The millennials grew up watching the young adult macho man Devon Sawa in films like Final Destination, Casper and Idle Hands. The good news is that he hasn’t changed much over the years and has recently made a comeback by appearing in a funny episode of Hacks and starring in Chucky TV series. Consumed, his latest film seems to have borrowed from some of these previous films, as it maintains his talents in horror.
A rather simple playing ground is set out in the country side by Mitchell Altieri and Phil Flores alias The Butcher Brothers with their new creature feature: A married couple trapped between a madman and a skin-stealing monster must fight to make it out alive. The movie written by David Calbert, Consumed is glossy B-movie cinema that provides easy consumption for 89 minutes which includes added heart, an ordinary girl’s last stand, and hypnotic ending.
Hey Cancer; you can go to hell! And this means after beating or sending cancer into remission people mostly celebrate. Chemotherapy weakens your body severely but even when your energy comes back there is still a likelihood that all you want to do is rest despite pleas from those who love you o get back out there and rejoice life once more. For Consumed hero Beth (Courtney Halverson), her post-treatment existence consists of embracing nature — she goes on camping through woods with her loving partner Jay (Mark Famiglietti).
In Consumed, things start going wrong for them as they camp outdoors like Blair Witch Project. Skinned animals near their campsite are bad omens –which certainly never used to be there before. Meanwhile Beth starts having nightmares about being ill once again as we witness flashbacks during her period of intense cancer treatment. She wants to break free from everything by coming into the woods where she can start afresh easily but above all breathe fresh air—whatever it takes for one to say, “I’m out of here!” It is just too bad that she picked one inhabited by some kind of dark supernatural force that never entirely reveals itself – at least not for most part of the movie.
How they pull off the unveiling of this monster by the Butcher Brothers is reminiscent of some past classics through atmosphere and jump scares, but some parts seem trite. Yet it still works quite well, with any number of genuine frights or a constant unease. Consumed becomes more intriguing with an additional danger which is a crazed man from nowhere in particular.
This character has no name but in our humble opinion he was played to perfection by none other than Devon Sawa, whose career spanning several decades has now come full circle in this latest role. He starred as a young adult in Wild America (1997) alongside Jonathan Taylor-Thomas and went on an adventure to the mountains. Now he’s grown up and playing leading roles within those same surroundings though with his piercing green eyes we can remember why teenage girls once had a crush on him. Even when wearing dirty camouflage gear throughout Consumed, you quickly remember why he became such a star at such a young age.
His name may never be known to us, but somehow Beth extracts some vital information from this crazy man who is in the habit of disguising himself as a nature element to protect himself from that unknown presence — or rather, to pursue the animal? He tells Beth that it goes after people who are ill and she was once sick with cancer. With their respective tragic pasts, Beth and the madman connect on another level, though we should not be calling him a “madman” without cause. Their strategies start to clash when it comes to how best they can approach and/or avoid the current monster in sight raising the stakes ever further.
To her pleasant surprise, The Butcher Brothers throw in some freaky hallucinogenic visuals to accompany Beth’s fight for life. Here we might remember certain parts of Jonathan Glazer’s masterpiece Under the Skin. Consumed becomes cerebral, thought-provoking even gut-wrenching as we see what this monster has been up to all along during its wild climax. Some people may be alienated by its sudden dip into weirdness; nevertheless this is an attempt at setting apart one little horror B-movie from others which already exist. And if enough buzz is generated, who knows if a Consumed 2 ever comes into fruition.
Consumed takes on grieving and trauma —themes that have pervaded everything about horror since time immemorial. It makes sense as an allegory due to having a monster that seeks out sickness and death while dealing with two characters who react differently towards it; furthermore Halverson makes it work by anchoring her narrative in real experiences of cancer patients afraid of remission.
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