Consumed review: Devon Sawa's strong central performance props up a weak narrative

Consumed is the latest horror movie from The Butcher Brothers (filmmaking duo Mitchell Altieri and Phil Flores). It features a camping trip gone terribly wrong as a couple ventures into the woods to enjoy a peaceful vacation together, only to encounter a terrifying creature and a gruff man named Quinn (Devon Sawa) keen on revenge.

Setting out into the forest in a horror movie is always a recipe for disaster, and unfortunately, the film's script doesn't do much with its central narrative to set it apart from other movies with a similar throughline. The primary thrust of this movie is that the couple, Beth and Jay, played by Courtney Halverson and Mark Famiglietti, are struggling in the aftermath of Beth's recent fraught battle with cancer. As you might expect, Consumed toys with the idea of the monster as a metaphor for Beth's trauma and pain.

Funnily enough, the movie works best when it focuses on Quinn and Beth. At one point early in the film, Jay gets injured and sidelined, leaving Beth and Quinn to work together to fend off a frightening monster from folklore with a penchant for stealing skin. I won't spoil what the creature is or whether the characters live or die, but I was a little disappointed when they named the being, as it's been done many times before.

I do give the filmmakers credit for trying to blend practical effects with digital, but I would have preferred if the film had stuck with practical effects, though the filmmakers smartly keep the monster obscured more often than not, allowing the suspense to build naturally by keeping the monster off-screen.

The practical stuff in Consumed is great. There are a few surprisingly horrific moments of gore and one memorable sequence with the monster's lair and all of its... skin prizes laid out was delightfully grotesque. I could have used more of that.

Sawa was the strongest aspect of the movie for me as I appreciated his character's dogged determination to get revenge for his lost loved one, a victim of the roaming, vicious being in the woods. Consumed doesn't reinvent the wheel but its central performances elevate its material despite. It gets off to a slow start, but once the story focuses on Beth and Quinn and their efforts to hunt down the monster, things pick up significantly and carry things through to a surprisingly effective finale.

Consumed is now available to rent or purchase on VOD. To stay up to date on thrillers, sci-fi, and horror, bookmark 1428 Elm and follow our Facebook page and Twitter account!