Tags:
Film: A Halloween Feast
Year: 2024
Director: Guile Branco
Writer: Guile Branco and Arthur McClen
Starring: Lynn Lowry, Julia Coulter and Guile Branco
Review:
This was a movie that I got the chance to see thanks to Erika from Gold Dust PR. What caught my attention here was the title, that this is a 2024 horror release and it starred Lynn Lowry. She's an actor that I've seen different films throughout her career and I'm a fan. I was curious as to what we'd get here. I did come into this one blind aside from the information shared here.
Synopsis: former ballet dancer Angela (Lynn Lowry) descends into madness as her family tries to cope. After an infamous dinner, their lives spiral into unexpected chaos. All skeletons come out at a Halloween party.
We start this on Halloween night. Karen (Julia Coulter) is in a white dress, covered in blood. She is distraught. There is a person in a convertible who pulls up. This person is wearing a dinosaur costume. They handed her a ring box before leaving. It then shifts back 8 months to fill us in as to how we ended up here.
Karen narrates. Her mother is Angela who was a teacher. She retired and doesn't know what to do with herself. She was a famous dancer before marrying Richard Long (James Griggs). Karen moved out but spends more time back at her parents' house due to trying to help her mother. Angela doesn't like that her husband smokes marijuana. He's a writer so he uses it to calm his nerves. That doesn't happen 2 months until Halloween when she snaps, cutting off one of his fingers at dinner.
Angela is committed to an asylum where she works with Dr. Park (Lou D'Amato). Things take a turn 4 days until Halloween when Dr. Park thinks that Angela is ready to be released. Richard didn’t press charges and he's shocked to hear of the progress. Things aren't as they seem though. Dr. Park is a fan of Angela. They're also having an affair that involves kinky, BDSM sexual encounters. Problems are created here when Dr. Park's fiancée, Rose (Nika Khitrova), catches him in the act. She steals a tape and uses it to extort him.
There's another thread here involving Mark (Guile Branco), who is the guy in the dinosaur outfit. He's recently moved here from Brazil and uses his costume for children's parties. A chance encounter with Karen leads to them hitting it off and spending time together. She is fearful of getting him involved with her family though.
With Halloween approaching, we get odd threads here. Angela isn't cured and being out is causing her to get worse. She turns toward homicide to get what she wants. Other characters get involved like Karen's roommate and friend, Susan Goth Girl (Asia Lyn Pitts). She hits it off with Karen's brother, Stuart (Jackson Leighton). There is also the manager of the bar that Karen works at, who has illegal side hustles of Cudjoe (Pancho Moler). This spirals into insanity no one will ever forget.
That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. What I'll say here to start out is that this is a whirlwind to start that settles into a complicated web of characters. I wouldn't say that the story is complex. It’s more about figuring out how all the characters are connected. Seeing that this is a comedy/horror film makes sense. It plays like a direct to video, National Lampoon comedy.
Now that I've set that up, let me delve deeper here. Our lead character is Karen. She got out of her family's house as soon as she could. That is a good idea since her brother, Stuart, must bathe their grandmother, she is played by Mary O. Bremier. He is tasks with caring for her is in lieu of paying rent. Karen does come home though to help, especially after Angela snapped. Karen copes by drinking too much, which makes for interesting interactions with Mark. I do have an issue that these two fall in love quickly, screentime wise. I am forgiving since this already runs 105 minutes. I did like Coulter's performance though.
The character of Angela is where I want to go next. I think the backstory for her needs a bit of work. We know she was this famous dancer who gave it up when she got married to have a family. There is still that urning there for the past life though. I do like exploring this idea that now she is retired, she doesn't know what to do with her life. She descends into madness from monotony. She holds things against people and when she snaps, it results in violence and murder. I'll credit Lowry here as she plays this role well. It feels like they wrote it for her and kudos to her for the things she agreed to do.
I want then to finish by just going over the side characters here. Richard works as this overweight, unsuccessful husband. He loves his family and doing what he can. Dr. Park is interesting because he is engaged to Rose, who is younger and gorgeous. He is tangled with owing money to Cudjoe for drugs, which is an odd plot point. Pitts, Leighton, Moler, Bremier and the rest of the cast all make for weird characters that bring charm to this, so I'll credit them here.
All that is left then is filmmaking. I'll be honest, this didn't necessarily work for me as well as it could have. The tone is off. We have this dark story with Angela and how her family is trying to cope. They go black comedy with it which works at times. I think they incorporated too much and it runs too long so I lost interest. I'll say that the cinematography was good though. The practical effects were as well. There was CGI here that I noticed. It doesn't ruin it though. Other than that, the soundtrack was fine.
In conclusion, I think there are good things here but this falls flat for me. We have an odd group of quirky characters. I thought the actors did well to bring them to life. There are interesting enough stories, but they pack in too much and I lose interest. This is made well enough. The tone is a bit uneven, but the cinematography, framing and practical effects were good. Trimming this could have worked better or potentially leaning one way or the other into how they wanted to go here might help. It's not horrible, but it just didn't work for me.
My Rating: 4 out of 10