It’s an orthodox way to start this review, but this movie was absolutely delightful. The Menu takes a very unique premise of a psychopath chef murdering people over dinner and fleshes it out perfectly. I’ve seen many horror movies that had creative ideas that just lacked execution and they flopped. Granted, a large, $30 million budget can help bring in a star-studded cast featuring Anya Taylor-Joy and Ralph Fiennes, who truly elevate this movie to one of the best horror movies of the year.
They play a sort of cat-and-mouse game all movie where Fiennes isn’t chasing her down to kill her but to understand her. He knows she’s different than the rest of his customers and he wants her to know it too. It’s a dynamic I loved because of how different it felt. Aside from those two, all the other characters are played really well.
Horror movies can have two types of casts: ones where you get invested in everyone and want to see them make it out and ones where you hate everyone and can’t wait for them to die. This falls into the latter as everyone besides Joy is either pretentious, a douche, or just generally unlikeable. It plays well to the dark comedy in the movie as people die off and people are expected to just ignore it and continue eating.
I felt like some moments didn’t really mesh well with the tone of the movie, but for the most part, the comedy worked best when it was paired with something bleak. Something I appreciated is how the culinary aspect of the movie was treated. I am not a chef by any means, but there are certain things you pick up on about how kitchens operate through other movies, shows, and communication.
The obsessive pursuit of perfection, the controlled chaos as each course is prepped, and the desire to taste and not just eat felt realistic for a restaurant of this caliber. Not to spoil the ending, but I love how the villain is “conquered”. It was handled perfectly for all the characters involved and it made a greater impact. While not the goriest, the movie racks up a hefty body count that satisfied that itch I have for all horror movies.
Final Thoughts
I wish I had gotten around to seeing this movie earlier, I feel like I would’ve ranked it much higher in the grand scheme of 2022. But, I have a lot of praise for this movie and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to watch a horror movie.
