A family gathers at their lavish contemporary home made of glass and steel in the Welsh mountains. The matriarch is hosting a dinner party with her politician husband on behalf of a businessman hoping to buy land in the area for mineral mining. Unbeknown to them the owners of a neighboring farm are the only other guests and will be charmed into selling parcels of their farmland. The family’s two adult sons are reluctant dinner party guests. One is a London hipster struggling with addiction issues and the other is a doctor training for an ironman event.

The family’s values and beliefs are challenged by the arrival of the young woman they have hired to act as waitress for the evening. Her presence forces the characters to face their shortcomings and question their relationship with the land they claim to belong to. Cadi’s influence grows in strength and the family’s behavior becomes increasingly extreme until they face the horror of what they represent and tragedy changes everything forever.

For in-depth thoughts on The Feast, please see my colleague Michael Cook’s review from its theatrical release here.

Video Quality

The film debuts on Blu-Ray with a 1080p presentation in its original aspect ratio that represents this film exactly as intended. The movie itself has a natural palette that renders quite nicely on screen, especially when it comes to the natural landscapes that are so important to the narrative. The transfer provides a great amount of detail and clarity even in the darkest scenes. There is slight loss of detail during more kinetic moments in the shadows, but these moments are few and far between. The movie uses darkness to build tension at various points, and the deep black levels allow the audience to maintain the illusion created by the film. Objects hold up well in the shadows and retain their depth with banding only proving to be a minuscule issue. No damage or digital noise was detected that would detract from this transfer. There is some grotesque, yet very striking, imagery within this tale that this disc handles with precision.

Audio Quality

The Feast comes to Blu-Ray with a notable DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track in the original Welsh. The movie is very atmospheric when it comes to conjuring dread, and the environmental sounds provide a very immersive atmosphere to draw you in. The dialogue and sound effects are balanced well with the score where nothing sounds overbearing. Surround channels get some substantial activity during the outdoor scenes and with the ambiance of certain interiors, especially as the chaos builds in the finale. The low end makes particular moments extra unnerving with more texture that is appreciated as chills run up your spine. This track is quite precise and effective, and will be appreciated by fans of the narrative. There are English subtitles provided.

Special Features

The Making Of The Feast: A pretty great 14-minute featurette in which the creative team discuss the intentions behind the film, what the horror genre allows them to accomplish, why they luxuriate in the silence, the mythology they draw upon, what the performers bring to their roles and more.

Final Thoughts

The Feast has an intensely strong command of atmosphere and tension, but the execution does not always match its ambition. There is some very disturbing imagery that will stick in your mind long after the credits have finished rolling, yet the psychological dread ramps up too quickly to sustain itself throughout an entire feature. The performances are all really excellent and the underlying themes being explored are very intriguing. Even with some drawbacks, this feature is worth checking out if you want to be properly creeped out. RLJE Films has released a Blu-Ray featuring a great A/V presentation and an enjoyable supplemental feature. This one is not for the faint of heart, but check it out if you want a gory good time.

The Feast is currently available to purchase on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: RLJE Films has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.