A Banquet: Psychological Horror Uses Food as Metaphor for Possession
By Thom Ernst
Rating: B-
Director Ruth Paxton's debut film, a psychological horror called A Banquet, is not likely to find its fans among the casual viewer scrolling through late-night options. Horror fans will find that Paxton's film is not a straight-ahead feast of digestible thrills and chills. Others might perceive it as an acquired taste. A Banquet requires a deliberate decision to watch as it doesn't pair well with distractions and traditional expectations.
Food has a significant role in Paxton's film, at least important enough to be reflected in the title and highlighted in crafted shots of preparation, presentation, and consumption. But it's not the excess of food nor the ritual of eating that's important; instead, it's the sudden dismissal of food that resonates.
A Banquet doesn't fall neatly in line as a culinary horror; leave that to movies featuring Hannibal Lecter and the Robert Morley scene at the end of Theatre of Blood. A Banquet is in the realm of a psychological/spiritual horror, which I didn't even know existed before now.
Edging closer to a fitting comparison would be a filmed vision of the crazed biblical prophet Elijah or an outsider's take on the claims of Jesus of Nazareth. Biblical assumptions aside, imagine being the parent of a child who claims to be the agent of a higher power—A Banquet is that story.
Holly (Sienna Guillory) is a dedicated mother to two teenage daughters. That the girls, Betsy (Jessica Alexander) and Izzy (Ruby Stokes), are teenagers is not simply a convenient plot devise. Presumably, screenwriter Justin Bull requires these young women to be impressionable and volatile, where body consciousness can have dire consequences.
And so, when Betsy, the eldest of the two, stops eating, Holly's concern reaches the point of anguish. In one of the film's most harrowing scenes, an everyday family dinner is disrupted by Betsy's attempt to digest a single pea.
Further, Holly notices—in a way that only a mother would—that her daughter's natural bodily functions are also on hold. And yet, Betsy is not losing any weight.
Betsy is unfettered by these changes, claiming to be ordained by a higher calling. She speaks calmly and lovingly like a cult inductee heralding her devotion to a charismatic leader. Naturally, Betsy's refusal to eat and her wild-eyed convictions weigh heavy on the family, who have already been dealt a brutal blow: The film begins with Betsy witnessing her terminally ill father's horrific death by suicide.
Bull's script is dominated by strong female characters—a point of interest if Justin Bull identifies as male. Perhaps Bull's decision to write female characters reflects a perception that eating disorders are traditionally more pronounced in young girls, and therefore the stakes are higher.
But Betsy is not the sole dynamic driving the narrative. In addition to Holly and Izzy, there is June (Lindsay Duncan), the maternal grandparent. June is a stern matriarch, appalled by tactics she perceives as manipulative.
June is dogmatic and does not easily bend to the claims and complaints of others. It's easy to view June as unsympathetic, mainly when channeled through the eyes of her daughter. But Duncan's performance suggests a woman whose unshakeable convictions might be valid. We aren't to know until the end.
Although brief and mostly one-offs, the male characters are generally sympathetic. The most compelling male character is Betsy's boyfriend, Dominic (Kaine Zajaz), whose concern for Betsy is genuine, even if her claims eventually have him running for the door. There are no villains in the film.
Resolution is always good, but the resolution in A Banquet is as undebatable as a coin toss. And though the film toys briefly in areas of mental illness, religious hysteria, and the intense, inequitable relationships between mother and daughter, it is not enough to wholly nourish the layered set-up that it initially brings to the table.
Eventually, the movie slips from pursuing the fracturing effects of nihilistic behavior to embracing less palatable themes. That there are no questions to ask at the end of the film is perhaps A Banquet's biggest failing.
CLICK HERE to watch Bonnie Laufer’s interview with A Banquet director Ruth Paxton.
A Banquet. Directed by Ruth Paxton. Starring Sienna Guillory, Jessica Alexander, Ruby Stokes, Lindsay Duncan and Kaine Zajaz. Opens in select theatres and on digital platforms and VOD February 18.