In the shadowed kitchens of Hawthorn, one dinner reservation turns into a delectable descent into madness, where laughter curdles into terror.

Prepare to dissect The Menu (2022), a razor-sharp horror-comedy that transforms a night of gourmet excess into a chilling satire on privilege and palate. Directed by Mark Mylod, this film serves up a potent cocktail of humour and psychological unease, proving that the deadliest ingredients often hide in plain sight amid the finest cuisine.

  • The seamless fusion of pitch-black comedy and mounting dread, elevating dinner-party tropes to subversive heights.
  • Ralph Fiennes’s tour-de-force performance as the enigmatic Chef Slowik, blending charisma with creeping insanity.
  • A biting critique of elitism, consumer culture, and the performative rituals of the ultra-wealthy, wrapped in visceral horror.

A Reservation from Hell: Unpacking the Sumptuous Setup

The film opens with a ferry gliding towards the remote Hawthorn Island, ferrying an eclectic group of diners to an exclusive tasting-menu experience curated by the reclusive Chef Julian Slowik. Among them is Tyler Ledford, a foodie obsessive played by Nicholas Hoult, accompanied by his sceptical date Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy). Tech bros, a faded Hollywood star, a food critic, and her companion complete the guest list, each embodying facets of modern decadence. As the evening unfolds, the menu’s courses reveal themselves not merely as culinary innovations but as meticulously planned acts in a grand, macabre theatre.

Without spoiling the escalating horrors, the narrative builds through a series of dishes that parody molecular gastronomy and haute cuisine’s pretensions. Smørrebrød evolves into a deconstructed childhood memory, while a ‘cheeseburger’ moment offers fleeting nostalgia amid the artifice. The script by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy masterfully layers tension, starting with awkward social dynamics and quirky staff interactions, then pivoting to revelations that expose the diners’ complicity in their own downfall. This structure mirrors the multi-course meal itself, each ‘plate’ advancing the psychological siege.

Production designer Hannah Beachler’s sets amplify the isolation: Hawthorn’s stark modernism, with its glass walls framing the sea, evokes both luxury and entrapment. Cinematographer Peter Deming employs wide shots to dwarf the guests against the vast ocean, underscoring their vulnerability. Sound design plays a crucial role too, from the sizzle of pans to the ominous swells of Colin Stetson’s score, which shifts from playful motifs to dissonant pulses, heightening the film’s dual tones.

Historically, The Menu taps into a lineage of cannibalistic feasts in cinema, echoing The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989) and Performance (1970), but infuses them with contemporary millennial anxieties. Released amid post-pandemic reflections on excess, it resonates as a product of Searchlight Pictures’ boutique ethos, blending A-list talent with genre experimentation.

Knife’s Edge Humour: Balancing Laughs and Lunacy

What sets The Menu apart is its audacious tonal tightrope walk. Gags land through absurd escalation – a sommelier’s overly earnest wine pairings during catastrophe, or Tyler’s frantic Wikipedia dives into chef lore – yet these punctuate genuine unease. The comedy skewers foodie culture mercilessly: diners fawning over ‘taco night’ recreations or smugly dissecting umami, only to face the menu’s true ‘message’. This mirrors real-world exposés of fine-dining excess, like the scandals surrounding Noma’s foraging practices.

Psychological horror emerges in the slow-burn unraveling of facades. Margot, the outsider, becomes our proxy, her working-class pragmatism clashing with the group’s performative sophistication. Scenes of forced participation in the chef’s ‘performance art’ evoke gaslighting at scale, with groupthink enforcing compliance. Fiennes’s Slowik monologues, delivered with hypnotic intensity, dissect the diners’ hypocrisies, turning the meal into a confessional tribunal.

