First premiering at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival,A Banquetis a gore-filled horror fest that doesn’t shy away from investing in its characters and the creative elements on screen. Directed by Ruth Paxton (her first feature film), the psychodrama follows widowed mother Holly (Sienna Guillory) who is stuck at the crossroads after her daughter, Betsey (Jessica Alexander), finds herself sacrificing her body to a death-obsessed incorporeal being.
The emo teen has found herself haunted by death following her father’s passing, however, the movie quickly shakes off the impression of being a sad drama. While Betsey, rocking her chipped nail polish and unconventional look, is at a party, she finds herself summoned towards the woods during a blood moon. This experience leaves her with an out-of-body feeling, and she finds herself battling weird sensations and not able to digest food. Paxton magnifies these heavy emotions through silted interactions and close-ups of food, strange decor, and sensation-processing body parts.
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Inan interview withGame Rant, Paxton gave some insight into her inspirations as a director, citing filmmakers such asAri Asterand Darren Aronofsky, and contemporary artist Ken Currie, but it is her own, personal decisions that led to the creation of a movie as bold asA Banquet. This arthouse flick is driven by women and feelings. It isn’t afraid to be warm-hearted, and grounding, and filled with love, instead, it allows itself to be enriched by those qualities. Holly’s love for her daughter tricks the viewer into feeling a false sense of security amid the increasingly unnerving situation at play.
As Betsey nears closer and closer to pure insanity, her younger sister Isabelle (Ruby Stokes), slips into the background. At first, Isabelle is presented as the polar opposite of her sibling, but she quickly sheds the illusion as her family continues to fall apart at the seams. The seemingly goody-two-shoes ice skater struggles to deal with her sister’s erratic behavior and disagrees with her mom’s decision to coddle her, rather than send her away for help.
In a moment of rage, Isabelle goes out to a party where she gets sick and is carried home by Betsey’s nice-guy ex-boyfriend, who was driven away by the eldest’s newfound obsession with death. It is at this moment Stokes performs one of Paxton’s most memorable scenes. The director told GR, “When I’ve been in an audience watching it with people, one of the moments that elicits the strongest response is later in the film, when the younger sister vomits, and she’s sick on to a pane of glass. And she puts her hand in it to steady herself because she’s drunk.”
Paxton continued, “It gets the loudest reaction from an audience. People are grossed out basically, because it’s absolutely disgusting. I love it. There are so many moments in the film that are deliberately gross, that are heightened moments of realism, or just like balls-out gore and horror bits. Yet, it’s the bit where somebody is just sick that gets such a powerful response. I’m quite proud of that part of it.” That’s the sum ofA Banquet’s impact, it is a subtle yet fearless take on a familiar story that could’ve been devolved into overused familial tropes and predictable jump-scares. Instead, the movie’s most shocking moments are had over peas at a dinner table, childhood stories from a regal grandma, and an erased sibling’s fits of irritability.
The sole downfall of the movie is that theending is a bit lackluster, and will feel especially so for fans of traditional horror. Throughout the movie’s 97 minutes run-time, viewers will find themselves gagging at Paxton’s shameless shots of Isabelle shoving food down a comatose Betsey’s throat, sickly moments of possession, and a jaw-dropping, gorging interaction between Holly and Betsey. But by the end, the craziness has all died down, in a natural progression — one that feels incredibly alien to the genre. After an unwelcoming trip to a treatment center and failed visits from doctors, Holly takes matters into her own hands and decides to care, full-time, for her daughter.
Betsey’s state consistently worsens, and she’s stuck, lifeless in bed. When she’s active, she scares her loved ones away by muttering her dark thoughts, such as, “I can tell what’s coming for us and it’s darkness.” Nevertheless, through it all, Holly’s maternal instincts and love for her daughter keep her close to Betsey’s side. It is this sweetness that drips into the ending of the movie which, described by Paxton, is a “positive release.” While the ending is left ambiguous enough for the viewers to interpret it as they see fit, it feels a bit unfulfilling given the movie’s rich elements and nightmarish horror. But despite it all, or, perhaps, because of it all,A Banquetis a feast for the eyes and will leave viewers craving for Paxton’s next feature.
A Banquetis playing in select theaters, on digital platforms, and VOD.
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