eat me movie review

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Eat Me [Review]

When an award-winning playwright opts to produce her first feature film, and teams up with a first-time director, a lot could go wrong. But in the case of  EAT ME , Jacqueline Wright preserves the artistic vision of her story, delivering a tense, emotional thriller. Meanwhile, director Adrian Cruz exceeds expectations in practically every way, getting the most out of the limitations that an independent production faces. Ultimately, Wright takes a bold risk with this film and it pays off in spades.

EAT ME dares to ask: what happens if the victim of a home invasion actually wants to die? With this one simple twist on the subgenre, Wright creates a powerful new story. Here, our heroine threatens to defeat the antagonist, not by being more powerful, but by taking away his power. To say any more about the plot would be a disservice to Wright’s narrative.  EAT ME should be consumed fresh, with as few pre-conceived expectations as possible. It’s a film that ranges between whimsical, brutal, hilarious, and at times, just, … uncomfortable.

Carter delivers a monologue … that rivals the best performances of any mainstream or independent film, period

Cruz, in his directorial feature debut, demonstrates masterful sensitivity and comprehension of visual storytelling. Cruz could  easily have taken  EAT ME in an over-the-top, exploitative direction. He could  easily have played it safe, setting the camera on a tripod and letting the performances do all the work. Instead, however, he grounds the film with carefully blocked scenes and purposeful camera movement, creating an environment that allows his actors to shine. Complementing the direction and brilliant camera work is a superbly simple score from Martin Carrillo. The action, sound effects, and score are edited extremely well together, resulting in a well-constructed film that you’d expect from a seasoned veteran, rather than a first-time director.

EAT ME absolutely delivers visceral, brutal violence

EAT ME will be released in theaters on March 2, 2018, with a VOD release the following week.

Fucking Amazing

EAT ME is an intensely brutal spin on a home invasion story. Rather than shock its audience through graphic violence, it succeeds through honest, visceral emotion. Stellar performances carry the film past a somewhat slow opening that snowballs into an action-filled, emotional conclusion.

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Review: Timely and affecting, ‘Eat Me’ makes an awkward transfer from stage to screen

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As gutbucket personal-project indies go, the volatile, graphic and (somehow) corny “Eat Me” couldn’t have arrived at a more propitious time for a story about the nightmare of sexual assault. Except that actress/writer Jacqueline Wright’s adaptation of her controversial, trauma-inspired play (which was staged in L.A. in 2005) doesn’t fit easily into categories like horror or thriller or issue drama, and at times even hopes you can choke out an uncomfortable laugh.

A one-set two-hander taking place over a night, it starts with a deliriously despondent, housebound woman (Wright) jolted from her pill-gobbled suicide attempt by a home invasion. After a prolonged sequence of degrading, violent rape-torture, her attacker (a demonic Brad Carter) comes to realize his ready-made prey has an armor of audacious, mood-jarring self-loathing that, once she voices it, opens his own psychic wounds.

The theatrical origins of “Eat Me” are ever-present, and not very successfully hidden by director Adrian Cruz. (As for the aforementioned stabs at humor, the less said the better.) But if you can get through the first half’s repulsiveness in word, deed and exploitation-adjacent rendering, Wright’s and Carter’s committed mosh pit waltz of bloody, angry Act 2 unburdening — simultaneously garish and sensitive — creates its own weirdly galvanizing, human tension.

No easy path to forgiveness and communication, this one, but as a tour-de-force howl of primal, damaged rage, it contributes in its own strange way to the current era of public reckoning and testy healing.

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Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes

Playing: Laemmle Music Hall, Beverly Hills

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Film review: eat me (2018).

Nathan Wyckoff 03/12/2018 Uncategorized

Over the course of one torturous night, a suicidal woman and the violent home intruder that saved her life test the limits of human endurance and the boundaries of forgiveness.

Directors: Adrian Cruz

Writers: Jacqueline Wright

Starring: Jacqueline Wright, Brad Carter, Michael Shamus Wiles

Eat Me is an independent film following suicidal woman Tommy (Jacqueline Wright, North Country 2005), as she’s attacked and raped by a pair of home invaders named Bob (Brad Carter, Black Mass 2015, True Detective series 2014) and Frank ( Lost Highway 1997, Breaking Bad series 2009).

