Feed

When Feed came out last year it slapped a used serviette in many a face with its exploration of the feeder/gainer relationship in the guise of a budget serial killer flick.

It's disturbing enough that people are grossly over-feeding their consenting partners and posting the effects on the Internet, but by fictionalising this to cinematically horrific and brutal extremes, director Brett Leonard created an individual queasyfest. It was certainly not to everybody's tastes.

You have to wonder why people might indulge in such a practice and whether anyone other than them will want to watch a film about it. Well, whatever his discussions on modern relationships and media body image, it's clear that Leonard isn't looking to portray the practice as anything other than gross. There is no titillation here. Of that, I am sure!

The DVD gives us a wealth of extras that provide insights into the filmmaking of Feed. Whilst going for fairly worthy comprehensiveness, this is the one release where you feel you're being force-fed bonus featurettes, rather than choosing them.

In no particular order, the food cart has:

Commentary by director Brett Leonard:the meat and veg. Leonard pretty much keeps the foods coming for the length of the film, starting with a brief intro to the feeder/gainer Internet phenomenon. There are some 4,000 sites out there, apparently. Leonard cooks up regular anecdotes about the production, from locations, to how his two leads (Patrick Thompson and Alex O'Loughlin) actually pitched the idea to him, to contemporary events used in the movie (such as last year's German cannibalism) and the style in which he tried to film it. Overall, it adds more gravitas to the piece than it was perhaps given credit for when it came out. It's still an acquired taste, though.

Alternative Ending:isn't so much an alternative, rather more of the original ending before the final edit, but it adds a nice Tabasco kick.

Behind The Scenes featurettes:the cheese board. Most of these focus on drafting and grafting the obese fat suit around actress Gabby Millgate -

The Fat Suit Fitting of fat suit Weighing of fat suit for feature Deirdre - as seen from "bed camera" Infomercial

Deleted Scenes:

"Young Girl" sequence Hamburg club Phil, Richard & Nigel at CCID Phil & Abbey in apartment Abbey walks out on Phil Poetry reading Dak Summer (back story) Deidre's nightmare Toledo public records office Church graveyard

It's an impressive selection of tapas, which adds extra flavour to the film. Dak Summer (backstory), however, provides a whole new meal, as subplot to Jackson's tracking down Michael Carter and chasing him to Toledo. Leonard melodramatically describes how he had to let the whole 10-minute segment go and was perhaps right to do so. It would have slowed the movie down, but it would also have given more context and texture to the cop/villain dynamic overall.

Interview with Jack Thompson:a diverting canape. Did you know that Philip Jackson's belligerent cop boss is played by Patrick Thompson's dad, Jack? Now you do. That's about all you get in the sub-60 second "interview." A mere soupcon, really.

Final day interview with Brett Leonard:a quick tasty burger to get stuck into. You still feel a little greasy afterwards, but want a bit more. Indeed, Leonard gets just over four minutes to talk sensibly about how he had to grind the gears to get the production shot and in the can to tap into the recent global awareness of feeders and gainers. A number of prevalent TV documentaries had aired globally, bringing the practice to a wide and generally revolted audience, so he needed his movie to tap into that advertising and perhaps fleeting awareness. He highlights briefly how his film is more of the body culture zeitgeist than most mainstreamers would like to admit and how he corsets its themes of modern sexuality, relationships, consent, societal acceptance, tolerance and intervention within its horrific, fictionalised tale.

Photo gallery:bland salad cream. A short selection of still shots from the movie, all with a tinged red border. No, I don't know why either.

Original theatrical trailer:the basic entree.

Promotional trailers:two packets of Skips -

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