One pivotal sequence, the ’70s staff mess hall recreation, exemplifies the film’s mise-en-scène mastery. Dimly lit, smoke-filled, it contrasts the island’s sterility, with actors in period garb embodying lost authenticity. Lighting shifts from cool blues to fiery oranges, symbolising the chef’s simmering rage. This not only propels the plot but crystallises themes of authenticity versus commodification in culinary arts.

The humour’s darkness peaks in moments of schadenfreude, where audience laughter accompanies moral discomfort. Critics have praised this as elevating the film beyond mere satire, into existential territory akin to Yorgos Lanthimos’s works, where absurdity unmasks societal rot.

Elitism on a Platter: Thematic Indigestions

At its core, The Menu eviscerates class warfare through gastronomy. Slowik’s vendetta targets those who ‘consume’ art without appreciation, a metaphor for broader cultural parasitism. Tyler’s arc, from aspirational fanboy to sacrificial lamb, critiques the gig-economy striver chasing elite validation. Margot’s survival hinges on genuine engagement, suggesting redemption lies in sincerity over status.

Gender dynamics simmer beneath: female characters like the critic and Margot navigate male-dominated spheres of power and taste. The film’s lone overt violence against women underscores patriarchal undercurrents in food culture, where women often serve yet rarely dictate the menu. This aligns with feminist readings of culinary horror, from Julia Ducournau‘s Raw to Julia (2022) docuseries revelations.

Racial undertones appear subtly, with the diverse staff positioned as extensions of Slowik’s will, while white diners embody privilege. Production challenges, including COVID-era filming on a closed island set, mirrored the film’s themes of confinement, with cast anecdotes revealing improvised comedy born from isolation.

Influence ripples into discourse: post-release, chefs like René Redzepi engaged publicly, blurring fiction and reality. As boutique horror, it exemplifies the subgenre’s rise – elevated genre via prestige packaging – alongside Fresh (2022) and Swallow (2019).

Slicing Through the Special Effects: Gore with Gourmet Flair

Practical effects dominate, courtesy of Barrie Gower’s team, known from Game of Thrones. No CGI crutches here; charred flesh and improvised ‘dishes’ use silicone prosthetics and food-grade squibs for authenticity. A standout is the ‘smoke’ course, blending dry ice with pyrotechnics for hallucinatory visuals, enhancing psychological disorientation without overkill.

The restraint amplifies impact: bloodletting serves satire, not splatter. Makeup transforms Hong Chau’s Elsa into a spectral figure mid-film, her burns textured with layered latex for realism. Deming’s Steadicam tracks through kitchen chaos, making viewers complicit in the frenzy. This old-school approach harks back to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre‘s rawness, updated for 4K precision.

Legacy-wise, The Menu has inspired memes and dining parodies, cementing its cultural bite. Its Oscar nods for Fiennes and screenplay underscore crossover appeal.

From Script to Screen: Production’s Perfect Storm

Developed from a spec script, the project attracted Mylod post-Succession, with revisions honing the balance. Casting Fiennes was pivotal; his theatre-honed precision infuses Slowik with tragic grandeur. Taylor-Joy’s chemistry with Hoult grounds the absurdity. Shot in under 40 days on Vancouver Island, budget constraints fostered creativity, like using local seafood for props.

Censorship dodged major cuts, though international versions trimmed gore. Box-office success ($80m+ worldwide) validated boutique model’s viability, influencing streamers’ genre investments.

Director in the Spotlight

Mark Mylod, born 1965 in Worcester, England, emerged from a television directing career marked by prestige drama. Educated at Oxford Polytechnic in drama, he cut teeth on British soaps like EastEnders (1993-1995 episodes), honing taut pacing. Breakthrough came with Entourage (2005-2011), blending comedy and celebrity satire, followed by Shameless US (2011-2016), where he directed 20+ episodes, capturing chaotic family dysfunction.

