Consumed (2024)

Consumed
Consumed

At the beginning of ‘Consumed(2024)’ which is otherwise a poorly structured film about a couple going out and camping then washing away their sentiments, the plot feels new and unique though. Beth (Courtney Halverson) and Jay (Mark Famiglietti) do not seem too happy even before they start their long trek, and they only get even more irritated when an insane mountain man (Devon Sawa) attacks them and possibly even a cannibalistic creature.

Considering the amount of marital discord that Beth and Jay have in them will be sufficient for an exciting 97-minute moving picture, though Sawa’s dotted with angst and quite common style as an Oedipus-like antagonist did bring some complexity to the drama. Still, it could be more fascinating to watch how Beth confronts the fact that she and her spouse have grown apart, considering how rude and bossy Jay is most of the time.

Beth is a breast cancer survivor but Jay doesn’t seem to comprehend how to approach the difficult period in her life while talking with her. She too suffers from severe images which are extremely painful and look like a symptom of PTSD, where her body rejects her either during or after a distressing medical event. In a way, Jay is quite eager to make Beth feel valued and noticed, only to appear clueless about Beth’s feelings. In his opinion, this is an opportunity for celebration; for her, this is possibly the final chapter in their relationship. They later spot what appears to be animal footprints that have some substance resembling creamed spinach. Even more problematic are the bear trap, a monster, and a whole load of exposition which only muddies the waters further.

Similar to many contemporary trauma-based horror films, “Consumed” comes to rest eventually with the most fractured of its leads. The weight of the creators’ attention to Beth would not have been so restrictive if Jay was either better fleshed out or reduced to just a more effective standard for Halverson to model his performance off. Initially, Jay does seem like he is a bother to the point of being problematic, especially due to his habit of constantly hovering over Beth and smothering her with affection. Famiglietti convinces you of how such a well-intentioned yet very unlikeable character could be real especially when he tries to make it a point to ceremoniously burn Beth’s hospital wristband. Those who have been forced into hospitals certainly understand the aggravation of being unable to tear into friends and or family members who just do not get it. This first part of the film, “Consumed”, somehow helps one imagine that grievance in a more credible form.

Quinn, Sawa’s borderline lunatic, now usurps Jay’s position as the most troubling subject in Beth’s life. He does not give Beth and Jay the critical details for reasons which are obvious but are still revealed in due course. You can tell that Quinn has his own issues as well, smoking Beth’s cigarettes and talking in fragments of sentences for example. There is an unmissable intensity in Sawa regarding the character he plays, but Quinn constantly seems to be nothing more than an additional hurdle on Beth’s path.

However, as soon as Quinn enters the stage, it is not even about ‘The Twilight Zone’ anymore, simply because one was ‘never really there.’ Surviving the kind of threat that’s only alluded to in the narrative and at some points, hints at the onscreen appearance of creatures in low-budget horror flicks. Those who love Larry Fessenden’s movies already know this lustful monster from the horror film of “Consumed.” But this monster never gets as much artistic attention here as in Fessenden’s works.

In “Consumed,” Jay becomes an afterthought as the fight shifts between Beth and Quinn. Any such lack of depth might have been excused in a film in which Beth and Quinn engaged or at least conversed with one another so as to mine their various neuroses. Negatively, almost all the dialogue in “Consumed,” Tesh: David Calbert, disregards Beth and Quinn’s feelings and concentrates on moving the story forward.

Performances lacking connection and chemistry can be perplexing, in the case where the performance’s key battle is internal conflict. On the surface, both the screenplay of “Consumed” and the direction do not add anything in relation to the filial conflict that characterizes the struggles of Beth. Too many dialogues make the battle of the monster scenes the major cause of attraction for many of the viewers as I presume. There is also some of what might be described as faux rural speech that Sawa speaks badly, such as when he notices Beth after the chemotherapy: ‘You are sick, ain’t you?’ Such a line needs context and “Consumed” is certainly not wealthy in softening up such rough edges.

In “Consumed,” perhaps a sense of rhythm or some frustrated chemistry could have in fact made a difference, perhaps even enough to stick to the standard by the numbers ending of the movie. Regrettably, disjointed and mostly functionless dialogue usually steps on Beth and Quinn’s movements in anticipation, making it even more frustrating to look forward to what is next. It is also difficult to shake off the impression that we are looking at novice performers or performers completely lost and trying to infuse threads of already sparse material. Some thrilling sequences are indeed placed in “Consumed,” but they are never good enough to match the movie’s bold hooks.

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