A handsome Irish vampire film that keeps choosing the cabin over the myth.
Feed Review: Marco van Belle’s Dearg Due Vampire Never Quite Bites
Ireland handed horror two of its most famous bloodsuckers in Dracula and Carmilla, yet neither is its oldest. The Dearg Due, Ireland’s first vampire, predates both by millennia and has barely troubled a camera until now. Marco van Belle’s indie horror Feed hands her the screen at last, then spends most of its running time somewhere far less interesting. Orla, played by Grace Collender, is a year out from a tragedy her influencer best friend Nessa is convinced a week in a remote Irish cottage will fix.
Five attractive young people, no phone signal, spooky locals, an old evil disturbed: you have seen this shape before, and van Belle knows it. Feed looks handsome and uses the tools of the influencer inside the vampire myth cleverly, while Charlotte Bradley steals the thing outright as an innkeeper who would rather keep the monster than kill it.
Marco van Belle finally gives the Dearg Due, Ireland’s first vampire, her turn on screen, and Feed looks the part. The cast finds real texture, Charlotte Bradley chief among them. Yet the film keeps retreating into familiar cabin territory when its own mythology was the stronger story.
Feed | Review | Hope Madden |
Horror owes Ireland a huge debt for vampires. Yes, basically every culture and nationality has a vampire myth, but Ireland gave us Dracula and Carmilla. Remmick is the coolest vampire to come along in decades. But those bloodsuckers are predated by some millennia by the Dearg Due, Ireland’s first vampire, who finally gets her cinematic due in Marco van Belle’s indie horror, Feed.
It’s been a year since Orla’s (Grace Collender) tragedy. Her influencer/bestie Nessa (Daisy Jelley) is sure that a week away in a remote Irish cottage will help bring Orla out of her depression, and if Nessa can take advantage of the beautiful spot for some posts, all the better.
This is essentially a cabin-in-the-woods horror, isolating five attractive young people of mixed gender in a natural, even primeval, setting.
Is it a tired set up? It is. Do filmmakers drag it out time and time again because it’s effective? Also yes. Locals are spooky, there’s no phone service, characters are out of their element, and a natural evil is disturbed.
An early-film flashback gives us a sense of what that evil is, but van Belle could mine the mythology more effectively. It would have more effectively set Feed apart from other films. Instead, we spend most of our time inside the cabin with the more predictable storyline.
The cast does a fine job of finding characters hiding in these fairly typical characters. Jelley is the most hamstrung as the vain best friend and failing influencer, but Clinton Liberty, as Orla’s boyfriend, struggles with the film’s most underwritten character.
Collender’s solid and both Rhys Mannion and Oskar Smith find nuance and personality for their characters. Naimh Hogan’s central villain has come cool trickery, but her presence lacks real terror. Charlotte Bradley, on the other hand, is effortlessly frightening as the innkeeper who’d rather keep the vampire.
It’s a good looking movie and van Belle uses the tools of the influencer within the vampire myth well. He just doesn’t break out of routine often enough to make Feed particularly memorable.
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