Horror Movie Review: The Restaurant (2017)

The Restaurant also known as The Devil’s Restaurant is a horror comedy written and directed by Eric Ford Holevinski (as Eric T. Ford).

It stars Mark Robert Turner as the owner of a small Italian restaurant. He made a deal with a demon to ensure his business is a success.

Residing in the basement, the demon lures in the patrons. All ll Andy has to do is feed it the occasional customer. The plan is a massive success and business is booming. Everything seems perfect for Andy until one of his staff finds out about the demon.

The Restaurant starts strongly but runs out of stream far too early ending up being nothing more than a mediocre watch. A concept that has promise, it quickly becomes apparent that all we have is just an outline. This means we get many a filler scene. That either has you shaking your head at the averageness of it all or threatens to put you to sleep.

While some of the cast have talent, they’re asked to carry a bare-bones story and fill it with intrigue, mystery and comedy. Unfortunately, no-one has the acting chops for this, especially the comedy. While some hit, the majority miss. A really frustrating thing as sometimes the joke was perfectly placed yet they still miss the mark.

The biggest problem lies in how the movie sets things up and fails to pay them off in a satisfying way. The demon is described as sort of vampire crossed with something from H.P. Lovecraft and that alone gets the imagination running wild. What we get is not that and it’s so disappointing.

The Restaurant constantly disappoints and it feels like a missed opportunity. It should have been an over the top, cheesy gore-fest but it’s not. While it’s not terrible, it just ends up feeling like a waste of time.