The entire first half of the film have Wright’s suicidal character raped orally and vaginally repeatedly, and depict Carter chasing her around the house and making her eat dog food while threatening violence. When she eventually fights back, she’s brutally beaten, after which she apparently has a change of heart, and seeks to goad the invaders into killer her. I was remined of 1976’s Born for Hell a.k.a. Naked Massacre when watching, wherein the sexual violence is too realistic to be comfortable. Unlike that film, which was loosely based on the real-life Richard Speck murders, Eat Me feels less like intentional exploitation, and more like a failed try at high-brow fare.

Part of the issue is that Eat Me both looks and feels exactly like the stereotype of the pretentious independent movie that so many viewers hate watching. It’s drawn out, the soundtrack is limited to occasional bouts of offbeat ditties that run counter to the tense material, and the shock of fake male genitalia isn’t as effective as was likely hoped. It’s the kind of thing that caused the failure of projects like Vincent Gallo’s The Brown Bunny , a sort of creator-vanity that forces the audience to endure a filmmaker’s hedonistic tendencies too long. The fact that Jacqueline Wright wrote the script exacerbates this feeling, and makes the audience feel used instead of impressed; it’s not “Wow, what a powerful performance I just witnessed,” but “Wow, I can’t believe I was held hostage and forced to watch this person act for 90 minutes.”

It’s the creator self-indulgence that enables the movie to portray rape and attempted rape repeatedly, and this fact alone will drive away most before ever reaching the film’s the meager message of victim-predator power reversal. There are subplots eluded to as well throughout the script, but they are so overshadowed by the violent actions of the film, they may as well be absent.

The biggest drag about Eat Me is that it’s very well made, and the cast is exceptional. Carter handles his idiot masochist deftly, and his constant concerned-face is at home with the material. Wiles takes the lumbering brute angle, and is as comfortable here as he’d be in a remake of O Brother, Where Art Thou? Wright’s acting within each scene is sublime, but viewing them all at once in film form reveals her character’s unexplained motivation-shifts. She moves from victim to controller instantaneously, and using a violent beating as the catalyst makes zero sense. Likewise, there are script problems that detract from the performances, such as Tommy’s horror at being urinated on exceeding her fear at potentially having a knife inserted into her anus. I don’t think I’m alone in finding the latter a far worse possibility.

Ultimately, I’m left unsure who this film is supposed to appeal to. S & M fans and seekers of rape fantasies will find the lack of sex appeal disappointing, while those seeking a high-brow art film will be disappointed by the unmotivated shifting of Tommy’s character. Acting fans may get some jollies out of the fine performances, but they’re likely to become bored partway in, when the characters start to feel one-note. With a lack of Tarantino’s marketable quirkiness, and without a Scorsese-ian focus on plot, we’re left with what critics of independent cinema so hate: a masturbatory demo-reel. If you are intrigued at all by these descriptions, by all means give Eat Me a watch. Just don’t expect there to be fertile soil beneath the top-layer—what you see is what you get.

Tags 2018 Adrian Cruz Brad Carter EAT ME Jacqueline Wright Michael Shamus Wiles

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Directed by Adrian Cruz

Over the course of one torturous night, a suicidal woman and the violent home intruder that saved her life test the limits of human endurance and the boundaries of forgiveness.

Michael Shamus Wiles Brad Carter Jacqueline Wright

Director Director

Adrian Cruz

Writer Writer

Jacqueline Wright

Oroboro Eat Me Films Rumpus Room Productions

Releases by Date

02 mar 2018, releases by country.