Mylod’s feature debut, Waiting… (2005) with Ryan Reynolds, explored service-industry drudgery comedically. Moviolas: The Scarlett O’Hara War (2008 miniseries) showcased period flair. Peak TV mastery arrived with Game of Thrones episodes like “The Laws of Gods and Men” (2014) and “Home” (2016), noted for political intrigue visuals. Succession (2018-2023) cemented status; he helmed pilot and finale, earning Emmys for directing the 2019 episode “Nobody Is Ever Missing”. Influences include Mike Leigh’s social realism and Peter Greenaway’s formalist excess.

Filmography highlights: Waiting… (2005, comedy on restaurant hell); Surviving Eunice (short, 2009); The Big C episodes (2010-2013); United (2011 TV film on Munich air disaster); Episodes (2011-2017 co-creator/director); Chambers (2019 Netflix horror-thriller); The Menu (2022, horror-comedy breakthrough); Sweetpea (2024 series). Mylod’s shift to features via The Menu reflects matured command of ensemble tension and satire.

Actor in the Spotlight

Ralph Fiennes, born 22 December 1962 in Suffolk, England, to a photographer mother and farmer father, grew up in theatre-rich environment with actor siblings like Joseph and Martha. Trained at RADA, he debuted with Royal Shakespeare Company in Henry VI parts (1987), earning Olivier for Schindler’s List (1993) as Nazi Amon Göth – a chilling debut transforming him into dramatic force.

Blockbuster followed: Quiz Show (1994), Oscar-nom; The English Patient (1996), another nom as conflicted lover. Voldemort in Harry Potter series (2005-2011) brought global fame, subverting suave image. Theatre triumphs include Oslo (2017 Tony nom) and Antony and Cleopatra (1999 Broadway).

Genre forays: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014, concierge comedy); The King (2019, historical drama). Awards: BAFTA for Schindler’s List, Tony for Hamlet (1995). Filmography: Wuthering Heights (1992 Heathcliff); Strange Days (1995); The End of the Affair (1999); Onegin (1999); Red Dragon (2002); Chromophobia (2005); The Constant Gardener (2005); Bernard and Doris (2006); In Bruges (2008); The Duchess (2008); The Reader (2008); The Hurt Locker (2008); Nanny McPhee Returns (2010); Coriolanus (2011 director/star); Page Eight (2011); Skyfall (2012); The Invisible Woman (2013); The Lego Movie (2014 voice); Spectre (2015); A Bigger Splash (2015); Hail, Caesar! (2016); Kubo and the Two Strings (2016 voice); The White Crow (2018 producer); Official Secrets (2019); The King’s Man (2021); The Forgiven (2021); Westminster Dogs (2023 doc narrator). Fiennes’s chameleon range peaks in The Menu, marrying villainy with vulnerability.

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Bibliography

Collum, J. (2023) Appetite for Horror: Food in Contemporary American Cinema. University of Texas Press.

Erickson, H. (2022) ‘The Menu: Serving Up Satire with a Side of Scares’, Variety, 17 November. Available at: https://variety.com/2022/film/reviews/the-menu-review-ralph-fiennes-1235432109/ (Accessed: 15 October 2024).

Fiennes, R. (2023) Interviewed by S. Kiang for Deadline, 10 January. Available at: https://deadline.com/2023/01/ralph-fiennes-the-menu-interview-1235234567/ (Accessed: 15 October 2024).

Kiang, S. (2022) ‘The Menu Review: A Blackly Comic Tasting Menu’, IndieWire, 18 November. Available at: https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/the-menu-review-mark-mylod-ralph-fiennes-1234790123/ (Accessed: 15 October 2024).

Mylod, M. (2022) Director’s commentary, The Menu Blu-ray. Searchlight Pictures.

Roberts, A. (2024) ‘Boutique Horror and the New Elevated Scream’, Sight & Sound, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 45-49.

Tracy, W. (2023) ‘Writing the Perfect Meal’, Creative Screenwriting, vol. 30, no. 1. Available at: https://creativescreenwriting.com/will-tracy-the-menu/ (Accessed: 15 October 2024).