Feed – Movie Review (3/5)

FEED is a horror movie that combines Irish folklore with vampires. Not unlike what Bram Stoker did with “Dracula”. We follow a group of friends spending a few days in a rented house in a rural area. From the opening scene, we know something sinister happened here several generations back. Read our full Feed movie review here!

FEED is a vampire horror movie with a folklore plot. You can find it on VOD very soon, and yes, it is definitely worth checking out. This story plays out in a rural house in Ireland, where an influencer is trying to make content to sell her own products.

Also, the group of friends is helping a very depressed friend dealing with extreme loss and trauma. No, those two things don’t “gel” particularly well, which is obvious from the very beginning. Before the end of this movie (which is just 83 minutes long), it does become a full-blown horror movie, so don’t let the first act fool you.

Continue reading our Feed movie review below. Find it on Digital from August 14, 2026.

The origin of the vampire legend?

I don’t know that the story of Feed is the same folklore that inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula. However, I do know that Bram Stoker was an Irish author, and this movie is based on Irish folklore about a vampire creature with a name not too far from his iconic title character. Obviously, the plots differ wildly other than that.

For one, we’re not in Transylvania, but in rural Ireland.

Also, we’re in the present, where a weekend intervention turns out to be something very different. Actually, as much as this trip was for the grieving Orla (Grace Collender), it was also about an influencer trying to get content and use the reach of videos to sell her own line of products.

Very soon, however, the trip turns lethal. Orla’s trauma (which won’t be revealed here, but is shown early on in the movie) appears to awaken the Dearg-Due. And yes, this “Dearg-Due” is an ancient vampire of immense power. Okay, it isn’t “just” Orla’s trauma and grief that awakens this creature. It is – of course! – her blood.

Now, the element of a vampire being able to “glamour” or “hypnotize” its victims takes on a whole new meaning in Feed. This ancient creature infects the entire group of friends with a mind-bending trick. The kind that shatters their minds and makes them turn on each other in roundabout ways.

And this is before the third act even really kicks into gear!

Watch Feed on VOD

Feed was written & directed by Marco Van Belle. Not a filmmaker I am particularly familiar with, except for the fact that he wrote the blockbuster movie Mercy. Now, I was not particularly crazy about that movie, but I recognize that the plot was probably better than the end result. I mean, Rebecca Ferguson (Silo, Doctor Sleep) was in a starring role, and she’s always worth watching.

Anyway, with Feed, I feel convinced that Mercy was just a bad thing that happened to a good filmmaker. Or rather, it wasn’t bad at all, as it surely enabled that Feed was able to be made. Starring in this new vampire horror movie are Grace Collender (Frewaka), Clinton Liberty (House of the Dragon), Daisy Jelley, Niamh Hogan (stunt woman in Double Blind, Let The Wrong One In), Rhys Mannion, and Oskar Smith.

A truly solid cast!

Also very solid is the runtime of 1 hour and 23 minutes. I love these folklore horror movies, and the Irish have delivered on some amazing examples in the subgenre. Not least The Hole in the Ground, You Are Not My Mother, The Watchers, and Oddity, plus, most recently, Hokum, which also features Irish folklore elements at its core.

If you enjoyed any of those, make sure you check out Marco Van Belle’s Feed as well.

Feed is out on Digital and On Demand from August 14, 2026.

Details

Director: Marco Van Belle 
Writer: Marco Van Belle 
Cast: Grace Collender, Clinton Liberty, Daisy Jelley, Niamh Hogan, Rhys Mannion, Oskar Smith