Consumed Traps Its Victims Between a Monster and a Madman

If you ask a group of hardcore horror fans to recommend some fun zombie or vampire films, they probably won’t have much trouble rattling off a list a mile long. But if you ask them to name a few good Wendigo flicks, you’ll get little more than a bunch of blank stares. Sure, they might mention a couple of movies, like Larry Fessenden’s Wendigo or the Guillermo del Toro-produced Antlers, but you won’t get many solid suggestions. There simply aren’t enough notable Wendigo films, so when I heard that Consumed was about one of these creatures, I became instantly intrigued. I thought it had the potential to be a fun addition to a struggling subgenre, and I couldn’t wait to see what chills and thrills it had in store.

Consumed was directed by Mitchell Altieri, and it stars Courtney Halverson, Mark Famiglietti, and Devon Sawa. The movie follows a married couple named Jay and Beth as they set out on a camping trip to celebrate Beth’s first anniversary of being cancer free. It’s supposed to be a fun getaway from the stress of everyday life, but that all changes when they find themselves being stalked by a mysterious creature.

As the couple are running for their lives, they eventually come across a woodsman named Quinn who provides them with shelter and tells them that the monster is a Wendigo. At first, it seems like the three of them might be able to make it out of the woods together. However, we soon learn that Quinn has sinister plans of his own, so Beth and Jay are in much more danger than they imagined.

For about the first 25-30 minutes or so, I had a great time with Consumed. When the film starts, you can tell that Beth and Jay love each other, but Beth’s illness has taken a toll on their relationship. Most notably, Jay’s well-intentioned attempts to help his wife make it through the forest terrain make her feel incapable, and that’s clearly been a bone of contention between them for a while.

Along similar lines, Beth’s cancer has taken a notable psychological toll on her as well, so even when she’s not quarreling with her husband, it’s obvious that she’s always fighting an internal battle. You can just see it in her facial expressions, her mannerisms, and the way she talks, and along with her believably complex relationship with Jay, that struggle makes our two main characters feel like real people you could meet on a weekend camping trip yourself.

Then, when the horror finally kicks in, Consumed gets even better. The Wendigo starts stalking the couple at night, and while we don’t get a good look at it, the brief glimpses we do get tease a terrifying and fun creature design. What’s more, director Mitchell Altieri also manages to soak these initial spooky scenes in a palpably creepy atmosphere, so even when the wendigo is nowhere to be seen, you can’t help but find yourself inching closer and closer to the edge of your seat.

In fact, the monster is actually at its scariest when you don’t see it. This thing lets out some genuinely hair-raising screeches, and when you hear them, you’ll instantly wonder what kind of unholy hellspawn can make sounds like that. They’ll get your mind racing in a way that’s sure to raise a few hairs on the back of your neck, but unfortunately, these few scenes are the high point of the movie.

We soon get some much better looks at the Wendigo, and throughout the rest of Consumed, it’s basically just a CGI ball of fire and smoke. It’s difficult to find that scary at all, so after learning what this monster really looks like, I just couldn’t take it seriously anymore.

On top of that, the film slows down significantly once our main characters meet the mad woodsman Quinn, and that killed my interest in the story even more. Don’t get me wrong, Quinn isn’t a bad character, but he’s not terribly interesting either. He’s little more than a stereotypically gruff wilderness survivor, and apart from one cool reveal about his true intentions, nothing about the guy made me want to see more of him.

In fact, as the second act of Consumed goes on, Quinn becomes increasingly misused. He eventually usurps the wendigo’s role as the primary threat to Jay and Beth, and that remains the status quo for way too long. Granted, the supernatural predator eventually retakes its place at the top of the narrative food chain, but by then, it’s too little too late.

Then, when the movie gets to the third act, it kind of just fizzles out. I’m obviously not going to spoil anything, but I will say that the final 15-20 minutes of Consumed are pretty bland. Most egregiously, there’s a scene where we get to see what the Wendigo looks like beneath those CGI effects, and let’s just say that I preferred the fire and smoke.

To be fair, this part of the film does feature some of the creepy sound work that made the first act so good, but it’s not nearly enough to salvage the entire experience. When the credits began to roll, I was sorely disappointed that I wasn’t able to add this to the very short list of good Wendigo movies, so I’m sad to say that you should give Consumed a pass. Sure, the film has its moments, mostly in the first act, but once it reaches the half-hour mark, it throws away all the goodwill it worked so hard to earn.

Consumed is set to hit theaters and VOD on August 16.