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The Feast has quickly become one of the most talked-about films of 2021. The critically-acclaimed horror follows a young woman serving privileged guests at a dinner party in a remote house in rural Wales. The assembled guests do not realize they are about to eat their last supper.

Pop Culturalist sat down with director Lee Haven Jones and actress Annes Elwy to discuss The Feast.

PC: Lee, could you introduce us to The Feast?
Lee: The Feast is a contemporary morality tale. It’s about the importance of being true to yourself and your people. It offers a stark warning against the consequences of greed and avarice. At its heart, it’s an environmental film. It’s about sustainability and about how we use the land and abuse the earth. In its blood-soaked conclusion, it suggests that this fragile planet that we live on will sooner or later take revenge on humanity for the devastation that we’ve caused.

PC: Annes, what was it about this particular project and character that stood out to you?
Annes: I received the script and I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Every page seemed to be another shock and something that I hadn’t seen coming at all. That’s rare because you get a lot of scripts, and they tend to follow the same patterns. I was really intrigued about how we’d be able to pull all of that off and also by the idea of playing a character who has so much influence yet doesn’t speak. It’s not her words that she uses to influence people. It was a fun challenge for me to play someone so different.

PC: Lee, this is your feature film debut. Did anything surprise you about the experience? What was the biggest takeaway?
Lee: I come from a television background. Even though I’ve done a few projects, I’ve never actually done a feature film. I guess the biggest challenge for me was that sense of freedom. With something more episodic, there’s a pattern that you follow. The presence of the scriptwriter is felt more keenly on television. It’s more of an industrial process whereas this was more of an authored project. It was the freedom of being able to do whatever I wanted in many ways. But, of course, that freedom can be horrifying. It can be terrifying, and it has a certain tyranny to it. But as soon as I embraced that and realized that I could satisfy the story and myself and go on my impulses then it was great.

Moving forward, I won’t be as scared of the liberty of making a film again. It’s such a liberating, freeing experience.

PC: Annes, like you were saying earlier, your character expresses herself through her physicality. How much of an adjustment was that for you as an actress? Is that more or less challenging?
Annes: It was a new experience. I strangely found it very easy to tap into. Like Lee was saying about freedom, the freedom that not speaking gave me was mind-blowing. You don’t have to worry about remembering your lines or if you’re conveying what you want to through your speech. You can be fully present in the moment. It made it almost like a theatrical process because usually with theater you have rehearsals. By the time you get to perform, you’re so relaxed. This was the most relaxed I’ve ever been in front of a camera. Lee gave me the courage to do all that.

PC: The film has made its way around the festival circuit and it’s been incredibly well received. What do you think is resonating most with audiences?
Lee: I suspect it plays to different people in different ways. There is definitely an eco message to it. It’s very timely. It’s also a folk horror, which is very popular at the moment. It’s an elevated horror. It has a purpose. It has a message. It’s a bit of a crusade with a small “c.” It offers commentary on class structure and how we manage society. I suspect that may appeal to some. Hopefully, it delivers on scares as well. It delivers on the psychological terror. I’m hoping that it offers a little bit to everybody.

Annes: When we watched it at the London Film Festival, it was quite funny to see that people picked up on the comedic moments. We were so joyful to see people not feeling afraid to actually enjoy it—because it is terrifying, but you can have a laugh at the ridiculousness. It’s a combination of all of those things, but also it’s also timely in that we are all evaluating our role in society and how we treat the planet.

Lee: I forgot about the humor, but it’s definitely there. There are some great one-liners. There’s a great moment where Glenda says, “Do you know how difficult it is to make a pavlova?” That’s one of my favorite lines in the whole thing. It got a big laugh.

PC: There are so many relevant themes within the film. Was there one in particular that hit home for you?
Annes: It’s the misuse of nature and how nature will come back and dominate. It will make itself known. It’s impossible to ignore that. It felt timely when we were making it, and it’s only become more so.

Lee: I’d agree with Annes. I love that it does make a real statement about the tipping-point moment that we’re in right now as a planet. But what I also love is that this universal story is also a very local story. It does refer back to Welsh history and the way that the country has been exploited for natural resources and how it has been culturally exploited. It’s very important to me and I know for Annes as well.

PC: We’re seeing another golden age for horror as a genre to tell really cool stories. The Feast is the latest film in that movement. Did that bring any pressure?
Lee: You just hit the nail on it. There’s always pressure, isn’t there? When you’re making a statement and putting something out into the world, there’s always pressure to be good. So, yes. I’m feeling the pressure. I’m heading to New York to watch it at the IFC Center in Manhattan, and I think I’ll feel the pressure then.

Annes: We didn’t feel it when we were making it. We were in the middle of nowhere with no signal. We were just making a film that we loved. The pressure was away from us. It’s quite a nice way to make a film.

PC: What’s next for the both of you?
Annes: I’m currently filming a bilingual production. We’re filming it once in Welsh and then once in English. I’m playing a gothic gamer-type girl, which is a new thing for me. I’m filming that for Channel Four and S4C. It’ll be out next year.

Lee: I’ve got a show on BritBox called The Long Call that was released a couple of weeks ago. It’s a crime drama set on the North Devon coast. It’s by Ann Cleeves who wrote Vera and Shetland.

Make sure to follow Lee (Twitter/Instagram) and Annes (Twitter/<strong>Instagram). The Feast is out in theaters and wherever you stream movies.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of IFC Midnight