95 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by ELECTRICWIZARDx

Immediacy in the form of comedy tone setting, with frantic jazz and hiding of dildos and selection of method of despatch. 60s tv in 70s decor leaking through, lubricating the gears and taking proceedings through attempted suicide to garish, brazen and brash 70s kink roughie territory through modern "torture porn" lense until it becomes almost juvenile; only those entire sequences seem to sort of only exists as a hamfisting of forced opinions on both characters in order to add a very deliberate rug-pull to the rug-pull as the words "I'm beginning to feel better" are uttered and we go through a victim empowerment turning of the tables that allows for the meat of the matter to rear itself as a…

Review by Jerome1994 ½ 2

This is what happens when you try desperately to make your movie disturbing, it comes out disgusting, annoying and doesn’t have any type of meaning or purpose. The acting in this movie is dreadful 75% of this movie is over acting, which is just piss poor, the writing believe it or not is even worse. There’s this one scene where the creepy guy in this movie basically makes this girl act like cat and makes her meow and makes her even sing parts of the meow mix song (at least it sounded like it). This is more of a fetish film more then anything else, what’s sad is I actually thought this one might be goodc but unfortunately this movie…

Review by Chris Genro ★★★★

I really enjoyed this but I know full well this will not work for many people due to the subject matter. This tackles uplifting topics such as suicide, incest, rape, etc. But it does it in a mature and intelligent way.

This was adapted from a stage play so its dialogue heavy, has only a 3 person cast and it takes place in a single location. The performances especially during the dramatic moments are outstanding. This film really surprised me and I'm giving it 4/5 stars.

Review by Erin Elizabeth ★★★½

In Eat Me , Tommy, (Jacqueline Wright, also the writer, based on her play) lives alone, in a fairly secluded desert area, navigating essentially constant suicidal ideations. Bob (Brad Carter) is violently traumatized and lost as well, with ways that are more externally harmful to others beyond himself. On one evening, the two meet in a series of encounters more violating than the next, beginning with Tommy's invasion.

Wright wasn't even kidding with this title. There are moments that are visually traumatizing, & it's so much in her strategic, gripping, writing. She and director Adrian Cruz are doing this sort of horrifying dance together where she'll write some totally raw pieces of dialogue (e.g. "Shut the f*ck up or I'm gonna rip…

Review by syd ★★★

girlfail meets boyfail

this being written by the woman starring in it is honestly shocking??? didnt care for most of the first half as its mostly rape-y. second half gets wilddd tho! i think im in love with her <3

Review by Jimbo without the Jet-Set ★

This was all kinds of messed up! I expected a silly slasher B-flick. But it started off as a dark comedy and got rapey right away!! It pretends to be a thought provoking psychological thriller. But it’s just trash.

Review by 🎬 Susan J 🎬 ★★★★

This movie had me laughing, feeling uneasy, and feeling sick, but at the same time it held my attention for the full time.

Not so much a horror, this one is more of a thriller/dark comedy, that takes you into the characters dark worlds and their desperate attempts at survival in their chaotic lives.

Consisting of three cast members, the same location, and the time of one night, it captures the essence of despair, with all being understood at the end of the film. This movie isn't for everyone, and has a lot of negative reviews, but give it a chance, it's definitely worth the watch.

Review by VHSCreep ★★★ 2

Put the rabbit in the hole.

Review by Hugo Nebula ★★★★

"You call that rape? That's the funniest thing I've ever experienced. 'I'm raping you!' Ha ha, oh my God. 'I'm raping you. Oh. Ohh.'—Hah!"

A home invasion/rape revenge thriller with a twist: the homeowner has just attempted suicide and has nothing to live for. Instantly, she has all the power, by dint of having none.

Written by and starring Jacqueline Wright, adapting her own stage play, this is repugnant, excruciating, and transgressive film-making, with subject matter skating on the line of being misunderstood and misrepresented, especially in its balance of brutal violence and black humour. The pacing and repetitive nature of the plotting is surely deliberate, forcing witnessing and judgement from an uncomfortable audience.

Everything could go wrong; for some…

Review by Ezequiel ★★★★

Me costó y me dolió, pero me gustó mucho.

Review by GuanoLoco ★★★½ 4

Often I will champion an underdog. This film and its characters are a living, bleeding, yelping example of underdogs. It might turn out they should all have been drowned in a river along with a title that's either execrable or sheer genius.

Regardless, I need to put down some words here before my responses recede into memory.

