Perry Blackshear, MacLeod Andrews, Libby Ewing, and Evan Dumouchel
Click here to listen to the interview.
I spoke by Zoom to writer/director Perry Blackshear and actors/producers Macleod Andrews, Evan Dumouchel, and Libby Ewing ahead of the world premiere of their film, WHEN I CONSUME YOU, at the Fantasia International Film Festival.
This intense psychological horror/mystery film deals with Daphne and Will (Ewing and Dumouchel), a brother and sister who endured an abusive childhood before finding a fragile peace as adults. Unfortunately, that is shattered when Daphne is forced to contend with a stalker (Andrews), and Will, the gentler and more insecure of the two, is drawn into the extreme measures necessary to combat him. It is Blackshear’s third feature film (after THEY LOOK LIKE PEOPLE and THE SIREN), and his darkest to date.
That’s something I asked him about later in their conversation on August 10, 2021, the first thing she wanted to know, though, was how editing a film during a pandemic informs the final cut.
We went on to talk about researching the effects of an abusive childhood have on adults; calibrating how a demon would smirk (and dress); why this story, filmed before the lockdown, feels so much darker than Blackshear’s previous two: and how vengeance can turn us into the very thing we hate and fear most.
We finished up with the collaborative nature of the cinematic repertory cinema company that Blackshear, Andrews, and Dumouchel founded; why fantasy and horror can be a more realistic depiction of the inner life; the role of kindness and gentleness is real life; Swallowing raw eggs; and what was NOT a shout-out to Stanley Kubrick.
Your Thoughts?