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 Gnaw
(DVD - 2009)
R1 / NTSC DVD
Dark Sky Films / 2009
Directed by Gregory Mandry
Written by Michael Bell, Max Waller and Rob Weston
Cast: Hiram Bleetman, Carrie Cohen, Gary Faulkner, Sarah
Dylan & Oliver Squires
Review by Jennifer Holderness
Six twenty-somethings in England decide to get out of the
city and take a lovely break in the English countryside to a
place called Blackstock Farm. They are treated to the most
beautiful array of tasty looking dishes and meet pies by
their most caring hostess Mrs. Obadiah, whose only desire is
to put some meat on their skinny bones. Or is it?
Okay, maybe I’m making this sound a whole lot more
interesting than it is but I’m still going to tell you why I
liked this piece. Oh yeah, it couldn’t be more cliché’ if it
tried. Everything from our cast of twenty-somethings to the
plot of vacationing and ending up at a cannibal clan’s
residence, it’s all there. All the way down to a hiding girl
who accidently kicks a bucket and alerts our predator that
the prey is close at hand. What do ya know? Still, here’s
the tricky part. This looks good. The cinematography is good
and you know it is low budget but it doesn’t look like it.
The sound is good and I was honestly surprised by its
quality. Better still is the acting, especially on behalf of
the strange hostess Mrs. Obadiah played by Carrie Cohen. She
seems friendly and normal and apparently a really wonderful
cook. I mean it, the food in this thing looks glorious. The
table settings, the meat pies and phyllo dough crusts look
flakey and yummy! Of course that all goes to hell when our
brat pack protagonists start eating those meat pies. Yeah it
gets a little gross. By the way, I’m spoiling nothing here
by telling you they are eating people. We know this from the
beginning. It’s not hidden and as far as I can tell, that’s
the way they wanted it. The brat pack doesn’t know it but we
do and that makes it far more cringe inducing, in my
opinion. You realize as they are being picked off and cooked
for that eventually they’ll be eating each other. Again,
pretty disgusting. If you think about folks, those of us who
eat out at restaurants and have others cooking for us should
really understand the position you are in mentally. They
could be doing anything to your food and it might contain
all sorts of things you wouldn’t dream of eating. Now that’s
scary.
The other standout actor in here is Gary Faulkner, Mrs.
Obadiah’s son. Faulkner, a large oaf of a young man who says
absolutely nothing for the most part, is intimidating by
sheer height alone. Even his gait is intimidating. The fact
that he barely says anything in fact is creepy. This is all
done by the actors’ facial expressions and he’s really
terrific in this. Just for these named instances alone it is
indeed worth a check it out. There’s also a love story
involved here and an ending that not only took me by
surprise but is pretty out there and disgusting as well.
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