If you thought your family was dysfunctional, think again. With the current political climate, the growing number of kids going no-contact with parents, and the overall enshitification of the world, it’s no surprise there is so much family drama going on. SUPPER is one story of such drama; drama that reveals secrets and insecurities while simultaneously ripping families apart and bringing them together. And it is very, very weird.
A dysfunctional family sits down to kick their brother out of the family through a new legal process known as familial emancipation.
SUPPER, IMDB
Calvin, chronically depressed, sits down to a rather antagonistic birthday dinner with his family. After the conversation goes from light and formal to tumultuous, he is hit with legal paperwork kicking him out of the family and freeing the rest from their “burden” of caring for or about him. He justifiably grows upset and the others unveil their true feelings towards each other. Each admission is more and more bizarre, leading to some pretty deadly consequences for the rest of the dinner party. SUPPER opens a Pandora’s Box of generational trauma and turmoil that goes way past what most people would call “family issues.”
With just a teensy bit of bloodshed and a truckload of trauma dumping, SUPPER eloquently puts to paper (or film, in this case), what emotional turbulence we sometimes go through as a family unit. Of course, it’s never — hopefully — come to suicide bombs and poison, but it is a rather emotionally exhausting thing that happens. Each character is an archetype of a different feeling we may have: Calvin (Andrew Perez) is the sadness and willingness to give up, Jackie (Aleksa Palladino) is high-strung and thinking she’s the only one doing right while husband Drew (Joshuah Arizmendi) is the love coming from outside, Ryan (Sam Rechner) is egotistical and maniacal, Bowie (Henry Samiri) is a socially removed younger generation, Mary (Dale Dickey) is a pushover, and the apparently very problematic Father (Jeff Perry) is the center of it all. SUPPER is like Inside Out for adults with real-world problems.
Now looking at this, you might think SUPPER is more of a drama than a horror film; I beg to differ. We have the obvious deaths sticking it firmly in the horror genre, but we also have the realizations during the discussion along with the wild, wacky ending that turns the whole story upside down. We went from a serious, semi-dystopian world where family ties are severed with just a little paperwork, all the way to crazy town. SUPPER lets you sit back and wonder about your own life and relationships.
And that’s what I like about it. SUPPER tells a story and has a moral; what that moral is, is totally up to you. It’s what I would put into the “quiet” horror category, where the scares are almost silent — it’s more of a general feeling of unease… or in this family’s case, discomfort.
Watch SUPPER now on YouTube. Follow writer/director Joshua Ryan Dietz on Instagram. Go hug your families.
