It Feeds Review: Ashley Greene and Ellie O’Brien Elevate Chad Archibald’s Visceral Psychological Horror

It Feeds is the kind of horror movie that grabs you by the throat and never lets go, evidently in the opening scene. Writer-director Chad Archibald dives right in with the introduction of Cynthia (Ashley Greene), a clairvoyant who helps her client suffering from trauma. She has a unique gift of entering her client’s subconscious by touching her finger to the forehead. They sit across each other, where the therapy takes place in her house with her daughter, Jordan (Ellie O’Brien), serving as an assistant.

Right from the get-go, we see how Cynthia does her job and Archibald effectively combines Steph Copeland’s ominous score and Jeff Maher’s atmospheric cinematography to evoke a heightened sense of dread. It was a promising start that immediately had my attention towards Cynthia and Jordan. Then, Archibald continues to sustain his story’s momentum by moving on with the appearance of a panicked 14-year-old girl named Riley Harris (Shayelin Martin), who arrives at the front door demanding to see Cynthia for help.

Jordan, who answers the door, needs to assess her beforehand and notices her arms are severely scarred. When Cynthia sees something sinister, where a malevolent dark creature attaches itself to the girl, she doesn’t want to get involved. But Jordan, who took pity on Riley, insists on helping her, despite her mother’s warning. Soon, she takes the initiative by visiting Agatha (Juno Rinaldi), one of Cynthia’s former clients who introduced Riley to seek Cynthia in the first place, to find out where Riley lives. Jordan’s subsequent visit to Riley’s home not only resulted in facing the latter’s father, Randall (Shawn Ashmore), but also the creature.

Randall seems to be overprotective of his daughter, even desperate to the point of resorting to taking questionable actions. It makes you wonder why the creature is so attached to the poor Riley. Not to mention what Randall has to do with everything other than trying his best to protect his daughter. The creature is some sort of otherworldly parasite that feeds off humans, which in this case, Riley, but as the movie progresses, it gets complicated once Jordan takes drastic action to save the girl changes the course of the plot. By levelling up the stakes, this makes the threat more formidable, complete with a few effective jump scares, but thankfully not overly reliant until they become distracting.

The creature also served as a metaphor for conquering one’s fear and trauma, which reflects the devastating past revolving around Cynthia’s late husband. His death has since left an indelible mark on her and her daughter. Cynthia is still helping those in need using her gift as a clairvoyant, but only to a certain extent. Because her self-repressed trauma remains etched in her memory, she insists on taking a more calculative approach to be selective in choosing her clients, but someone like Riley proves to be too much for her to handle.

However, her rebellious daughter Jordan doesn’t share the same sentiment with her restrained mother, as she believes that possessing such a gift should be used to help anyone, no matter how dire the situation is. This causes a friction between their mother-daughter dynamic, and kudos to Greene and O’Brien for making their characters work, thanks to their engaging performances.

Archibald certainly understands that a good horror movie isn’t just about the technical know-how associated with the genre — the set pieces, the camera placements and the music score, just to name a few. Having a character or two such that make us root for their ordeal is just as essential in elevating the overall movie.

The second half is spent focusing on Cynthia’s eventual involvement to save her daughter, leading to more scenes of her using her gift to enter multiple subconsciousness — an obvious shade of Tarsem Singh’s The Cell and even Christopher Nolan’s Inception quickly comes to mind upon watching them unfold. There’s a visceral sense from the way Archibald shoots his scenes whenever Cynthia enters a person’s mind. It’s all eerie, foreboding and nightmarish that separates the subconscious and reality.

Despite the grim subject matter, It Feeds manages to lighten up a little with Juno Rinaldi’s Agatha Baker served as a worthwhile comic relief. While the climactic third act somewhat deflates with the eventual showdown against the creature, especially given all the thrilling buildup, the shortcoming doesn’t deter me from positioning It Feeds as one of the better-than-expected horror movies of the year.