Review: Feed the Gods

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2021
Images from the Internet

Feed the Gods
Directed by Braden Croft
Random Bench; BMC Pictures; Compound B; MVD Marquee Collection
84 minutes, 2014 / 2021
www.facebook.com/FeedTheGodsFilm
www.randombench.com/films/
www.MVDVisual.com

Films that use the idea to feed local “gods” is not a new concept; just off the top of my head there is Jug Face (2013; reviewed HERE) and two others I won’t name because it is the plot twist of the end. One could even include the original King Kong (1933) as Faye Wray is chained to be sacrificed to the big ape. Actually, this Canadian film is closer to Kong than the others.

The prologue, of which I will not give too many details, is effective in a number of ways. First, it sets up the story of the two main characters, brothers William and Kris. Second, it is creepy and tense as hell at the border of the town of Tendale (population 60, filmed near Vancouver, British Columbia), and third, it can be seen as a social commentary about the heartlessness of the coyotes who work the southern border of the United States thanks to antiquated and cruel immigration laws. But I’m a proud liberal, so please excuse the politicizing. Anyhoo, if the rest of the film is of this caliber, it’s going to be interesting.

Emily Tennant, Tyler Johnston, Shaun Roberts

In the modern-day body of the main story, we meet the brothers as grown-ups: William (Shaun Roberts, who played Albert Wesker in the later Resident Evil franchise and was a semi-regular in the last season of the Canadian “Heartland” show) is a brutish, fly-by-night guy who wears sleeveless tees to show off his hulk and smokes pot, while Kris (Tyler Johnston, Samadriel on “Supernatural) is super uptight and looks like he just stepped out of High School Musical (2006). After finding some family artifacts, the sibs decide to head on back to Tendale (though the stress level is up to Elevendale…sorry) with Kris’s girlfriend in tow, Brit (Emily Tennant, who was the voice of 2017’s “Polly Pocket”). The bros are at odds (you know they will bond by the end, as all road movie companions do, no matter what the genre), with Brit in the middle as mediator. A bit formulaic, but one that tends to work.

On the way to search for their parents, William says prophetically, “Let the hunt begin.” Of course, at some point who is the hunter and who will be the – er – huntee? It’s telegraphed pretty early on (and hell, even on the front of the box), that there is a Bigfoot/Sasquatch problem and the town is living in fear.

Britt Irvin

For a place as isolated as Tendale, it seems to be hopping in the brothers’ perspective. They stay at a B&B run by Emma (Britt Irvin, Stargirl on “Smallville” and the voice of Sunny Flare on “My Little Pony”), which has a couple of extra guests from down undah beside our heroes. It’s not hard to figure out why they are there. Anyway, the film likes to telegraph itself, so while the tension remains (especially between Will and Kris), it remains not hard to figure out what is going to happen next in many cases, and who are the good and bad people.

While the film lulls for a while as we are fed necessary expository information, but somewhere about the half way point, it begins to pick up steam once our three stalwart explorers start to camp out to search for Bigfoot, since they aren’t having much luck with the parents.

Aleks Paunovic

With some really nice yet somehow sympathetic bad guys like the massive Pete (Aleks Paunovic; Julius in the recent “Van Helsing” series), and a couple of good double crosses in various directions, the story goes from predictable to… not. Sure, all the telegraphed things come to fruition, but surprises arise in around that, and there are even a few decent jump scares.

There isn’t a whole lot of blood, not to mention gore, but the story gives us a pretty decent body count, whether it is by the gods or in a Straw Dogs (1971) kind of scenario. The acting is well done, though I really wanted to smack the two brothers on a number of occasions due to some ridiculous and constant bickering for the first two acts, but that is more on the characters than the players.

The extras start with a full-length commentary by director/writer Braden Craft and associate producer and SFX/props builder Travis Shewchuk. Honestly, the commentary for this is kind of a wash-out. After about 20 minutes, I started to skip around a bit. There are large blank gaps, and when they do discuss the film, it is on mostly a superficial level, though the third act is the most interesting. If you listen to it, fine, but you really will not miss much if you do not. There is also a Behind the Scenes featurette (13 min). Again, it is with Craft and Shewchuk, but this is a bit more pertinent. One of the things they discuss that I found thought-provoking is that the original concept was as a found footage, and I am grateful they did it in narrative form instead; there is nothing I find more annoying than running through the woods at night by the light of a hand-held camera.

There is also the theatrical trailer, two other MVD coming attractions for relatively mainstream fare (with the likes of Zoë Bell and Jeff Goldblum), captioning, and a reversable cover.

The film helps show off the beauty of British Columbia. I have been there a few times, and it really is stunning (and recommended). Meanwhile, stick around for at least part way through the credits for more story information, and if there is a sequel, I will happily watch it.