PLOT: A dinner party thrown by wealthy elites includes cannibalism and necrophilia.
REVIEW: Writer/director Miles Doleac's THE DINNER PARTY begins with playwright Jeff Duncan (Mike Mayhall) and his wife Haley (Alli Hart) arriving for the titular event at the mansion of surgeon Carmine Braun (Bill Sage) and discussing the fact that being invited to this party is a huge opportunity for Jeff because the other people who will be attending have been responsible for financing three of a fellow playwright's plays and sending them to Broadway. It's interesting that Doleac and co-writer Michael Donovan Horn chose to make the lead character a playwright, because for a large portion of THE DINNER PARTY's overly long 115 minute running time I was thinking that the story would have been better off if it had been told as a stage play rather than a feature film.
The story of THE DINNER PARTY takes place almost entirely within Carmine's home and on his property, and it mostly deals with a group of seven people having conversations – including a 30 minute stretch of them sitting at the dinner table, with some of those minutes being dedicated to characters discussing opera, which to me is one of the least interesting topics there is. This was practically begging to be performed on stage rather than filmed and sold as a horror movie. As this interminable sequence went on, I began to wonder when the horror would ever kick in… and then finally, at around the 55 minute mark, it finally did. Something finally happened.
When this movie does start earning its place in the horror genre, it does so with murder, cannibalism, necrophilia, and even a very unexpected supernatural element. It's deeply twisted and frequently disgusting, while also still being quite chatty. As it turns out, Carmine and his fellow wealthy elites – Sebastian (Sawandi Wilson), Sadie (Lindsay Anne Williams), Agatha (Kamille McCuin), and Vincent (Doleac) – have invited Jeff and Haley to the mansion with bad intentions in mind for them, and Carmine and each of his friends get some personal time with their prey. Which mostly means there's a lot more talking to sit through, but at least there's something violent or gross happening during the chat this time.
I tend to like dialogue-heavy films, but I just could not connect with THE DINNER PARTY, and it's largely because I didn't care very much about the characters. Carmine and his cohorts are unlikeable from the first moment we meet them, so why should I be interested in what they have to say to each other? (Especially when they're talking about opera.) Jeff isn't a likeable person, either, and there's something off about Haley that makes her tough to root for at first. Eventually I started to warm up to her, after she reveals a tragic back story and gets trapped in a horrific situation, but she's still not likely to land on anyone's list of favorite "final girls".
There were only maybe 15 minutes of this movie, the minutes most of the violence was packed into, when I was really enjoying what THE DINNER PARTY had to show me. The movie waits too long to have something interesting happen, and is too long overall. If it were trimmed down closer to the 90 minute mark, it would probably provide a more satisfying viewing experience. After watching this movie for 115 minutes, I was left wishing I hadn't spent so much time with these characters.
While the characters are off-putting, all of the actors did well in their roles, they brought these unpleasant people to life in a way that made me believe them and dislike them. In addition to the actors mentioned, there's also Ritchie Montgomery as a police officer and an appearance by Jeremy London. Fans of Party of Five and MALLRATS shouldn't seek this out expecting to see London do much in it, though. I didn't even realize he played the role he did until the end credits were rolling.
This movie was not for me. The scenes of violent horror were welcome, but they were overwhelmed by the scenes of unlikeable characters having uninteresting conversations.
Uncork'd Entertainment will be giving THE DINNER PARTY a theatrical, DVD, and digital release (through Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, Google Play, Fandango Now, Xbox, Dish Network, Direct TV, and local cable providers) on June 5th.