This is far from being a great or even a good film in so many ways. But that isn't always the point. (Is it ever the point?) The fact is, this is about as desolate a howl of pure rage and abject personal ruination as anything I've seen, and I've seen a lot. Is it artful? No, mostly no (although with limited materials…

Review by Lexi_Largo ★★★★★ 1

Emotionally thrilling with clever characters, a chaotic score, and a tight setting, Eat Me is a brilliant look into the darkest parts of human nature. Enjoyably aggressive, each bout of emotional and physical violence leads you wondering how terrible the next act committed will be. Viewer discretion advised: Eat Me is intense, and will strike cords within you that you didn’t know existed. I loved every moment of it.

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Eat Me (2018)

Genre: drama / thriller, duration: 95 minuten, country: united states, directed by: adrian cruz, stars: jacqueline wright , brad carter and michael shamus wiles, imdb score: 4,9  (449), releasedate: 2 march 2018.

Eat Me plot

Tommy is in the process of taking his own life when an uninvited guest breaks into her house. This development ensures that her life is saved, but not much later Tommy has to fight to survive. During the long night that follows, the limits of endurance and grace are pushed to the limit.

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‘eat me’: film review.

Jacqueline Wright plays a suicidal woman who forms an emotional bond with a violent home invader in 'Eat Me,' a perverse psychological thriller based on her stage play.

By Frank Scheck

Frank Scheck

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You have to give Jacqueline Wright credit for sheer daringness with her screenplay and starring performance in Eat Me . Few actresses have crafted such a challenging, debasing vehicle for themselves as this indie feature adapted from her play. Unfortunately, her prodigious effort has resulted in little more than a repugnant showcase for her acting talents that few viewers will be able to stomach for the duration of its running time. The film, while not easily forgotten, is almost impossible to digest.

In this film, marking the directorial debut of Adrian A. Cruz, Wright plays Tommy, who in the opening minutes is seen meticulously preparing for her suicide. She leaves a week’s worth of food for her dog and takes pains to hide her extensive dildo collection. While gobbling handfuls of pills, she watches reruns of vintage sitcoms including The Beverly Hillbillies and Mr. Ed .

Release date: Jul 06, 2018

Her best-laid plans go awry when, after she’s passed out cold, a pair of home invaders burst into her house. The younger one soon departs, but the other, Bob (Brad Carter, HBO’s True Detective ), decides to take advantage of Tommy’s vulnerable state. He proceeds to sexually assault her and perform a series of other humiliating and violent atrocities as she remains nearly comatose (For the sake of the reader’s delicate sensibilities, the specific acts won’t be described here, but only those with very strong stomachs should dare seeing the film.) Along the way, he takes a break to make popcorn and join her on the couch to watch TV.

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At a certain point, however, Tommy regains her faculties. She wakes up, smiles wickedly and says, “I’m beginning to feel better.” The seemingly innocuous line has never quite had a more sinister ring. She begins to invite her attacker’s abuses and even attempts to goad him into killing her. It’s then that the two deeply troubled souls begin to form a sick, twisted bond. Each of them delivers a harrowing monologue that provides some explanation for their fractured emotional state. The arrival of another of Bob’s accomplices (Michael Shamus Wiles), who makes his partner look positively gentle, drives the proceedings into even more gruesome territory.

The first half of Eat Me would seem to be the sort of twisted horror film designed for people who feast on depictions of violence and sexual abuse, while the second veers into John Cassavetes-influenced psychological territory. The two segments don’t mesh well. Those who might respond favorably to the baroque material (God help them) are unlikely to appreciate the character-defining moments, while more serious-minded viewers will probably not even make it that far. Further, the proceedings have a stilted, artificial air that’s not entirely the result of the material’s obvious stage origins.

Katharine McPhee and David Foster Are Engaged

And yet the film does exert a perverse fascination, the same sort that compels drivers to slow down while passing a horrific car accident. The performers deserve much of the credit, with Wright baring herself both physically and emotionally to dig deeply into her character’s tortured soul and Carter making his white trash figure less of a caricature and surprisingly sympathetic at times.

The low-budget effort can’t be faulted on a technical level either, with director Cruz infusing the story’s single setting with cinematic polish. It makes it all the more a shame that so much strenuous effort has been expended on such unsavory, repulsive material.

