[Review] When I Consume You
In Director Perry Blackshear’s When I Consume You, the viewer is taken on a dark and seemingly hopeless trip down a road filled with past trauma and current disappointments, coming to a head in this raw and gritty film. Yet, just when you believe all hope is indeed gone, an opportunity presents itself, and our character Wilson Shaw seizes it.
We meet Daphne Shaw (Libby Ewing) in the opening scene running from someone—or something—but pretending everything is quite fine. However, we find out sooner than later that all’s not well for her. We get to see Daphne with her brother, Wilson (Evan Dumouchel) interacting, Wilson practicing for an interview to be a teacher because he wants to be a great help to children while Daphne wants to adopt a child to give them a loving parent. One can only surmise that due to their sordid upbringing that the siblings believe they can do some good in the world for others, even though they’d been failed as children growing up.
We witness their closeness and how they are one another’s support system, but even with these two being as tight-knit and supportive of one another as can be, Daphne has a secret she has kept from her brother.
Upon finding a dead Daphne in her room, Wilson goes on a hunt for the person responsible—a figure he spots outside of her window in a dark hoodie. No one believes him when he tells them she was murdered. Her death ruled an accidental overdose, although she had been clean for years. It’s on this hunt that Wilson finds out the truth of things, and what he discovers is far more sinister than originally anticipated.
Blackshear’s third film, with its tight but impactful cast, takes the viewers on a harrowing ride of grief, loss, trauma, and the ability to turn that trauma into triumph. The characters are vessels for facing difficulties and hard truths that were once hidden; demons in the place of substance abuse and childhood abuse, needing resolutions to set our characters free once and for all. Love conquering over evil saves the souls of the siblings, but not without paying a heavy toll in the act of doing so.
By the end of the film, hope has been restored, and the conclusion is beautiful and completes the journey of the siblings. When I Consume You is a wonderful suspense-filled piece that pays off in an amazing way.
1091 Pictures’s When I Consume You will be available for streaming August 16th.
