It Feeds

by Mike McGranaghan

Let’s talk about It. It does a lot of stuff. In the horror genre, It Follows. It Lives Inside. It Comes at Night. And now, It Feeds. You’ve got to give It credit for versatility but, more notably, for once again delivering serious chills.

Cynthia Winstone (Ashley Greene) is a therapist with clairvoyant abilities. On special occasions, she uses her gifts to help people who have paranormal troubles. Acting as her assistant/protégé is daughter Jordan (Ellie O’Brien). When a distraught little girl named Riley (Shayelin Martin) shows up at their door, Cynthia sees a demon attached to her. Riley’s dad Randall (Shawn Ashmore) arrives to drag her away before any help can be administered. This prompts the empathetic Riley to start poking around their house. What she finds is sufficiently horrifying that Cynthia can’t avoid getting involved, despite her initial trepidation.

I wouldn’t dream of revealing anything beyond this set-up. All you need to know is that feeding is, as the title suggests, a major motivation for the demonic entity. The hows and whys of that feeding is where the suspense comes in. Every new revelation Cynthia and Jordan face is more terrifying than the one before. Their lives are put in grave danger in the process of trying to aid Riley.

Writer/director Chad Archibald (Bite) does not follow a traditional playbook. Generally, horror movies have an unspoken rule that the heroes will be safe. After all, if they aren’t, how will the evil be vanquished? Nobody is safe in It Feeds. One major character, in particular, gets put through the wringer over the course of the story. That, coupled with several unpredictable twists and turns, is what allows the film to burrow its way into your psyche. The creature, played by Sara Garcia, is creepy, too, making the jump scares extra effective.

Ashley Green gives a very good performance as Cynthia. Like everyone in the cast not named Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, the actress has struggled to find post-Twilight roles that let her meaningfully demonstrate her talent. She’s got one such role here, and she proves herself up to the task. As Jordan, Ellie O’Brien announces herself as a young performer to watch. It’s amazing how well she commands the screen, bringing strong emotion to the film that it benefits greatly from.

A couple of the supporting actors are on the flat side, and there’s a nonsensical subplot about Cynthia and a local cop that adds nothing to the story. Those minor flaws are easy to get past because It Feeds is immensely scary and, when all is said and done, even a bit touching.

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