Production: Eat Me Films Distributor: Blue Fox Entertainment Cast: Jacqueline Wright, Brad Carter, Michael Shamus Wiles, Kebe Dunn, Sid Hammond, Logan Sparks, Doris Barton Director: Adrian A. Cruz Screenwriter: Jacqueline Wright Producers: Flo Speakman, Dena Hysell, Megan McCulloch, Kirsten Vangsness Executive producers: Todd Slater, James Huntsman Director of photography: Nicholas Trikonis Production designer: Noelle Maline Editors: Adrian A. Cruz, G.J. Eckterncamp Composer: Martin Carrillo Costume designer: Lauren Oppelt

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Eat Me Reviews

• 1 hr 35 mins
• Drama, Suspense
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In this violent, claustrophobic and darkly humorous indie thriller, a woman is on the brink of taking her own life when a man breaks into her home to rape her. As she is held captive, she is able to connect to the humanity within her attacker as well as unleash the brutal monster within herself in order to survive.

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‘The Menu’ Review: Eat, Pray, Run!

Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy face off in this pitch-black satire of class and high-end dining.

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By Jeannette Catsoulis

There is nothing subtle about “The Menu,” but that’s a large part of its charm. Like Hawthorn, the exclusive upscale restaurant where most of the action takes place, this brutal satire of class division — viewed through the lens of high-end gorging — is ruthlessly focused and gleamingly efficient. And by unabashedly flaunting its crowd-pleasing ambitions, the script (by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy) cheekily skirts the very pretentiousness it aims to skewer.

At Hawthorn, set on its own island in the Pacific Northwest, every dish comes with a side of ego and a lecture on its provenance by Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes), a rock-star chef with a drill-sergeant’s demeanor. In his dining room, mere feet from an army of obsequious underlings, drooling one-percenters have each dropped $1,250 to wrap their gums around Slowik’s fabled tasting menu. Among them are a star-struck foodie (Nicholas Hoult) and his last-minute date, Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy); an arrogant restaurant critic (Janet McTeer); three odious tech workers (Rob Yang, Arturo Castro and Mark St. Cyr); and a fading movie star (John Leguizamo) hoping to pitch a culinary travel show. All except Margot have been carefully chosen, and all are about to become players in Slowik’s elaborate opera of humiliation, self-loathing and revenge.

From amuse-bouche to dessert, Slowik’s creations — and the diners’ punishments — grow steadily more bizarre and threatening. In service to a gleefully malicious tone, Mark Mylod’s direction is cool, tight and clipped, the actors slotting neatly into characters so unsympathetic we become willing accessories to their suffering. Fiennes is fabulous as a man so determined to turn food into art that he’s forgotten its very purpose; his disgust for the act of eating has long extinguished any joy in cooking.

“Even your hot dishes are cold,” spits Margot, the audience surrogate and the first to challenge the insult embedded in each course, like the “bread plate” with no bread. Intrigued by her working-class wiliness, Slowik is unsettled: He can see that she’s willing to take him on.

Whisking splashes of horror into culinary comedy (“Don’t touch the protein, it’s immature,” admonishes the forbidding hostess during a smokehouse tour), “The Menu” is black, broad and sometimes clumsy, attacking its issues more often with cleaver than paring knife. Yet everyone is having such a good time, it’s impossible not to join them. The movie’s eye might be on haute cuisine, but its heart is pure fish and chips.

The Menu Rated R for slaying, suicide and exuberant oversaucing. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. In theaters.

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I say this having eaten irresponsibly at McDonald's since I was in grade school, and one of the very first McDonald's outlets in the nation opened in Urbana. Hamburgers were 15 cents, fries were a dime. Make it two burgers, and we considered that a meal. Today it is possible to ingest thousands of calories at McDonald's, and zoom dangerously over your daily recommended limits of fat, sugar and salt. I know because Morgan Spurlock proves it in "Super Size Me."

