Feast III: The Happy Finish

The first Feast was a film for Project Greenlight and extremely successful so John Gulager was able to follow it with a 2-part sequel (think The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions). This third instalment kicks off several minutes before the second finished, thus giving you a recap of where things stand. In a small town where a group of survivors (including Bartender from the first film) are trying to defend themselves against monsters, we start with Bartender, a biker gang, a car salesman, his wife, her lover and a couple of midget Mexican wrestlers stuck on the roof of a building and trying to get to the next rooftop with a view to breaking into the jail where they think they'll be safe.

When the catapult they built didn't work as planned, sending one of the diminutive Mexicans into the road and malfunctioning, sending a pipe through Greg Swank's head, and leaving several of the female bikers without clothes, they must find another way to safety whilst avoiding the monstrous hordes.

Using the same style of captioned introductions as in the first film (the second abandoned this style for a different form of introduction), this motley bunch embark on a quest for survival. During their travels, they come across a young martial arts expert called Jean-Claude Segal, a muscular hero type called s***kicker and a strange cloaked man who can produce a high pitched whine that repels the creatures.

This man, Short Bus Gus, turns out to be a prophet and leads them on a journey through the sewers where they intend to leave Small Town to find refuge in the city. However, it quickly becomes apparent that these storm drains are only marginally less dangerous than the streets above.


None of the Feast movies will ever be considered masterpieces in the horror canon - they are what they are: gory, silly, action-packed splatter films. Feast III: The Happy Finish isn't as effective a horror film as the first in the series, going more for action over atmosphere and suffering a little as a result. The acting is reasonable, but you're not endeared to the characters and you don't really care when one dies. The broad humour is a little hit-and-miss but there are some good laughs to be had - even one that's also the most wince-inducing moment in the film!

It is sad to see what began with such a refreshing and enjoyable movie end with such an incoherent mess as this. Characters come and go, defy normal human biology (walking around and even fighting with both arms missing) and, by the end, it is as if they didn't know how to finish the film properly so you get one of the most ridiculous endings I've seen in years. Maybe they ran out of time and/or money. Maybe they just didn't care that much. Feast III works as a silly gross-out horror movie but not as anything else.

Feast III was released in the US some time ago with a commentary and other extras and has taken a while, just as Feast II did, to reach these shores. As with its predecessor, it arrives shorn of the supplementary material that graced the R1 versions and the disc is of the vanilla variety.

The Disc

The Picture
A clear transfer with some odd filming styles, such as the use of night vision, but these add to the experience and tension. The makeup effects on the monsters are excellent and there are some very effective uses of visual and special effects. Sadly, some of the exterior shots were obviously shot against green screen or in a studio so you lose some of the (little) sense of realism that it had to begin with. There are more monsters than in Feast II and these are well designed, though obviously men in rubber suits, and are very effective.

One sequence is shot entirely with strobe lighting, which did my eyes no favours at all and is probably something to bear in mind if you have photosensitive epilepsy.

The Sound
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is suitably loud and full of great sound effects which complement the gory visuals. Some of the dialogue is in Spanish or hard to make out - predominately the lines spoken by Greg Swank - and forced subtitles appear when this happens.


Final Thoughts
There is nothing big or clever about Feast III, it is a gore filled splatter movie with a modicum of humour and the best thing I can say about it is that it works better than Feast II, though this isn't exactly a glowing endorsement. If you really like the Feast films then the R1 versions are the way to go but, if you just want to give it a go and aren't too bothered about commentaries, then this is worth a rental.

This release coincides with a box set of all three films hitting the shelves and, if you don't own any of them but have seen and liked bits of them enough, that might be the way to go.