I was holding off on watching ‘Feeders’ after I caught the trailer for it about 15-20 years ago, thought it looked absolutely nuts, but then almost immediately realised that the only version readily available at the time looked like absolute arse, because this was the early days of the internet and the best quality version available on line appeared to be 80p resolution and compressed in a hydraulic press. I was, in particular, looking out for one of the boutique labels to maybe try and clean it up, and present it in a crisp 720p or even 1080p if the surviving master materials would allow it…But alas, its been all this time and they havent come up with the goods…With ‘Wildeye Releasing’ seemingly holding the rights currently and no immediate plans to put it out physically.
SO! When I was asked to chat about the film on an upcoming podcast, I finally took the plunge and threw myself into ‘Feeders’ because if not now…then when!? I was not (totally) dissapointed.
The plot follows two cool customers called Bennet and Derek, who are on a cross country roadtrip RIGHT as a series of UFO’s decide to fly around rural Pensylvania and cause all kinds of trouble. Beaming down two tiny and VERY hungry aliens, the ‘Feeders’ are here for one thing, invasion, and consumption. But Bennet and Derek are TOO COOL to be eaten. So after wandering around the backwoods for an age, and accidentally hitting a fisherman with their car. they eventually stumble on an abandoned farm house, where the true nature of the aliens will be revealed to them.
I would suggest this is a film thats ‘Low on theory, heavy on heart’ and these are the kinds of movies I have a lot of time for, the Polonia brothers were described by ‘Bleeding Skull’ as ‘Urgent filmakers’ in the sense that their works feel very much like two young men DESPERATELY trying to realise their ideas on WHATEVER format they could get their hands on quickest, using tools and props made from ANYTHING they could grab in a moments notice. And ‘Feeders’ is very much that.
Its a blender of a movie that feels like ‘Things’, ‘The Deadly Spawn’, ‘The Evil Dead’ and just a dash of ‘Return of the Living dead’ all got remixed into a low budget SOV film. and thats kind of the most endearing thing about it, the palpable fact that you can *FEEL* the influences on this film breaking through the script and subtext. it feels like these guys REALLY want you feel their film, their world and their art. Which I have a lot of time for.
The script itself is a little wirey, We have a strong opening act that sets pretty much everything up in a neat and concise way, a second act thats bloated and had me RIGHT on the cusp of fully losing interest, concluding with a short but sweet third act which ties everything up half decently, is totally insane and dumps the viewer off having VERY little idea what transpired, but wanting more.
I think the one thing that saves this film more than anything else across its full runtime, is its dialogue. both in terms of how its written (its very stilted, clearly exposition-centric style writing that reminded me a bit of ‘Things’) married up to the extreme ends of the performing spectrum. Everyones either hamming it up ROYALLY, or giving nothing. which is WILD and again, really put me in the mindset of ‘Things’.
the pacing is a bit all over the place, and as mentioned in the 2nd act, it starts to drag, but it never full goes TOO far into the red for me. Speaking with the host of the podcast I watched this with, he concluded that he felt if the film lost 10-15 minutes around the middle, it would be significantly better. I’d be inclined to agree.
The tone is clearly tongue in cheek sci-fi horror with a smidge of comedy. and Its committed to that thouroughly. which was something I really appreciated, as too often film makers will just get out there and run and gun a movie out the door that has ABSOLUTELY no narrative tonal direction and just goes wherever it wants to. This at least *tries* to have some cohesion.
The characters are wafer thin, one trope per actor and thats about it. no complexity, barely any backstory. they’re perfect for this kind of loose and free film making. and barring a couple of moments of mild homophobia in the middle that seemed unecessary. I enjoyed what was on offer here.
The direction is ROUGH, I dont think the Polonias had regular access to a tripod at this point, so everything is hand held, with maybe a little forethought into what the camera positions should be before they hit ‘record’, but thats about it. It garners a mixed result, with a significant chunk of the film being shaky running footage or footage of the actors faces pressed as close to the lens as possible. The intentions of the direction arnt entirely clear and are, if anything, made worse by the total lack of a HD capture of this footage. Even the DVD release of this is sourced from a VERY heavily compressed low res 3rd or 4th generation VHS copy from the looks of it. Which makes reading the creators intentions a bit hard. However, whether serendipity or momentary genius, there are moments here that I was impressed with and that definitely DID leave an impression on me.
Cine is much the same, badly framed, washed out, pixellated sequences are the flavour of the day, While I will say there are some really nice moments of creative lighting in this piece, thats probably about as good looking as this film gets. There are some (for the time) quite impressive CGI effects, which given the low/no budget nature of the film HAS to be acknowledged as being actually pretty impressive. but lacklustre footage edited together VERY poorly, does not a good movie make.
As for the performances. Legendary, nothing less. Jon Mcbride and John Polonia as Derek and Bennet are SO spaced for most of the movie, its incredible. they deliver their lines in a way that feels almost as alien as the ‘feeders’ themselves. and that combined with some VERY over the top ‘thrown about’ physical acting?… its wonderful. Truely a delight. easily being some of the saving grace this film really needed
As is the score, which I thought was very well put together ‘sound alike’ pieces that *just* manage to skirt any kind of lawsuit. its solid synthy music that suits the film fine enough. Not incredible really, but definitely ‘fitting’ of a film like this.
Did ‘Feeders’ change my life? unfortunatley, I dont think it quite got there in the end. But what I will say for this film is, as soon as I finished it, I had to boot up the trailer for ‘Feeders 2’, and THAT film REALLY doesnt look like its gonna dissapoint honestly. And if this film compelled me SO heavily to go and check out the sequel as soon as possible. Well…it must have been doing something right.
Are there better SOV films out there? Absolutely. But I feel ‘Feeders’ would be a great B-picture to another SOV or ‘shot on 8mm’ movie. Something like ‘Boarding house’ or ‘Things’ would absolutely be a must. Id say this is worth checking out almost certainly…but with ‘urgency’? Probably not THAT much…
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