Millennials grew up watching young-adult hunk Devon Sawa gracing the screen in classics like Final Destination, Casper, and Idle Hands. And fret not, as the lad still has his looks and skills, and is seeing a bit of a resurgence of late, guest-starring in a hilarious episode of Hacks and starring in the excellent Chucky TV series. And with his latest film, Consumed, Sawa seems to have utilized a bit from his leading roles in the aforementioned movies, as it continues his proficiency with horror.
The new creature feature from The Butcher Brothers — aka director/producer Mitchell Altieri and producer Phil Flores — established a quite simplified battleground out in the sticks: A married couple trapped between a madman and a skin-stealing monster must fight to make it out alive. Written by David Calbert, Consumed is glossy B-movie cinema that makes for easy consumption in a tight 89-minute runtime thanks to some added heart, a grounded final girl, and a mesmerizing climax.
Life in Remission
3.5/5
A woman struggling with a secret illness must find the strength to survive when a camping trip turns deadly, trapping her and her husband between a crazed killer and a skin-stealing monster.
Release Date August 16, 2024
Runtime 1h 29m
Main Genre Horror
Writers David Calbert
Studio(s) Brainstorm Media
Pros
- Courtney Halverson is a great final girl, and Devon Sawa gives possibly his best performance.
- Consumed is a smart allegory grounded by realistic characters.
- A brave and psychologically interesting ending.
Cons
- The build-up to the monster can feel a little derivative, and Mark Famiglietti is underused.
- We liked the ending, but be forewarned, it’s trippy.
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Hey, cancer — if you’re listening, to hell with you! And for those fortunate enough to beat the disease and/or send it into remission, that means it is usually time to celebrate, in some form or another. Chemotherapy is draining, to put it mildly, and once your energy finally returns, even then you most likely just want to relax despite urges from loved ones to go out and celebrate life once again. For Consumed heroine Beth (Courtney Halverson, fully committed), life after treatment means embracing nature — a camping trip through the forest with her compassionate partner, Jay (Mark Famiglietti).
With Consumed, the terror commences with a Blair Witch-esque series of head-scratchers for Beth and Jay’s camp in the wilderness. The bad omens come in the grotesque form of skinned animals that are now planted near their site, which certainly weren’t there upon arrival. And Beth is already being plagued by nightmares that flash us back to when she was in the thick of her seemingly intensive cancer treatment. She’s come to the forest to escape it all, start anew, breathe in the fresh air, all that jazz — and it’s too damn bad that she’s come to one inhabited by some sort of mysterious, brooding monster that refuses to reveal itself in full — for most of the film, anyway.
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Devon Sawa: Born to Be Wild
The Butcher Brothers seem to be paying homage to past classics with how they tease the monster, using atmosphere and jump scares to prolong a reveal, but certain elements come off as derivative. Nonetheless, it’s technically effective enough to generate authentic frights and a sense of unease throughout. What makes Consumed more interesting is the addition of another threat, an unhinged mystery man in the wilderness.
The unnamed man is played to perfection by none other than Devon Sawa, whose decades-spanning career is now coming full circle with this latest role of his. In Wild America (1997), he embraced the mountains alongside Jonathan Taylor-Thomas as a young adult. Now he’s all grown up, playing s lead role in the same sort of setting, with those piercing green eyes reminding us of why young women once obsessed over the dashing young performer. Even if he’s dressed in a grimy, camouflaged ensemble in Consumed, you quickly remember why he became such a star at a ripe age.
We may never learn his name, but Beth is eventually able to get some crucial details out of the madman, who cloaks himself in nature to hide from the mysterious presence — or is it in order to hunt the beast? He claims to Beth that it’s attracted to sick people, aka the once-cancer-stricken Beth. Beth and the madman ultimately start to bond based on their troubled backstories, but we’re not calling him a “madman” for no good reason. Their gameplans begin to clash in terms of how to best approach and/or evade the monster at hand, escalating the stakes to even greater heights.
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A Psychedelic & Overwhelming Finale
In a pleasant surprise, the Butcher Brothers implement some trippy, visually mind-melting devices to send Beth’s world for a loop as she fights for survival. Certain sequences from Jonathan Glazer’s masterpiece Under the Skin might come to mind here. Consumed turns cerebral, thought-provoking, and perhaps even gut-wrenching as the monster’s efforts go full-throttle in the overwhelming climax. It may lose some viewers with its sudden embrace of weirdness, but it’s a valiant effort to distinguish this little horror B-movie from all the others out there. And if enough buzz is generated, who knows if a Consumed 2 ever comes into fruition.
Consumed tackles a theme that’s been omnipresent in horror —grief and trauma. Having a monster that’s attracted to sickness and death, and two characters who respond differently to it, makes for a good allegory, and Halverson sells it by grounding it in the reality of cancer and the fear of recurrence. From Brainstorm Media, Consumed will be released in theaters and on demand Aug. 16, 2024.
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