Review: ‘Serving Up Richard’ not much of a feast

A captivity entree with a side order of grisly, “Serving Up Richard” puts a Wall Street investment banker through the wringer in the hidden dark heart of the suburbs, but the experience is hardly cathartic as either vicarious payback or grindhouse exploitation.

Transplanted to L.A. by his firm under iffy circumstances, Richard (Ross McCall) answers an ad for a vintage Mustang, only to wind up the housebound prisoner of anthropologist Everett (Jude Ciccolella) and his sallow-faced, agoraphobic wife Glory (Susan Priver). Tribal décor and his captors’ tales of exotic travel don’t prepare Richard, however, for the real purpose of his kidnapping: cannibalistic sacrifice.

What co-writer/director Henry Olek’s movie initially promises to be, however — “Misery”-style psychological gamesmanship as Richard tries to sweet-talk the wife into being an ally in his escape — devolves into a mostly pointless exercise in flat tension and flatter comedy, accompanied by the requisite bouts of gore.

Gratuitous plot logic would have been infinitely more appreciated. And with all three leads giving performances that teeter uneasily between winking and straight-faced, “Serving Up Richard” never settles into a tonally assured abduction saga.

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“Serving Up Richard.” No MPAA rating. Running time: 1 hour, 36 minutes. At Laemmle’s Playhouse 7, Pasadena.