The Feed is a Ghost Hunter Show Gone Awry, Seemingly a New Indie Horror Trend
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The Feed is one of a few recent Indies with the same setup, but this one is the whole show, including commercials!
Written by The Horror Czar, Don Sumner
August 31, 2011
Movie TrailerImage Gallery
Official Site
Release: October 31, 2010 (festival)
Directed by: Steve Gibson
Written by: Steve Gibson, Matt Edens and Jon Nunan
Starring:
Seth Drick as Todd
Chip Facka as Brian
Brianna Healey as Amanda
Jody Horn as Veronica
Lloyd Kaufman as J.D. Woodley
Ah, ghost chaser “reality” television – what could be finer? Where else can we see real live ghost hunters and all of their fancy electronic equipment working to find real live (dead) ghosts from the safety and security of our living rooms? These shows have been pretty popular in the 2011 timeframe with the stars of such shows becoming celebrities at paranormal conventions everywhere. What would happen if one of these shows caught the stars face to face with a real and evil ghost, and on live T.V. no less? Now that would be something…
The Feed is a movie about a television show, the annual
live show of an extremely popular ghost hunting “reality” program. The
location is an old theater where a ghost sighting has been reported,
presumably the 
spirit of the projectionist who was
killed in a fire years ago. The documentary about the location and it’s
grisly past is very convincing, consistent with what could conceivably
be included in an actual show of this type. There are even the
appropriate promos as the show revs up and commercials in between the
segments of action. Unfortunately the commercials are the least
believable part of the package, but filmmaker Steve Gibson certainly
gets an “E” for effort by putting them in. Lloyd Kaufman, as much as I
love you… your rendition of an appliance salesman doing a cheap
advertisement while wearing your bowtie was a bit of a distraction.
The acting performances in The Feed, specifically of the ghost hunting crew, are very good as well - not Citizen Kane good but realistic portrayals of what this is supposed to be; a crew of cockamamie ghost hunters jogging around a reportedly haunted theater searching for any noise or creepy shadow that may, with liberal amounts of imagination applied, be ghost-like enough to thrill and enthrall the viewers. The “psychic” is sufficiently wispy and intense and the host of the show is appropriately bearded and messy-haired with an air of mischievous excitement twinkling in his eyes as he ventures out into the dark rooms.
When the ghosts start to show up the subtle glimpses are great, and build to more direct sightings and interactions which range from horrifying to downright goofy. All in all, though, the effects are good and generally surpass the very low budget of the Feed, estimated at $15,000. The effects succeed because the filmmakers didn’t try to do too much, or go to far. People watch these ghost hunting shows all the time and the slightest hint of something that sorta kinda might be a ghost is good enough for them, so it didn’t take over-the-top effects to move the action into the realm of “hey, there are really ghosts here and they want to kill me!”
The Feed is not the only film to capitalize on the concept of a ghost-hunting show where the stars encounter real ghosts – but may have been an early entry to this new horror formula. A similar film called Grave Encounters will have a DVD release October 18 2011 and, depending on the popularity of each, there may well be more. The Feed is the clear winner so far in presenting a realistic show gone terribly wrong.
Questions or comments about The Feed? Discuss it on The Ossuary Forums!
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