Acting coach Paul Andrich uses his students to make a film every few years. The latest from this collaboration is Consumed. Andrich wrote and directed the thriller, which starts with sex worker Kate (Kaylee Martens) and mobster’s son Ricky (Erin Johnston) having a good time. However, Ricky mistakes the vibes for more than just work. This puts Kate in an uncomfortable situation, but luckily her driver, Cole (Ward Massner), knocks on the door. Ricky and his goons try to explain that she wants to stay, which is patently false. For their trouble, Kate and Cole take a tin of cash, which they discover contains $30,000.
One week later, Ricky is still smarting over the incident. So he has his goons kidnap Kate. It doesn’t take long for Cole to figure out who took her, but where she is remains elusive. So Cole does what he does best: beat people up and eat them until he gets the answers he needs. Will he be able to save Kate? Or will Detective Fisk (Angela Robbie) stop the cannibal killer before his mission is accomplished?
Consumed is very straightforward. There are no real subplots, as Fisk is just following up on the pile of dead bodies, and Ricky’s dad is trying to clean up his son’s mess. That’s all there is, and that is all there needs to be. Running just 76 minutes long, the film knows exactly what it is and wastes little time getting to the good stuff. To that end, the action is fun. While no one will mistake this for John Wick, the fight choreography is good and looks believable. The editing is also good, with one awkward moment. Fisk goes to talk to Ricky’s dad, and when she’s being let in, there’s a Dutch angle shot of her saying, “He’s going to want to hear this.” Uh, yeah, they’re already letting you into the house. ’Tis most odd.
Kate crawls across the floor as Ricky’s dad watches from the couch in Consumed.
“…Cole does what he does best: beat people up and eat them until he gets the answers he needs.”
The lighting is also very bad. Excluding the car ride immediately after the inciting action, the lighting is dull, overexposed, and creates a flat visual look. That is unfortunate because Andrich’s cinematography is amazing. There’s a tracking shot backward through a hallway that is awesome. It whips into a medium shot of a fight, generating visual kineticism to match the energy of the combat. The camera work is often truly fantastic and does an excellent job of keeping things high-energy and cool.
The acting is also very good. Martens is sweet and likable. Massner is threatening and scary. Johnston is the sleaziest of sleazeballs, piling on smarm with ease. Robbie grounds things as the detective piecing the killing spree together.
Consumed is a fun actioner with a solid hook. The cast is good, and the cinematography is unbelievably slick for such a small-budget production. It does have flaws, mainly in the lighting, but it is still worth watching to see what a dedicated and talented team can do with almost no resources.
"…a fun actioner with a solid hook."
