Feed Me

While trawling through my list of ideas for posts, I discovered that I’d made a not to write about Rachel Maclean’s Feed Me, which I watched in a science/art museum of some description (I think?) in London at some point in 2018. It was a surreal, bubblegum flavoured nightmare that explored modern vices, addiction and child exploitation, forgoing subtlety in order to leave the viewer with no choice but to confront what they are experiencing head on. I think a lot of fictional media tends to make similar points in rather more restrained ways, so it was refreshing for the film to be presented in such a jarring, nowhere-else-to-hide kinda way.

Having now looked it up I see that all the characters are played by the creator herself, something I didn’t realise while watching it, which is a testament to both her performance and the makeup/costume design. It’s what I assume a bad trip looks like - except that it is making a coherent and lucid point about society amidst the bizarro retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.

Watching it in a dark room with a bunch of strangers as part of an art exhibition was definitely the optimal way to watch it, and I’m not sure I could recommend it under other circumstances. Maclean’s website is well worth taking a look around though, especially if you’re in the mood to feel simultaneously queasy and cynical about modern Western culture.