[Film Review] When I Consume You (2022)
There is nothing in the world like an independent horror film that moves to the beat of its own drum. Shirking cliché and formula, When I Consume You offers a wholly unique experience for the viewer, requiring a bit of patience, and delivering heartbreaking terror. Perry Blackshear first made his mark on the genre world in 2015 with the fantastic They Look Like People, a paranoid psychological mindfuck, and he’s back in top form with When I Consume You; equally impactful while delving deep into the effects of childhood trauma and the strength of the sibling bond.
Libby Ewing and Evan Dumouchel (They Look Like People) star as Daphne and Wilson Shaw, siblings with a troubled past who must work together to fight a mysterious stalker. Daphne, a recovering addict, has clearly spent a lifetime caring for Wilson, an isolated man who suffers from debilitating anxiety. The relationship is a loving one, but the impact of their trauma is present at every turn, and when Daphne’s long-time stalker re-emerges, it is quickly revealed that the ominous presence has more nefarious plans for the pair than simply hiding in the shadows.
The less revealed about the plot the better, but the heart of the story can’t be overlooked. Daphne and Wilson are survivors. They suffered through a childhood that, though the viewer is never forced to endure, is apparently awful. This aspect of the story is not lost. The dark cloud that accompanies Daphne and Wilson is borne of insidious mundanity – children getting lost in the messed-up folds of parents dealing with their own emotional wounds.
As the story unfolds, and Wilson and Daphne’s roles are reversed, Wilson is forced to abandon his childlike naivety and evolve into the kind of man he believes could fight against the type of physical force their stalker seems to inhabit. But the ultimate battle is not one of the body, it is one of the soul.
It is troubling to watch Wilson beat his innocence down, no matter what he believes he’s fighting for. But no matter the intensity, there’s an undeniable draw to the reality in which Daphne and Wilson are running from. With few visual effects and even fewer expository cues, the viewer knows there is something evil lurking in the shadows of the Shaw family past. This is the embodiment of true horror. The realization of darkness without the ability to witness the depth of the depravity. It’s what is truly unique to independent filmmaking. Without the kind of studio interference that may insist upon speeding up the narrative to appease an audience’s limited attention span, When I Consume You manages to capture an inescapable sense of dread that constitutes the purest form of horror.
RELATED ARTICLES
When V/H/S first hit our screens in 2012, nobody could have foreseen that 11 years later we’d be on our sixth instalment (excluding the two spinoffs) of the series.
When someone is in a toxic relationship, it can affect more than just their heart and mind. Their bodies can weaken or change due to the continued stress and unhappiness that comes from the toxicity.
If you can’t count on your best friend to check your teeth and hands and stand vigil with you all night to make sure you don’t wolf out, who can you count on? And so begins our story on anything but an ordinary night in 1993…
The best thing about urban legends is the delicious thrill of the forbidden. Don’t say “Bloody Mary” in the mirror three times in a dark room unless you’re brave enough to summon her. Don’t flash your headlights at a car unless you want to have them drive you to your death.
A Wounded Fawn (Travis Stevens, 2022) celebrates both art history and female rage in this surreal take on the slasher genre.
Perpetrator opens with a girl walking alone in the dark. Her hair is long and loose just begging to be yanked back and her bright clothes—a blood red coat, in fact—is a literal matador’s cape for anything that lies beyond the beam of her phone screen.
Filmed on location in Scotland, Ryan Hendrick's new thriller Mercy Falls (2023) uses soaring views of the Scottish Highlands to show that the natural world can either provide shelter or be used as a demented playground for people to hurt each other.
EXPLORE
Now it’s time for Soho’s main 2023 event, which is presented over two weekends: a live film festival at the Whirled Cinema in Brixton, London, and an online festival a week later. Both have very rich and varied programmes (with no overlap this year), with something for every horror fan.
In the six years since its release the Nintendo Switch has amassed an extensive catalogue of games, with everything from puzzle platformer games to cute farming sims to, uh, whatever Waifu Uncovered is.
A Quiet Place (2018) opens 89 days after a race of extremely sound-sensitive creatures show up on Earth, perhaps from an exterritorial source. If you make any noise, even the slightest sound, you’re likely to be pounced upon by these extremely strong and staggeringly fast creatures and suffer a brutal death.
If you like cults, sacrificial parties, and lesbian undertones then Mona Awad’s Bunny is the book for you. Samantha, a student at a prestigious art university, feels isolated from her cliquey classmates, ‘the bunnies’.
The slasher sub genre has always been huge in the world of horror, but after the ‘70s and ‘80s introduced classic characters like Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Leatherface, and Jason, it’s not harsh to say that the ‘90s was slightly lacking in the icon department.
Mother is God in the eyes of a child, and it seems God has abandoned the town of Silent Hill. Silent Hill is not a place you want to visit.
Being able to see into the future or back into the past is a superpower that a lot of us would like to have. And while it may seem cool, in horror movies it usually involves characters being sucked into terrifying situations as they try to save themselves or other people with the information they’ve gleaned in their visions.
Both the original Pet Sematary (1989) and its 2019 remake are stories about the way death and grief can affect people in different ways. And while the films centre on Louis Creed and his increasingly terrible decision-making process, there’s no doubt that the story wouldn’t pack the same punch or make the same sense without his wife, Rachel.
If you know me at all, you know that I love, as many people do, the work of Nic Cage. Live by the Cage, die by the Cage. So, when the opportunity to review this came up, I jumped at it.