The well-balanced eat-the-rich horror-comedy “The Menu” serves up a sumptuous taste of satire with just a hint of schadenfreude for your post-holiday viewing.

Making the great leap from directing prestige TV shows such as “Succussion,” “Game of Thrones” and “Shameless,” director Mark Mylod infuses this twisted, funny script by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy with the right amount of suspense, comedy and horror to keep the audience laughing while cringing — and laughing about the cringing.

Reiss and Tracy’s script is also full of wonderful gems and solid dialogue, which allows us to become invested in this world of haute cuisine with very little exposition except when necessary. We know all these kinds of people already.

This brilliant commentary on the wealthy begins with Tyler (Nicholas Hoult), a #foodie in the worst sense of the tag, gushing over the elite experience they’re about to embark on with his date, Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy).

They partake of an exclusive dinner with the renowned Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) that allows for only 12 diners per night with a hefty price per plate, and takes place on a private, self-sustained island.

Margot is happy enough to go along for the ride, comfortable knowing she’s not the one footing the bill and seems to care considerably less about the gastronomical concoctions they’re about to eat.

Joining them on this culinary voyage are a restaurant critic and her editor (Janet McTeer and Paul Adelstein), a washed-up actor and his assistant (John Leguizamo and Aimee Carrero), an old married couple who seem to have lost the spark (Reed Birney and Judith Light) and three upper management bros who are happy enough just to throw their money around (Rob Yang, Arturo Castro and Mark St. Cyr).

It becomes all too clear to the audience after the diners arrive on the island that something nefarious is going on. Tyler originally invited someone else, so when Margot checks in, the ever-present, completely competent hostess Elsa (Hong Chau) has a momentary break in her soft perma-smile that indicates Margot really, really shouldn’t be there.

Thanks to Mylod and company’s way of peppering things with a general sense of uneasiness, they build up this tension and foreboding as we focus on Margot, the odd one out, and we know this meal will be much more than anyone planned for.

Taylor-Joy is simply fascinating to watch and Mylod knows it. He allows the camera to follow her face as she scans the room, taking in this strange world she’s straddling, complete with her punk rock look including her slinky, satin dress paired with combat boots.

But we aren’t bound to her. We float from table to table, hearing bits of pompous and performative conversations, all with an air of superficiality.

Fiennes, too, commands the room every time he walks in. He makes his actions clear from moment one with Slowik, bringing just about the only genuine character to the floor, which is perhaps the most distressing part of the film when you realize what’s happening.

“The Menu” highlights the disparity between the givers and the takers, the servers and the served, the working class and the rich. It’s in this notion that the film really gels, cleverly presenting this thesis, the satire bubbling out of it a neat example of the genre.

There are a couple of points that feel overbaked, and there is a secondary theme that feels too on the nose, but these are minor in the grand scheme at play here.

If you are a self-proclaimed foodie, too, don’t worry, there are plenty of shots of delectable-looking dishes alongside the shocking satire on the table.

While “The Menu” will certainly not be to everyone’s taste, if darkly twisted humor and suspenseful light horror are ingredients in your kind of movie experience, this is worth ordering.

On screens this week: As this week is a holiday, new theatrical releases that dropped in theaters on Wednesday are “Devotion,” “The Fablemans,” “Bones and All” and the special one-week-only screenings of “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.” On Disney+ catch the favorite motley superhero crew in “The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special” and beginning Wednesday and airing weekly thereafter is the highly anticipated series “Willow,” which continues the adventures of sorcerer Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis).

106 minutes

Rated R for strong/disturbing violent content, language throughout and some sexual references.

3.5 stars