This is the documentary that caused a sensation at Sundance 2004 and allegedly inspired McDonald's to discontinue its "super size" promotions as a preemptive measure. In it, Spurlock vows to eat three meals a day at McDonald's for one month. He is examined by three doctors at the beginning of the month and found to be in good health. They check him again regularly during the filming, as his weight balloons 30 pounds, his blood pressure skyrockets, his cholesterol goes up 65 points, he has symptoms of toxic shock to his liver, his skin begins to look unhealthy, his energy drops, he has chest pains, and his girlfriend complains about their sex life. At one point his doctors advise him to abandon McDonald's before he does permanent damage. The doctors say they have seen similar side-effects from binge drinkers, but never dreamed you could get that way just by eating fast food.

It's amazing, what you find on the menu at McDonald's. Let's say you start the day with a sausage and egg McMuffin. You'll get 10 grams of saturated fat -- 50 percent of your daily recommendation, not to mention 39 percent of your daily sodium intake. Add a Big Mac and medium fries for lunch, and you're up to 123 percent of your daily sat fat recommendation, and 96 percent of your sodium. For dinner, choose a Quarter Pounder with cheese, add another medium order of fries, and you're at 206 percent of daily sat. fat and 160 percent of sodium. At some point add a strawberry shake to take you to 247 percent of sat. fat and 166 percent of sodium. And then remember that most nutritionists recommend less fat and salt than the government guidelines.

There is a revisionist interpretation of the film, in which Spurlock is identified as a self-promoter who on behalf of his film ate more than any reasonable person could consume in a month at McDonald's. That is both true and not true. He does have a policy that whenever he's asked if he wants to "super size it," he must reply "yes." But what he orders for any given meal is not uncommon, and we have all known (or been) customers who ordered the same items. That anyone would do it three times a day is unlikely. Occasionally you might want to go upscale at someplace like Outback, where the Bloomin' Onion Rings all by themselves provide more than a day's worth of fat and sodium, and 1,600 calories. Of course they're supposed to be shared. For best results, share them with everyone else in the restaurant.

Of course we bear responsibility for our own actions, so . . . is it possible to go to McDonald's and order a healthy meal? This week a Chicago nutritionist told a Sun-Times reporter that of course Spurlock put on weight, because he was eating 5,000 calories a day. She suggested a McDonald's three-meal menu that would not be fattening, but as I studied it, I wondered: How many customers consider a small hamburger, small fries and a Diet Coke as their dinner? When was the last time you even ordered a small hamburger (that's not a Quarter Pounder) at McDonald's? Don't all raise your hands at once.

Oh, I agree with the nutritionist that her recommended three meals would not add weight; her daily caloric intake totaled 1,460 calories, which is a little low for a child under 4, according to the USDA. But even her menu would include 54 grams of fat (15 saturated), or about one third of calories (for best heart health, fat should be down around 20 percent). And her diet included an astonishing 3,385 mgs of sodium (daily recommendation: 1,600 to 2,400 mgs). My conclusion: Even the nutritionist's bare-bones 1,460-calorie McDonald's menu is dangerous to your health.

I approached "Super Size Me" in a very particular frame of mind, because in December 2002, after years of fooling around, I began seriously following the Pritikin program of nutrition and exercise, and have lost about 86 pounds. Full disclosure: Fifteen of those pounds were probably lost as a side effect of surgery and radiation; the others can be accounted for by Pritikin menus and exercise (the 10,000 Step-a-Day Program plus weights two or three times a week). So of course that makes me a True Believer.

You didn't ask, but what I Truly Believe is that unless you can find an eating program you can stay on for the rest of your life, dieting is a waste of time. The pounds come back. Instead of extreme high-protein or low-carb diets with all their health risks, why not exercise more, avoid refined foods and eat a balanced diet of fruits and veggies, whole grains, fish and a little meat, beans, soy products, low-fat dairy, low fat, low salt? Of course I agree with McDonald's that a visit to Mickey D's can be part of a responsible nutritional approach. That's why I've dined there twice in the last 17 months.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Super Size Me (2004)

100 minutes

Written and directed by

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When it comes to Apes , the Planet doesn’t turn, it twists. That’s because the reveal at the end of the original 1968 Planet of the Apes is one of those iconic shots from movie history, known and parodied the world over, guaranteeing you’d never look at a 150-foot woman the same way ever again. With the Planet producers predicting nothing topping that twist, for the sequels they went for more lore. Maybe a time paradox or two.

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The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

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