By Matt Harries
About as meaty as a half-pound chilli burger and at least as subtle, Evil Feed sees stuntman and stunt co-ordinator Kimani Ray Smith (Watchmen, X-Men) make his directorial debut with the kind of film that epitomises a fast food approach to horror. If you are looking for nuance and refinement, delicacy of flavour and sophistication…well let’s face it, you didn’t come here for that did you? It’s called Evil Feed and it’s a martial arts/comedy horror flick with gore and boobs! The question is, much like the aforementioned chilli burger, is it worth persevering with past the first few juicy bites?
Evil Feed follows a group of young friends who attend the same karate dojo. Following the kidnap of their Sensei, they must infiltrate the Long Pig restaurant, where the new owner has been perfecting his unique brand of “Tendertainment”. This novel take on dining culture involves a cannibalistic cuisine where the main ingredient is sourced directly from the vanquished combatants, who fall in battle against the restaurant’s home fighters. So expect an offal-strewn and bloody menu and keep an eye out for the house special, “Dicky Roll”…
The martial arts/horror micro genre is not one of the most recognisable or heavily populated backwaters in cinema. The Blade trilogy in fact represents the only films of this ilk I can remember in recent years (though there are probably others). This effort feels a lot closer to a personal ‘cult’ favourite of my youth – Big Trouble In Little China (actually referenced at one point). Apart from the Asian restaurant connection, both films share a tongue-in-cheek humour and a love of the ‘group charge’-style fight scene. Unfortunately nothing in Evil Feed manages to reproduce the stand-off scenes from the ’86 classic, but fight fans will enjoy the action presented, which recalls the likes of Bloodsport with its emphasis on one-on-one combat. Kimani Ray Smith directs the fight action with a nod to the ‘post UFC’ fight fan, mixing up the (rather overdone) ‘rolling thunder’ style spinning kicks with plenty of ground-and-pound. We even see an armlock at one point.
Attention to modern combat techniques is balanced out with an iron-rich menu of dismemberment, decapitations, face-rippings and throat-slashings. In a moment of high (low?) farce a character’s member becomes a deadly weapon. I wasn’t sure the smattering of college-humour served the film that well, in all honesty. Ultra bloody deaths are all good in a Chopsocky inspired gore-fest, but the fart/cock jokes betrayed a certain lack of confidence from the script writers. Likewise the use of silicone enhanced strippers to, ahem, flesh out the restaurant scenes seemed a touch desperate.
Performances were generally fine considering the limited scope of the roles. Terry Chen, fresh from his role as the deviant Xander Feng in House of Cards, camps it up as the equally deviant proprietor Steven. Alyson Bath (as the improbably named Yuki) is devilish fun, while Alain Chainone as “Black Norris” Tyrone was probably the pick of the good guys. My personal favourite was from one of Kimani Ray Smith’s stuntman brethren Johnson Pham as ‘The Phammer’, who invokes a shrill cross between Team America’s Kim Jong Il and the legendary Al ‘Ka Bong’ Leong in even his brief moments on screen.
For all its charms, I do think there is a bit more potential to eke out of this kind of film. Gore and martial arts should go hand in hand – for all the exposure to ‘real’ fighting sports these days, the crucial difference between these sport forms and the original martial arts is that sport draws the line at maiming and killing. Bringing the elegance of the fighting arts on to the screen with the black-comedy of guts and flying limbs seems to me to have some mileage. With a slightly better script in place we could have an even more memorable film on our blood-soaked hands, but as a debut for the director, Evil Feed does show a fair bit of promise.
This film could easily be the by-product of a focus group of stoned teenaged male horror fans, such is its pungent mixture of martial arts, gleefully over-the-top gore and titillation. To once again labour the food comparison, this is the perfect Friday night takeaway movie. Undemanding, a touch predictable, but entertainingly so. All in all there’s not much not to like about Evil Feed if you have a craving for something more substantial to accompany that post-pub kebab. However, be warned, you may never look at battered sausage the same way again…
Solo Media release Evil Feed on VOD and digital platforms on 25th August 2014.