Synopsis:

Director Mike Watt avoids the sophomore curse with his second film a Feast of Flesh a tale about vampires working in a brothel and the vampire hunters who track and watch their every move. First off I was really impressed with the amount of detail put into the back-story and characters backgrounds. A lot of ground is covered in a just a mere seventy eight minutes. The pacing is brisk and at times frantic (mostly the latter half of the film when the story almost loses track of where it is trying to go). Visually director Mike Watt creates a dark and moody universe which features several solid set pieces including one which features Watt’s character Sheridan being drained of blood in a Christ like way as his arms are stretched out like he were on a cross.

A Feast for Flesh adds nothing new to the vampire mythos it just takes what has been done before and makes it its own. In the opening scene we are introduced a vampire that is viscous as she rips off a man’s face. Then later in the film no other vampire or killing ever comes close to the ferocity of this opening killing. One thing that I could ever really accept was the treaty between the vampire and those who hunted them. Why would the vampire hunters allow the vampires to kill as long as they didn’t kill any of the locales this logic is hard to grasp! Despite these short comings the end result more then makes up for it as the story is well constructed and the ending while not conventional is more then satisfying.

Performance wise everyone exceeded my expectations as each actor/actress totally immerses themselves in their perspective roles. Besides writer and directing a Feast of Flesh Mike Watt also throws his hat in as an actor playing the role of Sheridan the leader of the vampire hunters. Amy Lynn Best who produced the film is also featured in a major role as that of Elizabet the head vampire and a madam of a brothel. One other role which sticks out at least if for nothing more then her stunning beauty is that of Sofiya Smirnova as Zhora a vampire whose actions speak louder then the few words she speaks in the film. Ultimately if you like horror films with vampires, nudity and blood-soaked violence then a film like a Feast of Flesh should be something right up your alley.

The DVD:

Feast of Flesh is presented in an anamorphic widescreen that preserves the film’s original aspect ratio. The transfer for a Feast of flesh looks clean and free of any artifacts or compression issues. There are a few very minor instances of noticeable edge enhancement.

This release comes with one audio option a Dolby Digital stereo mix in English. The audio is also clean and at times robust.

Extras for this release include an audio commentary with writer/director Mike Watt and actress/producer Amy Lynn Best, The making of “a Feast of Flesh”, includes behind the scenes footage and cast and crew interviews (18 minutes), a gag reel (6 minutes), Camp Motion Trailer Vault and a bonus short film titled “a Feast of Souls” (34 minutes). The extras department is where this release really excels as it is loaded to gills with goodies like the insightful audio commentary with writer/director Mike Watt and actress/producer Amy Lynn Best and the eighteen minute making of documentary standing out as the best of the lot. A Feast of Flesh gets a superb DVD release from Bloody Earth Films which keeps on giving after the main feature with its abundance of extras, recommended.