It Feeds

It Feeds had potential, but unfortunately, it gets lost somewhere between its own confusion and a lackluster delivery. The premise could have been chilling - a mysterious force feeding off fear, maybe guilt, maybe something deeper - but the movie never quite figures out what it's trying to say, or how to say it.

The acting ranges from wooden to wildly over-the-top, making it hard to feel connected to any of the characters. The pacing drags in parts where it should build tension, and when things finally start to pick up, it's too little, too late. The "twist" (if you can call it that) lands with a dull thud, and any meaningful horror is undercut by odd dialogue and strange editing choices.

On the plus side, the creature design is decent, and a couple of atmospheric shots manage to evoke some eerie vibes. But those fleeting moments aren't enough to salvage the experience.

Overall, It Feeds feels like it's trying to ride the coattails of smarter, scarier horror films - but ends up a half-baked mess that neither feeds the fear nor the imagination.

Ah, a world premiere! It's been a while since I attended one of those. It is somewhat important (or, at least, more than welcome) for the first user-comment here on IMDb to be positive and encouraging others to go and see the title. Now, I know the title of my comment doesn't sound too enthusiastic, but -rest assured - "It Feeds" is a more than adequate, entertaining, and professionally made piece of monster/demonic horror from Canada!

Beautiful Ashley Green stars as Cynthia Winstone; - a psychiatrist with an authentic psychic gift/talent. You know how they say psychiatrists are trying to get inside your head? Well, Cythia does this literally! By putting her finger on the patient's forehead, she joins him/her on a mind and memories' trip to uncover repressed traumas. She protects herself, and her 17-year-old daughter Jordan, by not accepting cases that are too involving and mentally exhausting, because that's how she lost her husband. When a teenage girl with horrible scars on her body comes begging for help, claiming an evil entity is literally feeding on her from the inside out, Cythia simply knows the case will be pure hell. And she's right, of course!

The term "suspension of disbelief" seems to be invented for horror movies like these. It's an absurd plot, there aren't any explanations or backgrounds given, people make the dumbest decisions, police officers are beyond incompetent, etc. Etc. And yet, I can't be too harsh on "It Feeds" because writer/director Chad Archibald clearly didn't have the pretention of making an intelligent & psychological supernatural thriller, but merely a fast-paced and feisty B-horror with a nasty demon in it. And from that angle, Archibald succeeded, as his film is chock-full of jump scares (some of which are quite effective) and extremely loud and eerie sound effects. I watched "It Feeds" at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, and at several times I saw people jump in their seats and hurl with fright. That's a mission accomplished then, I'd say.

Additional score of half a point because the animated end-credits are really cool.

This isn't the first horror film starring Ashley Greene in the lead role, and compared to "The Apparition" from years earlier, "It Feeds" is an improvement.

Because of the title, "It Feeds" may have you thinking it has something to do with "It Follows" from eleven years earlier, but that isn't true. They are different films with barely anything in common. The idea of some evil creature that has no name does not yet make "It Feeds" a copy of something that came before.

The main character portrayed by Ashley Greene may remind you of either The Warrens from "The Conjuring" horror film series or Shaun San Dena, the psychic from Sam Raimi's "Drag Me to Hell", but neither is "copied and pasted", they just have an element or two in common, which isn't a problem. Also, and one should be able to tell this from the very trailer, "It Feeds" is reminiscent of "Insidious".

A more interesting comparison, and a more accurate one, would be "Nosferatu" by Robert Eggers from just a year earlier. One may end up thinking writer and director Chad Archibald saw that film and wanted to try his own take at the villain from that film, only Archibald with "It Feeds", unlike Eggers with his "Nosferatu", isn't disgustingly cheap when it comes to physical violence, mind over matter, indeed.

Long story short, the film may lack originality, but it does work. Why? Because of the characters and the script, interestingly enough, again, it may not be all that original, but it, the script, is put together with care, is no stranger to detail and the concept of "set up and pay off", and as for the characters, they have lives, histories and motivations, they do come across as real human beings, and you care about them.

Visually, there isn't anything special, and the sound isn't outstanding either, they are both competent, nothing more, but nothing less. That is a good way to describe this film, competent, no more, no less.

After I read the plot synopsis of It Feeds here on IMDb, I wasn't particularly interested. It sounded very stereotypical and overall uninteresting. However, I'm the kind of person who watches almost every new horror release, so I gave it a try anyway. I saw that Chad Archibald was the writer and director, and he has been involved in many other horror productions. Most of them were average at best, with a few exceptions.

In this film, he tells the story of a mother and her daughter who are cursed by an evil entity after the daughter tries to help a previously possessed girl. The mother initially denies her help, but when her daughter's life is in danger, she must do everything she can to save her using her psychic abilities.

The premise was just as stereotypical as the synopsis suggested, but the movie had a few heartfelt moments and some decently enjoyable scenes. The acting is overall fine, though nothing out of the ordinary, and the characters weren't particularly special. That said, I still found myself rooting for the mother-daughter duo, even though their characters were flawed and not always likeable.

Sadly, the film is overloaded with cheap jump scares involving the entity, which repeat every few minutes and quickly become annoying. That's a shame because the entity itself looked pretty cool, and I would've liked to learn more about its backstory. Unfortunately, the movie handles its themes rather shallowly and never really explores anything in depth.

There are some familiar faces for fans of the genre, which might bring a smile to some viewers. The film also includes a character meant for comic relief, but it didn't work for me. The quirky, bubbly tone clashed with the movie's darker atmosphere.

Overall, It Feeds is a bit messy and heavily reliant on familiar genre tropes, but it's still somewhat entertaining. If the premise sounds particularly interesting to you, it might be worth a watch. Otherwise, you're not missing much if you skip this one.

[5.5/10]

First of all, when I first watched the official trailer of the movie I didn't like it and I didn't had high expectations about it. Eventually, it was better than I had imagined and I enjoyed it, a lot. The movie synopsis was kinda interesting, but it wasn't really innovative because there are too many movies similar to this one. The concept of the movie was kinda nice, but the storyline wasn't as well-explained as I would like and there were some plot holes during the movie. The main characters were very interesting, well-developed and likeable. The casting choices were nice and their performances were descent. I have to admit, it was a very scary, intense movie and there were many jumpscares. Also, the creature's appearance was very creepy and the practical effects were very well-done. The opening scene was kinda unpredictable and fast-paced, but it wasn't really promising. Gladly, the 2nd and 3rd act were both great and kinda terrifying. The ending was absolutely predictable, but I enjoyed it a lot. Last but not least, the cinematography and the score of the movie were both great. Overall, "It Feeds" was a nice supernatural horror film, very scary, intense and I would definitely recommend it to anyone!