For several months now, family matriarch Angela Long (Lynn Lowry) has acted mighty weird, and it all has come to a head two months ago, when she hacked off her husband Richard's (James Griggs) finger, just because she has caught him smoking some weed. Of course, she's immediately put under psychiatric care, but released after a mere two months, just in time for Halloween. She seems to do anything but well and everybody wonders how she got out - but the sadomasochistic games she has played and continues to play with her therapist Dr. Park (Lou D'Amato) seem to have something to do with it, games nobody knows about ... except for his ex Rose (Nika Khitrova), who puts everything on film for blackmailing purposes. Thing is, Angela gets wind of this, and she soon pays visits to all involved in the blackmailing scheme - with murderous results.

Angela's daughter Karen (Julia Coulter) is mighty worried about her - but she also meets Mark (Guile Branco) during this time, who soon enough proves to be perfect boyfriend material, and everything could be great ... that is, until Angela invites the both of them to Halloween dinner, and not only is the food of a more than macabre nature, there's also a family secret Karen would have preferred to have not learned ...

The best way to describe A Halloween Feast is probably as a horror-based soap opera, where violence and murders meet overly complicated family relations and exaggerated dramas, with several narrative threads being told next to one another - and the result is basically lots of fun, if of the darkest kind. This all works out because the film does take itself seriously enough to bring its story across convincingly, but is at the same time totally aware of its ludicrousness and doesn't always try to hide it. And of course, a fittingly unhinged performance by Lynn Lowry, surrounded by a very competent ensemble helps a lot to make this work, as does a genre-savvy directorial effort, ultimately resulting in great genre entertainment.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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