When I Consume You: Review

20th August 2022

Daphne (Libby Ewing) and Wilson (Evan Dumouchel) have always been close, ever since they were little. Growing up together has been hard, but they’ve always been there for each other even when times were hard. However, things got especially hard when Daphne became addicted to drugs, nonetheless Wilson stood by her and nursed her back to help, doing everything he could not to lose his sister.

Then one night Wilson finds Daphne and she is dead. Overcome with grief and guilt, Wilson soon finds himself in a downward spiral of depression, but Daphne suddenly appears to him and convinces him to fight. Not fight through the grief perse, but to fight the demon that has taken his sister’s life and get revenge.

When I Consume You is a psychological horror written and directed by Perry Blackshear and may be an example of what these days is called elevated horror. That’s because the film deals with things such as depression, addiction and grief and gives them life in a horror setting.

Much like The Babadook, Daphne’s addiction becomes manifest and the way that it’s dealt with is similar to the depression that is depicted in the more famous Australian horror. However, with the comparisons between the two being so evident, it’s hard to separate them.

Using the depiction of addiction as if it is a real person and something that is tangible is indeed a clever idea and the way that Daphne and Wilson interact with it gives the audience a good idea of what dealing addiction is really like.

The way that it fights back also gives the audience a well thought out example of what addiction does to people whilst portraying it in a palatable horror scenario.

However, in the end this kind of depiction of an emotional compulsion has been done before and unfortunately it doesn’t do it as well as its more famous predecessor. Saying that though, When I Consume You is a bold and unflinching depiction of addiction and the affects that it has on family. It just could have been a little more subtle in its execution.

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