Feed
(2005)
review by Suspiriorum

Philip Jackson (Patrick Thompson) is one of Australia’s leading cyber-crime investigators, & when searching for dubious material online he comes across the site feederx.com. The site is dedicated to Feeders & Gainers – a burgeoning sexual fetish where fat-admiring men feed overweight women & make them even more obese, something that is a turn-on for both partners. As he delves deeper into the site & this strange disturbing behaviour, he begins to suspect that someone is feeding women to death, & publishing details online.

The idea for ‘Feed’ came about when actors Patrick Thompson & Alex O’Loughlin came across a multitude of websites devoted to the strange world of Feeders & Gainers. The pair were both working with director Brett Leonard on Marvel adaptation ‘Man-Thing’, & approached him with the idea of creating a feature dealing with the subject. A modestly budgeted affair, the film was shot on HD with Sydney locations standing in for Hamburg & Toledo, Ohio.

‘Feed’ is rather more interesting & intelligent than your standard serial killer fare, exploiting as it does a complex uncertain moral grey area. The Gainer is submitting to the weight gain by her own choice & does not want to be “rescued” from the Feeder. She just wants to gain as much weight as possible - & even though in this instance she is unaware the Feeder means to feed her to death, that can be the only consequence of continued weight gain. Both partners are consenting adults – who are we to say that their behaviour is wrong? Beyond the moral complexities, the film also brings out subtexts dealing with the nature of Western (& particularly American) culture – a society of consumerism gone riot, completely reliant upon the supply from the Feeders. It’s this willingness to broach big themes & ideas that lifts ‘Feed’ above the typical psychokiller flick, although thankfully (with perhaps one brief exception) it also manages to avoid coming off as preachy or pretentious.

The one drawback with this thought-provoking intelligence is that it makes it all the more notable & irritating when the film falls back onto typical genre clichés. Why does the Feeder do what he does? It couldn’t by any chance be that hoary old overworked Freudian Mother Complex could it? What about Philip’s boss, the police chief? Maybe he could not buy into Philip’s obsession with feederx, & put him on enforced leave? But obviously he has to have an old friend still working in the department who can risk his job by getting info from the police computers. And when he finally comes face to face with the mysterious & intelligent feederx, perhaps the sicko could know all about him & his past work! Whoa, never seen anything like this before! Use of the Internet in films is usually pretty dubious, & whilst ‘Feed’ is comparatively not too bad in this regard, its vague simplicity will doubtless bug some viewers.

Stylistically, director Leonard does manage to make the film feel fresh by avoiding the typical brooding style favoured by ‘Silence of the Lambs’ & ‘Se7en’, making it’s HD style propulsive & vivid. The film is a visual knock-out, full of weird angles, interesting compositions, funky lenses & riotously vivid colour schemes, all put together with a nervous high-energy editing style that for the most part just falls on the right side of MTV flash overkill. Though it does keep the viewer whirlingly off-kilter, sadly it does contrive to deny the film too much in the way of atmosphere or building tension.

The performances throughout are on the whole very good, with O’Loughlin somehow conspiring to make feederx rather more sympathetic & likeable than Thompson’s cop, adding even more to the moral uncertainty of the film. Also very good is Gabby Millgate as the central Gainer, anchoring the film despite being stuck in a fat-suit & being unable to get out of bed – she makes her need to be part of the Feeder-Gainer relationship believable & sympathetic.

If you think the film sounds somewhat disgusting, then you’d be right – the “eugh” factor on this one is practically off the scale. And here I’m not referring simply to the supersize lady & her sexual relations with feederx. You may never want to eat fast food again after seeing the fat-laden grotesquery’s upon display here - & that’s before getting round to the many bags of squelchy fat, frying pan penises, or what happens to the remains of feederx’s previous victims. Ewwww!

Whilst it’s gross-out visuals & ambiguous sense of right & wrong make ‘Feed’ not much of a mainstream hit, those factors will doubtless make it something of a cult fave, with brains backing up the grue. If you can, uh, stomach it, it’s well worth investigation. However, you should also be warned that the clunky clichés that beset the script are as nothing when compared to what is surely one of the most utterly ridiculous, silly & implausible conclusions I think I have ever seen.