Accidents do happen and if you’re lucky, there’s a silver lining to soften the blow. Since I accidentally stumbled upon Moonlight and its fabulous Aussie leading man, Alex O’Loughlin, a short while ago, I’ve been eager to view the rest of his work. With the exception that is, of FEED. When DVD cover quotes such as “Gigantically gross”, “Stomach-churning” and “One of the sickest films I have ever seen”, jump out at you, then it’s understandable if I was a little reluctant to slip that little silver disc into the DVD player. I finally got around to it late last night (after a good meal) and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised.
Or more appropriately: unpleasantly surprised.
Forgive me, Alex, but I was expecting a B movie with cheesy dialog, bad editing and ditto American accents. I should have known better — I got none of those. Described as a disturbing fetish thriller, FEED (2005) is an Australian low-budget production (directed by Brett Leonard) about a sexual subculture involving the (force) feeding of already obese women and the men who love them. They’re known as “feeders” and “gainers”. The antagonist in FEED is the American Michael Carter, a role played by Alex O’Loughlin, who also co-wrote and co-produced the movie. Michael runs a paid website on which he shares films of himself feeding such women, only he takes it a bit further: he feeds them to death, which makes him a serial killer. He attracts the attention of a Sydney cyber crime cop (played by Patrick Thompson) who himself is teetering on the edge a mental precipice after closing a tough case. As is required of all good thrillers, the cop has his own demons to battle.
I won’t reveal too much here about the rest of the plot, but will leave it at mentioning that the cop goes rogue and tracks down Michael. Although the ending is not a typical Hollywood Happy one, it will most likely surprise you. At least, it surprised me on several levels. FEED finishes up with not just one, but several nasty twists.
I was completely fascinated by this film. Yes, it has some scenes that are icky and that you don’t want to watch, but somehow can’t tear your eyes away from… like horrific traffic accidents or bloody war footage. FEED is also liberally peppered with black humor; I found myself laughing at strangely inappropriate moments. The filmmakers also make clever use of the pop songs to get their point across. There’s nothing subtle about this movie! And although Michael is the bad guy, you’ll most likely be cheering him on rather than the cop, whether you’re a fan of Alex O’Loughlin or not.
Alex is excellent in his role as a psychopath. Not once during the viewing did I think that it was Alex O’Loughlin on the screen and not Michael Carter. The American accent is natural and the acting never over the top. As usual, he draws from his wide range of facial expressions and manages to show different facets of Michael with each one. Alex is not afraid to get down and dirty and has admitted in interviews that he likes to hide behind his characters, which, I think, allows him to immerse himself totally in his role and makes his portrayals true to life. Michael Carter is sharp, witty, attractive, boyishly endearing and scarily creepy all at once.
FEED improves with a second viewing. Why? Because once you’ve gotten over the initial jolt of shock, you can relax and simply enjoy Alex’s superb performance. And have a good laugh as well, because there are some really funny scenes in this movie.
Was there anything I didn’t like about FEED? Just a couple of small things, such as the house in Hamburg, Germany. Sorry guys, there are no wooden houses like that in Hamburg, you’d have to go further north to Norway and Sweden. And is it me, or did Michael’s hair look a bit brassy… just the wrong shade that made his complexion look sallow? Maybe it’s the filters used? I don’t know if I can learn to appreciate the orange glow this picture had. Or perhaps it’s just that blond is not Alex’s color :-)
Although you probably won’t need a cast iron stomach to be able to watch FEED, it will help. There are plenty of gross scenes that will very likely make you queasy and there is a lot of violence, sex, violent sex, vomit, fat in liquid form, blood, gore, dismembered body parts and nudity involved (yes fan girls, Alex bares all). It’s definitely on the other end of the spectrum compared to Moonlight.
