Clip from IFC Midnight’s ‘A Banquet’ Invites You to a Tense and Uncomfortable Family Dinner

First-time filmmaker Ruth Paxton‘s A Banquet will make its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this Friday, and IFC Midnight has debuted the first clip today.

IFC previews, “This slow-burning psychological horror explores the ferocity of maternal love, psychology of power, and the questions of female madness and faith. The film uses subtle supernatural elements to create tension within a family in the midst of a breakdown, exploiting the complicated bonds between three generations of mothers and daughters.”

Speaking of that family tension, check out the clip below to see precisely what IFC Midnight means. Tensions mount as a mother and daughter battle over peas at the dinner table.

In A Banquet

“Widowed mother Holly (Sienna Guillory) is radically tested when her teenage daughter Betsey (Jessica Alexander) experiences a profound enlightenment and insists that her body is no longer her own, but in service to a higher power. Bound to her newfound faith, Betsey refuses to eat but loses no weight. In an agonizing dilemma, torn between love and fear, Holly is forced to confront the boundaries of her own beliefs.”

Ruby Stokes and Lindsay Duncan also star.

Justin Bull wrote the script for A Banquet.