VOD of the Dead - FEED ME (2022)
When it comes to stories about how awful human beings can be, there is a vast array of atrocities to leverage for narrative purposes. If there is one thing that the human race is especially good at, it is making other human beings miserable. With a seemingly endless array of wars being fought all over the world at the same time, vast inequities that are driven by greed and othering, and this isn’t even getting to the psychopathic side of our nature that causes some to feel compelled to murder. All said and done, we are extremely good at doing bad. This is great news for horror and true crime creators as this provides an almost infinite supply of fodder for stories and adaptations. However, when liberties are taken with the truth the risk being run is that the overall impact of the story may be weakened. Purists will argue that changing the story to fit the medium taints authenticity, while others would suggest that real life doesn’t always translate to other mediums and as such requires some embellishment. Regardless of stance, what matters is how good the output is. This is the question for the newest film from Bingo Films, Feed Me. Is this “based on a true story” as good as the real-life horrors that inspired it?
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Following the death of his wife, a broken man spirals into an abyss of night terrors and depression and finds himself in the home of a deranged cannibal who convinces him to take his own life in the most horrific way imaginable.
HOW IS IT?
Feed Me is one of a handful of films that tackles a very well-documented case of German cannibalism from 2001. The story about Armin Meiwes has been brought to various forms of media such as film, television, music, and even theater. It is an interesting story, and it is easy to see why so many have used it as the basis for their inspiration, but Feed Me takes a surprisingly different approach to this macabre material. While the true story is very much not comedic, Feed Me attempts to imbue dark humor into the story about a man who agrees to be eaten by another man. It is a bold decision, and one that doesn’t really work considering the direction the filmmakers take with this story. Still, it isn’t without merit as long as you aren’t going into this expecting authenticity to the true story Feed Me is based on.
The biggest change in the story here, aside from names and locations, is the dynamic between the two men. Meiwes is represented by Lionel Flack (NEAL WARD) and the actual victim, Bernd Brandes is portrayed as Jed Freeman (CHRISTOPHER MULVIN). In the actual case, Meiwes and Brandes entered into a consensual agreement with Brandes and the same can be said for Feed Me, except the reasoning. In Feed Me, Jed is distraught after his wife/partner commits suicide leaving him rife with guilt over her loss and his inability to stop it. This leads him to Lionel, who offers up the proposition to let him eat Jed since Jed was planning on killing himself anyway. Never let a good piece of meat go to waste amirite?! From here is where the biggest divergence in truth and film occurs, as Jed ultimately regrets this decision and Lionel frantically tries to hide his growing psychosis that seems to be behind his desire to eat people. The sense of antagonism between these two is far different than the oddly consensual agreement in the actual case, and it is curious why the filmmakers would remove this complexity from both characters in favor of something more formulaic of a clearly established protagonist and antagonist. There is something far more interesting in the truth, even if it is quite brutal.
Speaking on brutality, Feed Me is chock full of blood and body parts. More often than not the effects are well-done and effective, but on occasion, they come off more as slapstick a la Evil Dead 2. There is nothing inherently wrong with this approach, rather it is the execution that is questionable largely because the scenes that are supposed to be funny just aren’t. The effects look great regardless, the tone just makes it hard for the viewer to determine if this is supposed to be funny or not. This brings us to another digression, the cat-and-mouse game that Lionel plays with the local authorities. While local police question Lionel a couple of times, they seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that he lives in what looks like a serial killer's wet dream. The abandoned and blown-out look of his apartment, and a scene where the cops literally walk in on him eating someone and he shares the meat with them (cooked, of course) to their complete ignorance. It’s the kind of scene that was clearly intended to be funny but instead presumes that Lionel is convincingly innocent while he is covered in grime and blood. The gist here is that all of the changes to the actual story don’t really serve the film all that well, especially since the actual story is far more compelling and complex. It’s not a bad film by any means, it is just one that doesn’t live up to the potential of the case it is sourced from. Perhaps those unfamiliar with the original story may get more mileage out of this, but for those who know there will always be the idea of what could’ve been.
LAST RITES
Feed Me takes an already interesting and grotesque story and dilutes it with attempts at dark humor and outlandish leaps in logic to make the story more palatable. While Feed Me offers some grisly gore and moves quickly, it also falls short of its potential by not taking itself seriously enough.
THE GORY DETAILS
Directed By
Written By
Starring
Where can you watch it?
FEED ME is available on digital streaming services as of November 13, 2023.
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