E. L. King calls their Brooklyn Horror Film Festival screening of When I Consume You a sometimes messy slow burn about grief, shared trauma and redepemtion.
We had the opportunity to screen supernatural thriller When I Consume You virtually during Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. Siblings Daphne (Libby Ewing) and Wilson (Evan Dumouchel) Shaw had absent parents growing up. They've raised and cared for each other since childhood. Each are vehemently protective of the other, but each has also unraveled in adulthood without a guide, mentor or parent to prepare them for the harsh realities of life. Daphne, a former drug addict has put the broken pieces of her life back together. At five-years sober, she has a great professional life and is looking to adopt a child.
Meanwhile, her brother Wilson, still afraid of his own shadow, is trying his best to "adult" with Daphne as his driving force. He's even interviewing at a grade school in the hopes of becoming a teacher. The two are no strangers to the highs and lows that life has to offer and their world's are about to come crashing down. Daphne has a dangerous stalker threatening to destroy them both. They hunt for the shadowy figure, traversing the streets of Brooklyn and preparing for battle. Unfortunately, this isn't any ordinary foe, but something altogether insidious, cunning and supernatural. Wilson undergoes a trying and tension wrought transformation of spirit in an attempt to repair the broken facets of himself following the unexpected death of Daphne, the only comfort and kinship he knows beyond his plant collection.
Written and directed by Perry Blackshear, When I Consume You suffers from the fact that it's a sometimes messy story and a very slow burn. However, it isn't your average horror film, it doesn't play with gore, jump scares or damsels in distress. It's a character study and an examination of grief, trauma and eventually redemption. To save each other, Daphne and Wilson must face the darkest aspects of themselves while also battling a supernatural predator.
Admittedly, this film struggled to hold my attention primarily due to the pacing and flashbacks. It also takes nearly the entirity of the film to build to the reveal of the supernatural stalker and from that point everything we'd been slowing inching towards needs to be quickly resolved so the film can end. I love a horror film with a demonic presence as much as the next person, but this feature didn't quite do it for me.