There appear to be at least 3 versions of the DVD. The US version includes deleted scenes, an alternate ending, a behind the scenes featurette, production interviews (including one with Alex O’Loughlin) and the FEED in Philadelphia Q&A (see below video). The UK version (region 2) includes commentary by the director, an alternate ending, deleted scenes, a behind the scenes final day interview with the director, an infomercial, filmmaker and cast profiles, a photo gallery and the theatrical trailer. There’s also a special 2-disc edition (region 2) in an attractive steel case with the trailer, an interview with the director, a Jack Thompson sound bite, the behind the scenes featurette, the alternate ending, deleted scenes and the infomercial. Of all the extra features, I enjoyed the interview with Alex, the Q&A and the infomercial the most. In the latter, Mr O’Loughlin is seriously over the top and loving it… which means that you will too!
Some FEED trivia:
- Alex spent months doing Internet research on the feeders and gainers subculture;
- The cop’s role was originally going to be portrayed by Alex and Patrick Thompson was to play Michael;
- The movie was shot in just 28 days;
- Because there was no budget for a stunt man, Alex did the jump off the balcony himself.
Very nice review, mizzoH. I have and love all of Alex’s work, but FEED is my favorite of all of his movies. I adore the character Michael, and Alex shows off his brilliant range so well portraying him.
This film is exciting, interesting, and I find it very moving. The things that happened to Michael as a child make him a very sympathetic character to me, and I immediately found myself rooting for him. I did not find the movie disturbing at all, and one of my favorite things about it is the humor. Some would call it dark humor – I just found it delightfully funny at times. Even if I had never seen Alex before FEED, I know that I would have been drawn to Michael. He is intelligent, funny and mischievous – not to mention a very snappy dresser…
I was surprised at myself, as I have never been partial to blond hair on a man, nor have I cared for a man with no chest hair. Alex is blond (they even did his eyebrows to match) and had his chest waxed for this film – I believe to add to Michael’s boyish charm. It worked for me! Alex has proven in his various roles that no matter what he does to himself for a part, the man still looks gorgeous. I know some women are alarmed if Alex deviates from his long hair as Mick on Moonlight – but I think he would be gorgeous even bald, as proven when he portrayed Marcus in The Invisible. Having the passion that he does for his craft, he shaved his head for that part.
Alex is obviously very proud of FEED, as well he should be. He came up with the idea of doing a film about feeders and gainers, and he did co-write and co-produce. I love hearing him talk about his hours and hours of research in his interviews, and in FEED in Filly it was so much fun to hear him talk about doing his own stunt, the balcony leap. He should be proud – that triple twist that he did in midair was no easy feat!
Some of my favorite scenes are in the deleted scenes on the DVD, especially “Deirdre’s Nightmare” and “Poetry Reading”. All of the extras are great, and I would recommend that if you haven’t seen the movie yet, that you watch Alex’s interviews before watching the film. They give you a better understanding of the whole concept of feeders and gainers, and maybe some who might be hesitant to try the movie would have a bit more of an open mind to start off with.
To sum it all up, I adore Alex, I adore FEED and I adore Michael Carter. As mizzoH said, I don’t want to say anything that will give away too much of the story, but I will say that early on in the film I wanted to jump in the screen and beat Phillip with a bat. The way I see it, Michael made the women happy and they were doing what they loved to do before Michael ever met them – eating. After seeing the movie, I didn’t even think of Michael as a serial killer. He seemed to be falling for Deirdre and had mixed feelings about what he was doing with her, until Phillip showed up and “pushed him over the edge”. Anyone who doesn’t feel sympathetic towards Michael after seeing what his mother did to him as a child – his one rant to Phillip lets us know that he was sexually abused by her as well as treated like a slave – well, you must have missed something in the story. Seeing Michael sitting there crying and running his fingers through his food encrusted hair after his “food orgy” with Deirdre was enough to make me want to hold and comfort him. It is amazing the way Alex can make us see so much more of what is going on with his characters than what is in the script, and I fell in love with Michael Carter. Buy FEED, and I think you will fall in love with Michael too.