The Menu
The brief
The Menu serves up Ralph Fiennes as a psychotic celebrity chef with the kind of quietly unhinged intensity that makes every line delivery feel like a threat. What starts as satire about foodie culture and wealth worship slowly tightens into genuine horror, with Anya Taylor-Joy perfectly calibrated as the one person who refuses to play along with the evening's twisted games. The pacing builds like a carefully planned tasting menu, each course more disturbing than the last, while maintaining just enough dark comedy to keep you laughing uncomfortably. If you loved the class warfare bite of Parasite or the trapped-with-rich-people anxiety of Ready or Not, this will hit the same delicious nerve.
The verdict
If you enjoy dark satire that skewers pretentious culture while building genuine dread, this delivers Ralph Fiennes at his most menacingly unhinged and Anya Taylor-Joy as the perfect foil in a twisted dinner party from hell. If you prefer straightforward horror without heavy doses of pitch-black comedy or get squeamish about food-related disturbing imagery, you'll find this more frustrating than frightening.
Watch with
- 👥 Friends who love dark comedy and social commentary
- ⚠️ Skip if you're squeamish about food or violence
Heads up
- Multiple deaths including suicide (moderate)
- Disturbing food-related violence (moderate)
- Psychological torture and manipulation (frequent)
- Self-immolation scene (brief)
Credits
- Director
- Mark Mylod
- Cast
- Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Fiennes, Nicholas Hoult, Janet McTeer, Paul Adelstein, Rob Yang, Aimee Carrero
Official synopsis
A young couple travels to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish
The Double
Make a night of it
Pair this with Perfect Blue (1998)
Both films explore psychological horror through obsession and distorted reality.
Total runtime: 1h 47m + 1h 22m = 3h 9m
