Movie Review: Family Dinner (2023)
Family Dinner is an Austrian horror film written and directed by Peter Hengl. It is about a girl named Simi (Nina Katlein) who is visiting her aunt Claudia (Pia Hierzegger) the week before Easter in hopes that her aunt will help her lose a bit of weight. Claudia is a dietician who has written several successful books on the subject. At first, Claudia is hesitant to take Simi under her wing, but after some coercion decides to help Simi to lose weight if she agrees to take it seriously. It turns out to be much more serious than she signed up for, and things start getting weird.
Pulling off modern folk horror is something that is rarely done with grace, but Family Dinner is the exception. The atmosphere is fantastic. Everything from the lighting and cinematography to the score was spot on. It has some great tension as a result. The acting is impressive, especially considering that the cast had limited feature film experience. The writing was very good as well. The dialogue made sense, and there were no wasted lines. As mentioned earlier, writing good folk horror is probably harder than most other genres in horror. The scenes have to be very calculated and deliberate; two things in which this film really hits the sweet spot. There were also some uncomfortable moments where you want to look away, but just can’t, and that is what we were looking for.
Overall, we would highly recommend Family Dinner to any horror fans out there. It is a well-written and well-acted horror film with excellent production quality and atmosphere. While it may not reinvent the genre, it is a must-see for fans of folk horror and horror in general. We look forward to seeing more from director Peter Hengl and his team in future projects.
Family Dinner releases 4/7 on Screambox and everywhere else. Get a free trial over at Screambox, or sign up for as little as $4.99 a month and check this one out!
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