''Bitter Feast'' is a 2010 American

psychological horror Psychological horror is a genre, subgenre of horror fiction, horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and Mental state, psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre frequent ...

film directed and written by

Joe Maggio Joe Maggio is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for his work on the films ''Virgil Bliss'', ''Paper Covers Rock'', '' Bitter Feast'', and ''The Last Rites of Joe May''. He is also one of the founding editors ...

. It stars

James LeGros James Le Gros () (born April 27, 1962) is an American actor. He was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his performance in ''Living in Oblivion''. Career James Le Gros appeared as Rick in Gus Van Sant's 1989 ...

as a chef pushed over the edge by food critic J.T. Franks' (

Joshua Leonard Joshua Granville Leonard (born June 17, 1975) is an American actor, writer, and director, known for his role in ''The Blair Witch Project'' (1999). He has since starred in films such as '' Madhouse'' (2004), '' The Shaggy Dog'' (2006), '' Higher G ...

) vicious review. The film also features actors

Larry Fessenden Laurence T. Fessenden (born March 23, 1963) is an American actor, producer, writer, director, film editor, and cinematographer. He is the founder of the New York based independent production outfit Glass Eye Pix. His writer/director credits inclu ...

Megan Hilty Megan Kathleen Hilty (born March 29, 1981) is an American actress and singer. She rose to prominence for her roles in Broadway musicals, including her performance as Glinda the Good Witch in ''Wicked'', Doralee Rhodes in '' 9 to 5: The Musical'', ...

, and a cameo from real life master chef

Mario Batali Mario Francesco Batali (born September 19, 1960) is an American chef, writer, and restaurateur. Batali co-owned restaurants in New York City; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; and Newport Beach, California; Boston; Singapore; Westport, Connecticut; and Ne ...

Premise

Peter Grey is a successful New York chef, disgruntled by caustic reviews from the food critic J.T. Franks. After Franks' bad review, Grey is fired by his boss Gordon. He kidnaps Franks, takes him to a cabin in the woods, and forces him to cook his own "perfect dinner".

Cast

Production

''Bitter Feast'' was directed by Joe Maggio, and it stars James LeGros and Joshua Leonard. The film was shot in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...

produced the film with his company Glass Eye Pix.

Release

The film premiered as part of the

Los Angeles Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episod ...

on June 18, 2010. The DVD was released in October 26, 2010.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, a

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

, reports that 57% of seven surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 5.2/10. Paul Brunick of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote, "Beyond its creepy back story, the horror in this morally confused and cinematically inert film is entirely nominal." Mark Olsen of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'' wrote, "Zesty fun for its actors, Feast is at once a sly parody of the celebrity-chef culture spawned by all the cable cooking shows and competitions, and a creepy little chamber-piece."

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 1477835 2010 films 2010s comedy horror films American black comedy films American comedy thriller films American independent films Glass Eye Pix films 2010 comedy films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films