A banquet

Some will see A Banquet as a simple possession film or even an obsessive horror psychological thriller, but director Ruth Paxton's first film turns out to be much more complex than that. Indeed, by tackling the themes of faith, mourning, family breakdown, physical and psychological transformation, A Banquet has everything to impose itself as a model of the genre, including an excellent female intergenerational cast. Behind this portrait of a family unable to cope with what happens to their eldest daughter, A banquet is clearly a barely disguised homage to the psychological horror thrillers of the 60s and 70s, and we think in particular of Rosemary's Baby (1968) and The Exorcist (1973).

The structure of the film clearly seems to follow that of horror films with its very strong introductory scene in which the father of two young teenagers, Betsey (Jessica Alexander), Isabelle (Ruby Stokes) decides to end his life by swallowing bleach following a disease that eats away at him and with no possibility of recovery. Holly (Sienna Guillory), his wife, is left to raise their two daughters in a large house. When Betsey is drawn to a mysterious red moon at a party and loses consciousness, things take a strange turn for her grieving family. Indeed, she seems to have experienced a profound enlightenment and finds herself under the influence of a supernatural power. This hold prevents her from feeding herself and her behavior becomes more and more disturbing as if she is no longer able to control her impulses. Her mother tries to find a remedy but finds herself overwhelmed by events.

Moving away from the simple horror thriller, Justin Bull's rather cleverly written script allows the director to portray a single parent family in crisis. Relying on the strong performances of the three leads Sienna Guillory, Jessica Alexander and Ruby Stokes, A Banquet shows real imagination and also tackles eating disorders and moves towards family drama and takes the structure of a film in three distinct acts whose last minutes branch off into intense drama and brings a semblance of explanation until the final scene that may unsettle more than one viewer.

The director Ruth Paxton delivers here a successful first film that benefits from a mostly female cast with an omnipresent disturbing atmosphere. The British genre cinema seems to know a real revival as A banquet proves it so well.

A Banquet
Directed by Ruth Paxton
Produced by Leonora Darby, Nik Bower, James Harris, Mark Lane, Laure Vaysse
Written by Justin Bull
Starring Sienna Guillory, Jessica Alexander, Ruby Stokes
Music by Cj Mirra
Cinematography : David Liddell
Edited by Matyas Fekete
Production companies : HanWay Films, Tea Shop Productions, Riverstone Pictures, REP Productions 8 Ltd
Distributed by IFC Midnight (United States), Alba films (France)
Release date : 10 September 2021 (Toronto), February 18, 2022 (United States), November 30, 2022 (France)
Running time : 97 minutes

Seen on February 6, 2022 (screener press)

Mulder's Mark: