A Banquet

A Banquet opens unpleasantly with a terminally ill man taking his own life witnessed by his daughter Betsey (Jessica Alexander), while her mother Holly (Sienna Guillory) does her best to protect her and save her father/husband.

Moving forward some years and Betsey now in her teens is facing the usual traumas of teenage life, seemingly drifting into an aimless, uncertain future. Which leads us to one the trials of teendom; the party. Invited to one alone she’s coaxed into drugs later going out for walk, under a red moon and into an adjacent wood.

Something happened to her in there as on returning she begins to act odd. Betsey won’t eat, and is possessed by an overriding feeling that there’s something else going on that she is waiting for, a possibly cataclysmic event.

Holly is basically at a loss, preparing elaborate meals, willing her daughter to eat; even a pea would be something. Nothing doing and to add to this her other daughter Izzy (Ruby Stokes) at one time an enthusiastic ice skater, has lost all interest in it. Even Betsey’s boyfriend Dominic (Kaine Zajaz) can’t help walking away after an offscreen meeting with her.

What is also worrying the family is that Betsey isn’t losing weight. She’s referred to a specialist and treatment. Which according to grandmother June (Lindsay Duncan) is a waste of time as this is all teenage angst and that all that is taking over the family is, Betsy.

It won’t be far from anyone’s mind that Betsey’s condition suggests anorexia and depression, deep set and now surfacing because of the mounting pressure on her socially and otherwise. Whether it is the contrived attention seeking behaviour that grandma June suspects is open. But whether or not the makers were aware of it, June could be the personification of the naysayers about mental illness, speaking for the ‘pull yourself together’ school of thinking, that still pervades much of society.

A promising debut from director Ruth Paxton, from a script by Justin Bull, A Banquet works the tropes of parent/teenager tensions, and the supernatural/horror elements pretty well. The latter may not be as engaging, even with the rotting food and body-horror sequence, though does lob in some ideas about the inevitability of things and that sometimes things just can’t be explained.

Paxton makes very good use of the sleek family house, the sterile lines of which enhance the perfection of the food preparation and presentation. The cast too are all very good though Duncan does tend to pinch the scenes she is in.

A Banquet is available on Shudder now.