Reel Review: Consumed (2024)

Horror and Devon Sawa continue their strong relationship, even if “Consumed” offers little to reinforce the Wendigo’s terrifying lore.  

I live in Calgary, Alberta, which is a short distance from some of the most stunning backcountry camping grounds in North America (if you’re ever in this neighborhood, make time to explore Treaty 7 land and, specifically, some of the trails and sites around Kananaskis). I camped out in Kananaskis Country a few years ago with some friends and our kiddos. My young daughter and I slept in a two-person tent together. In hindsight, this may not have been the best decision for someone with a wildly vivid imagination.

Most nights, I find peace under the stars. On that trip, though? My Spidey Senses were on high alert. Bear? Cougar? … something else? I’ll never know. However, this experience helped me appreciate Consumed’s set-up, with Jay (Mark Famiglietti) and Beth (Courtney Halverson) moving deeper into the backcountry on their hiking trip.  

During the film’s set-up, there is a deliciously terrifying introduction to the claws of this film’s creature–a wendigo–using the tent’s thin barrier and claustrophobic space extremely effectively.

As you enjoy this moment, watch closely. The claws appear a few times in this vignette, and one moment was so subtle I had to rewind it to confirm my eyes weren’t playing tricks. What a lovely, nightmare-inducing moment for anyone who spends time in tents. Also, the gooey goodness as the wendigo destroys their camp was thick and sloppy enough to trigger my gag reflex.

THERE IS A REASON WHY SO MANY HORRORS ARE SET IN THE DEEP DARK WOODS, FOLKS.   

I tell you this because there was such squandered potential here. The entire tent-and-slime sequence near the beginning had my goosebumps PRIMED. There was even one nice little body horror moment in Beth’s first nightmare sequence having to do with her mastectomy scar. 

Yet, just like the apparition of the wendigo throughout the film, that feeling was gone, and not even a solid skin closet could save it. 

First, I want to comment on choosing a wendigo as the creature.

I really appreciate Kaitlin Smith’s exploration of this here, which states the wendigo is “often presented apart from its original cultural contexts,” which as a mythology and lore-lover, you know I disapprove of. ESPECIALLY knowing the wendigo originates from Indigenous–specifically Algonquian–traditions.

I would be shocked if this team consulted any Algonquian Elders or Knowledge Keepers to inform their creature. Smith’s piece even notes that “modern horror stories appropriate the wendigo as a plot device,” and I’m sorry to say I feel Consumed is another to make this culturally uninformed and disconnected mistake.

Next, I realized early on that there was little to no chemistry between the two leads, with Famiglietti’s performance feeling particularly forced and his hair and teeth a little too pretty (even after days in the bunker with a broken ankle!) for the setting. Ok, fine. I set that aside and hoped there would be enough rad moments like the tent opener to keep me entertained. Alas, there were not.

Instead, there were numerous excessively long nightmare sequences focused on Beth’s medical trauma and establishing the connection between Beth and the wendigo.

Chase scenes lacked urgency and fear because it felt like the actors were being chased by a watered-down and sparkly iteration of a Dementor. I found myself wishing the team had made different choices around which moments to let linger, which to scrap on the editing room floor, and how much and how often the creature should grace the screen. 

This stumble, along with much smaller choices, put me in a nit-picky mindset.

What choices, you might ask?

Take, for example, the fact that Beth goes exploring the dark, wet woods at night in just her socks; keeping feet and socks dry is hiking trip 101, y’all. Then, there’s the use of physical/wrist restraints in one of the nightmares. These days, the leading practice is to have a “least restraint” or “restraint as a last resort” policy–at least, that is the case here in Canada. To me, the nightmares felt like a blend of Beth’s actual experience and the wendigo preying on her weakness.

I doubt Beth’s cancer treatments resulted in restraint use, and it offered another distraction for me. This is a friendly reminder that prop choices matter.     

Building on my frustration with choices, I need to talk about Quinn. We’re all familiar with the backwoods loner trope, but Quinn’s character added very little save to create a barely plausible way to move the action forward and increase runtime. There were attempts to pull on heartstrings with Quinn’s backstory, but they all fell flat for me. 

Now, while I may have disliked Quinn as a character and plot device, I need to gush about Devon Sawa. 

Can we please, please give way more horror community love to Devon Sawa?

Sawa played the poorly constructed, revenge-seeking hunter Quinn with unwavering commitment. 

I must commend this because it was a weak-on-paper part made worse by the Men of the Night’s Watch get-up he sported throughout the film. Yet he OWNED the ridiculousness, just like he does in ALL of the horror roles he tackles, which are numerous. Am I the only one who’s been sleeping on Sawa (or at least taking his ongoing contributions to our beloved genre for granted)?

I only found a little love specific to his horror career, like this here and this over here (and Scream Queen Tilly, thank you for reminding us in that interview about this memorable–and creepy–Sawa role). Oooh, and look, there’s more to come! 

We all love to dote on our iconic Final Girls, but can we offer Devon Sawa more flowers? He shines here, even if he’s the only real highlight of the film.

Consumed will be available in theaters and on-demand beginning August 16, 2024. Unfortunately, I vote to skip this one. Maggots will make quick work of the skinned, sickly corpse, which is this latest genre offering. My only hope is that Awa finds his way to creative teams who can deliberately and more effectively leverage his obvious willingness to go ‘all in’ with camp and chaos.