Evil Feed (Blu-ray) (2013)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy / Horror	Trailer-Raze
Rating
Year Of Production	2013
Running Time	89:35
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Kimani Ray Smith
Studio Distributor	Titlecard Pictures Transmission Films	Starring	Laci J Mailey Terry Chen Alain Chanoine Alyson Bath Derek Gilroy Bishop Brigante Curtis Lum Sebastian Gacki David Milchard Carrie Genzel Johnson Phan
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Alain Mayrand Michael Damon

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 (4608Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

You Are What You Eat.

   Evil Feed looks like one of those films that could be so bad it's good. After all - what's not to like about martial arts based grind-house gore with boobs? Well quite a lot actually. This Canadian produced Tarrantino wannabe tries to be funny, but isn't. Tries to be scary, but bores. Tries to titillate, but goes limp. Tries to shock with outrageous gore, but fizzles. Having to endure this 90 minutes of schlock is an ordeal as onerous as that of our heroine, who gets bashed from pillar to post but at least doesn't have to write about it afterwards.

    Steven (Terry Chen) inherits from his unfortunately deceased father (Henry Mah) the exclusive Chinese restaurant The Long Pig. Being quite the entrepreneur Steven expands the house specialty of serving up human flesh by kidnapping martial arts experts and forcing them to fight for their lives in cages or end up on the menu. These martial arts battles are staged prior to tenderisation of the loser and selection by the restaurant patrons. Special delicacy is the Dickie Roll, a savoury dish whose recipe is closely guarded. Steven's possessive but skimpily clothed girlfriend/hostess Yuki (Shirleyann Mason) sometimes has to use her considerable charms to get ingredients ready for the Dickie Roll, but what's a girl to do when you get customers like Phat Phuk (I kid you not) who insist on it?.

    When Jenna (Laci Mailey) her MMA boyfriend Nash (Sebastion Gacki) and her dad are kidnapped, their friends Pete (Curtis Lam), Tyrone (Alain Chanoine), Carlos (Bishop Brigante) and Brian (Derek Gilroy) try to find them. All end up in the Long Pig cages, where Jenna's sister Sheila (Kristy Dinsmore) is also captive. Sheila has been drugged and is being used as a sexual desert for special customers. Also wanting to get into the action is British restaurant competitor Madam Dragonfly (Carrie Genzel), who's house specialty of Nipple Tartar is a serious competitor to the Long Pig's menu. Yuki is none too happy with Dragonfly setting her charms onto boyfriend Steven, and a face-off is inevitable. Meanwhile our heroes are obligated to battle to the death against Long Pig champions such as Bones and Smiles, as well as demented martial arts house goon Phammer (Johnson Phan), where it's a win or get eaten end game.

    Director Kimani Ray Smith has a background as film stunt man so it's no wonder that the martial arts fight scenes are reasonably well staged. The only problem is that they are so unrealistic as to be laughable, but not in a funny way. There is blood and guts everywhere but at no time did I feel queasy, even at events that on paper sound horrific. There is just no emotional attachment to anything that happens so it's impossible to relate to what you are seeing. Attempts at comedy are as forced as shoving a sledgehammer into a guinea pig, and just as tasteful. I could not raise a smile let alone a laugh at the rantings of Phammer or the worse than 70's British comedy double entendres. At least the Brits could do it with a twinkle of the eye and get away with it. There are no Sid James or Ronny Barkers in this motley ensemble. Restaurant hostesses including the yummy Yuki flash their ya-yas regularly, but it's hard to get enthusiastic with such wooden performances. The special effects are low budget, but fortunately with the lighting so dim and with liberal use of shaky-cam it's hard to see anything clearly anyway. There may be people out there who could enjoy Evil Feed, but really, I can't imagine how.

Video

    Video is presented in the theatrical aspect of 2.35:1 and in 1080p. This transfer is budget grade like the plot, but at least passable. Colours are good with a really vibrant palette most of the time outside of the cage scenes. Reds and golds really stand out with the blood being the correct shade and skin tones accurate. Black levels are an issue with a lot of detail being lost during the numerous dark scenes. Contrast levels and brightness could really have been increased a notch or two. When the lighting is up the details pop out, but unfortunately this doesn't happen frequently. Grain levels are moderate but especially evident if you look at the backgrounds behind the main focus. Compression artefacts are not an issue despite this being a single layer authoring as there are no extras and only 90 minutes of movie.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The only audio is 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio at around 4000 Kb/s. It is pretty good with the fight scene bangs and crashes really popping out. The audio special effects artists must have had fun putting it all together. Surround and LFE channels are not used aggressively but do feature when required. The dialogue is in synch with the video, easy to hear and clear in delivery. This is just as well because there are no subtitles provided. The score by Alain Mayrand and Michael Damon is not extensive but is appropriate as are the musical inserts .

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    Static menu with no audio.

Preview - occurring on startup before the main menu.

    Raze (1:33) - HD Video. Dolby Digital 2.0 at 192 Kb/s.

    At the time of writing Evil Feed is not available in any other regions. I guess we are privileged? Presumably this will change at some point.

    The only thing that saved this dud from the lowest possible rating is the well staged fight scenes. I guess 13 year old boys might get something out of it however everyone else should stay away.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    Extras are basically nonexistent.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall