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Thanksgiving has come and gone and the holiday season has just begun once again, and it is a time for people to come together and peacefully share wholesome and fulfilling time and many meals with their closest relatives. In theory, it sounds like a good plan; in execution, not necessarily. Even taking the current COVID-19 pandemic (which is forcing many into quarantine and away from their loved ones) out of the equation, what should be a time for reunion and celebration can instead become quite hectic and conflict-prone for one reason or another. Fortunately, the idea of a family dinner going awry is quite common in the world of cinema, and such scenes help reduce our anxieties by showing that as bad as things may be, they can always be significantly worse. Therefore, in celebration of holiday meals, here are some of cinema’s most awkward, yet enjoyable depictions of family dinners gone horribly wrong.
The Soylent Green Meal – The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975): a name like Dr. Frank-N-Furter is not the kind to hear without immediately becoming suspicious of the person who has such a name. It’s not quite enough for the newlyweds Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon) to immediately turn around and run though, and their entry into the bizarre world of Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry) ends up doing more harm than good for the young couple. This is best demonstrated when dinner time arrives. On the surface, the meal prepared looks harmless enough, but it isn’t long before Frank-N-Furter reveals the secret ingredient in the meat being served: human flesh, specifically that of his ex-lover Eddie. Brad and Jane are understandably disgusted, but sadly, this is the least of things they need to worry about.
(Back in) Time for Dinner – Back to the Future (1985): when travelling back in time and meeting relatives years before one was born, it’s not the least bit surprising that sharing a meal with them will lead to a variety of awkward situations. Case and point: when Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) goes from the 1980’s to the 1950’s, he winds up having dinner with the teenage girl who will one day be his mother. As one can guess, there’s a lot working against Marty in his attempt to keep him being from the future a secret, especially when it comes to things that will (or at least should) happen in the future that he knows of but the others don’t yet. That’s bad enough, but even worse is his mother, not knowing who Marty is, expresses her attraction to who she believes is nobody else but a handsome young man… physically.
No Need for Finger Food – Edward Scissorhands (1990): sometimes the best of intentions aren’t enough to keep trouble from brewing at the dinner table. This is the lesson learned by the Boggs family when Peg (Dianne West), the maternal figure of the family, invites their new neighbor Edward (Johnny Depp) over for dinner. Edward, however, is a bit different from the Boggs family though: he’s pale, has minimal social skills, and in the place of hands are several pairs of scissors. This abnormality makes eating quite difficult for Edward: the Boggs son Kevin keeps staring, the father Bill refers to him as Ed instead of his preferred name Edward, and his scissor fingers make something as simple as picking up a single pea a daunting challenge. Still, this is where the family daughter Kim starts to take a liking to Edward, so it’s not a complete disaster.
Milked For All Its Worth – Meet the Parents (2000): compared to the scenes previously discussed, this iconic moment from this turn-of-the-millenium romantic comedy seems fairly grounded in reality, though that doesn’t make things any more comfortable. All the main character Greg (Ben Stiller) wants to do is make himself look good to the family of his girlfriend Pam (Teri Polo), not an easy task when her father Jack (Robert de Niro). At one point, Greg lies about having grown up on a farm, and when questioned if he ever milked anything while living on said farm, Greg, struggling to keep up his lie, awkwardly responds with… “cat”. That’s only the beginning of Greg’s troubles though, and things snowball from there when the family cat and the ashes of a deceased relative get caught in the crossfires.
What a Doll – Lars and the Real Girl (2007): for many people, a family dinner can be the perfect opportunity to introduce a significant other to their relatives. That’s certainly what Lars Lindstrom (played by Ryan Gosling) intends to do when he brings his new girlfriend Bianca, a quadrapalegic of Brazilian/Danish descent, to meet his family and bond over a delicious meal. Dinner won’t do much for Bianca though, since she’s unable to eat any of it – but not because of her disability. Here’s the problem: Bianca isn’t a real person. She’s a sex doll that Lars genuinely believes is a real, living breathing woman. It doesn’t take long for Lars’ family to recognize this unusual turn of events, and what comes of their struggle to play along results in nothing short of pure awkwardness.
A Cut Above the Rest – Django Unchained (2012): on its own, this dinner scene from the Quentin Tarantino directed western is discomforting enough, but a real-life injury makes it all the more chilling. When bounty hunters Django (Jaime Foxx) and Schulz (Christoph Waltz) arrive at a plantation to rescue Django’s love Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), an ensuing dinner with the plantation owner Calvin J. Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) becomes anything but pleasant. There’s a skull of a deceased slave that Candie expresses a disturbing interest in, and his henchmen pull guns on the two bounty hunters, making the meal a matter of life and death. However, tensions reach their peak when Candie accidentally cuts his hand (the result of his actor actually cutting his hand for real) and smears his (this time faked) blood over Broonhilda’s face.
