, Adam Leader

As you may be aware, we here at Nerdly love to cover the more independent projects out there. This has led us to some truly great undiscovered gems over the years. The only thing we love more than pushing these projects is seeing the growth in the directors and actors we have come across. We know it’s a hard slog at times in the filmmaking game, so to see creators not just persevere but keep getting infinitely better, honing their craft and putting out great content for your eyeballs, well that makes it all the sweeter and more importantly our jobs easier.

Here we have the writing and directing duo of Richard Oakes and Adam Leader. Previously these boys released Hosts, which we covered quite a bit here on the site. I was a fan of the film having seen the full process from Youtube videos to a 24-hour live stream to fund the flick, right the way through to the team hitting the festivals. The movie was by no means perfect but given what the guys were working with, it was fairly confident, well-executed and damn impressive, so I looked forward with great anticipation to see their follow up… Then we got Feed Me! And let me tell you. The world ain’t ready for Lionel Flack…

In Feed Me we meet Jed Freeman (Christopher Mulvin) shortly after the death of his wife. Suffering from horrendous night terrors and guilt-ridden depression, Jed is at a complete loss and starts to think that killing himself is the best option. Enter Lionel Flack (Neal Ward). Lionel is a somewhat flamboyant, eccentric and, dare I say it, compellingly weird fellow who claims to have the answers for Jed. Answers in the form of Consensual Human Consumption which in layman’s terms means that Jed wants to die, Lionel likes to eat humans, why not have Lionel EAT Jed to death? It’s a win-win if anything. What follows is a blood-drenched tale of love, grief, acceptance and one man’s insatiable appetite to eat… I mean help… his fellow man!

I will get into some thoughts now in a minute but first I want to start by commending Oakes and Leader. Anything negative people may have had to say about their first effort Hosts has been listened to, thought about and worked out. Now as I said up top I was a fan of Hosts but I could also see where people were coming from with some of the comments. However, Feed Me is a much tighter script that I personally feel knows exactly what it is and more importantly leans into it. In moments of sincerity amongst the crazy, it is still as heartfelt as you will ever see. The movie takes itself deadly serious, while at the same time understanding just how off the wall some of these events are and that has been the learning curve. We are given a little bit of world-building background but it’s peppered throughout the movie as we go, meaning we don’t have to wait long to get to the meat and cheese of the story. I will circle back a little more on this but we need to talk about our cast.

Christopher Mulvin is an actor I’m not too familiar with but his IMDB says he was in The Marine 6 so he is alright with me. As Jed, Mulvin puts in a wonderfully heartbreaking role as a man who is slowly having a psychotic break, plagued by visions and fantasies of his dead wife (played by Samantha Loxley). I found him to be utterly believable in his acceptance of needing to just end his life. Which is why, when he enters into the strange world of Lionel Flack, you can feel how numb to the absurdity he is. Leaving you as a viewer having no option but to just get on the ride and see where it goes. Jed’s arc in Feed Me is beautifully understated and almost becomes the film’s C-plot, which is a testament to Leader’s writing in the way he is trying to teach you something about these characters using the age-old art of showing and not telling. There is a brilliant underlying theme to this story that if you are open to seeing it, changes your perspective entirely and Mulvin plays a big part in that aspect, sticking its landing.

We have a few returnees from Hosts in the form of the wonderful Samantha Loxley, who doesn’t have a great deal to do here but manages to convey a level of torment and pain that looms large over the first half of the movie. Nadia Lamin is back too and this time serving as a bit of light relief in some extremely tense moments.

Now, Lionel Flack…  This is a character you’re unlikely to forget in a while. Neal Ward has taken a character that probably came across as a tad absurd on the page and just said “if we are doing this, we are DOING this”. The proof is in the pudding though because make no mistake this is Lionel’s movie. Ward turns in an utterly sensational career-making/breaking performance that puts me in mind of Tom Hardy in Bronson or Joaquin Phoenix in Joker; whereby there are so many layers and nuances to the performance it’s hard to even see the actor anymore. This was a role Ward was born to play and it feels like this directing duo wrote a character that plays to every one of his strengths as an actor. The respect and care Ward has given to Flack makes you completely understand and even get all up in your feels for what kind of life this guy has had. I have been lucky enough to see this movie a couple of times now and I spot something different each time that alters the way I feel/see Flack. I will admit when the teaser dropped and Ward was rocking a Texan accent I was somewhat worried about how this character would come across and if he would potentially go too far the other way but honestly the accent, the wardrobe, the house decor, the wry looks, the desperate walk, cracked laughs and uncomfortable silences just suck you right into Lionel’s world and strangely make you feel right at home.

Speaking of Lionel’s world. One thing you could never fault is Oakes and Leader’s attention to detail when it comes to set design. We spend the bulk of the movie in our new favourite culinary expert’s flat and boy does it set the scene. A dank dark apartment with all the mod cons you could hope for including a well-placed fish bowl, a BBQ in the kitchen and a picture of a very large lady above the fireplace that leaves little to the imagination. Accompany this with Oakes usual brand of gorgeous cinematography and his framing as always being on point. There is even a cheeky one-shot in there. Then sprinkle on a gorgeous moody score from Benjamin Symons and you are ready for some unforgettable instant classic horror moments.

Feed Me is a huge step up in many ways from the team’s last effort. And that is in no way a slight on Hosts but I feel like Feed Me does everything right and knowingly plays to the audience that would gravitate towards it. There are moments of dark and sick horror, moments of intense reflection and realisation, moments of deep sincerity and of course laugh-out-loud moments that if you do laugh means you’re a sick bastard, but don’t worry, you will not be the only one!

I’m dropping a perfect score on this one and that is in no small part down to the levelling up from Oakes and Leader. There is a sense of real belief in the material and that their leads have got this. Thanks to the comic book “capes and spandex” movie boom it is becoming rarer to see an actor that commits to a role the way Ward has as Lionel. I don’t know where he went in his mind to hit those levels but a case could easily be made for this performance being in my Top 3 of 2022.

Feed Me is one movie you certainly do not want to miss and who knows it may become a new horror season yearly re-visit.

***** 5/5

Honestly, Feed Me really does deserve your time.