Another Hole in the Head 2025 Film Festival Coverage
Free Buffet review
Free Buffet asks if you can murder your way out of life’s problems.
Festival movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Free Buffet
Directed by Zoe Berriatúa
Starring Yan Huang and Carlos Wu
Free Buffet Review
Free Buffet is nothing if not interesting. A simple, but deadly, accident sends the small world of the film’s main characters spiraling out of control. A couple with plenty of troubles find that murder may be their best way forward. But can it solve all of their problems? Even if they manage to get away with what quickly becomes a killing spree? That’s the central question that Free Buffet asks. Can broken people in a broken relationship make themselves whole by permanently removing all of their outside antagonists? The story has some fun getting itself to an answer that always feels inevitable.
Ikki (Carlos Wu) and Xian (Yan Huang) own a small restaurant. They live in the small basement…struggling to make their way. When a customer is accidentally served a piece of sushi meant for display only…Ikki finds himself staring at a dead body and a sure closure of his restaurant. Xian has other ideas. Ideas for both the dead customer…and how to deal with a long list of other problems the couple has been facing.
What gives the entertainment of murdering people a bit of an extra bite is Xian’s hope that doing so will improve her relationship with Ikki. There’s a growing distance between them. Ikki’s wandering eye towards their young waitress hasn’t slipped Xian’s attention either. Perhaps removing all of their stressors (and temptations) will bring her husband’s attention back where she wants it.
Of course, this plan is insane. Insane enough to lead to full conversations with the dead bodies Xian is collecting throughout Free Buffet. It’s one of the ways the story manages to inject some pathos into the proceedings. There’s no shortage of people Xian can put on her list either. From money collectors to the landlord to an annoying neighbor…a lot of people’s removal could make their lives a bit easier. Owning a restaurant provides ample tools for completing the tasks…and disposing of the meat once it’s stripped from the bone.
Wu and Huang are excellent as the lead characters. There’s a sadness behind both of their eyes that informs a lot about what they do and why they do it. Xian and Ikki are both desperate in different ways. She’s desperate to save her marriage. He’s desperate to get away with a situation that quickly spirals out of his control. Free Buffet excels at presenting interesting characters and dropping them into some absurd horror situations. Death is treated as an answer to a problem. An answer that increasingly appears to come without consequences. What makes Free Buffet work best is that the consequences are more personal than they think…and more inevitable than they can do anything about.
The violence in Free Buffet is another highlight. It’s realistic and visceral. Though Xian in particular treats life with a very loose regard…the deaths are never presented as completely disposable. Whether it’s her conversations with a leftover head or the toll it’s quietly piling onto their marriage…every murder undertaken as a way to provide relief ends up weighing down on them in more meaningful ways. Free Buffet is a unique story with a couple of strong characters and plenty of memorable moments. The drama that underlines every violent action gives the film a depth and urgency that elevates it above a standard cautionary murder tale. Fun and sad in equally effective measure.
Scare Value
Free Buffet has a pretty fascinating story. The intimate confines of a small restaurant and equally small living space contain a hefty amount of craziness. An accidental death opens the door to a new way of dealing with an abundance of problems. Whether or not murder can actually make the main characters lives better is the central question of this entertaining and unique little movie.
