Summary
Courtney Halverson is a woman facing more than just her own tragic past inConsumed. Halverson has been part of the acting industry since she was a teenager, garnering acclaim for her roles in the short filmsA Distant ShoreandSleepwalkbefore going on to make appearances in everything from Nickelodeon’sNed’s Declassified School Survival Guideto HBO’sBig Love. Following her role in Blumhouse’s viral hitUnfriended, the star has gone on to expand her work in the horror genre, including 2018’sSt. Agatha, helmed bySawfranchisevet Darren Lynn Bousman.
InConsumed, Halverson stars as Beth, a woman who sets off with her husband on a forest hiking trip after her cancer goes into remission. As the two attempt to come to terms with Beth’s health issues and the tension it’s since caused in their relationship, they find themselves the target of a mysterious entity lurking in the woods. When they also come across a mysterious man with seeming prior knowledge of the creature, Beth finds she has to determine who to trust and prove she’s willing to fight for more than just her health.
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Alongside Halverson, the ensembleConsumedcast includes Mark Famiglietti as Jay, Beth’s husband, andFinal DestinationandChuckystar Devon Sawaas the mysterious stranger lurking in the woods hunting the creature. Hailing from the creative duo known as The Butcher Brothers, director Mitchell Altieri and producer Phil Flores, the film is simultaneously a haunting creature feature and emotional character drama, sure to thrill fans of multiple genres.
Ahead of the movie’s release,Screen Rantinterviewed Courtney Halverson to discussConsumed, finding the deeper layers of Beth, working to ensure her character didn’t feel like a damsel in distress, collaborating with Sawa on the movie’s stunts, and reflecting on the legacy ofUnfriended.
Warning: Some SPOILERS lie ahead for Consumed!
In reflecting on being introduced to the movie, Halverson recalls falling in love with the script forConsumed, even as she was only presented with “five or six pages” for her audition. Interestingly, Halverson explains that this portion of the script left out the horror elements of the film, but found herself drawn even further to the project because of “this character’s struggle about finding her way back to herself”:
Courtney Halverson: For me, this one really came down to the script for it. I was given, in the same way that most actors are for a project like this, such a small amount. I think I had maybe five or six pages of the script to start without knowing too much about what Beth was going to go through. I was able to read five to six pages, and I just so desperately wanted to be a part of this. It’s a character that’s obviously suffered an intense amount of personal grief, and I really felt that from the initial audition, and I wanted to find a way to bring her to life.
You add to that, obviously, a creature in the woods and all of these other elements, it makes it much more fun. But for me, it was always about this character’s struggle about finding her way back to herself. Yeah, I always love seeing that. I’m the type of person where I love to watch people’s auditions to see, like, “What was it?” And that’s probably the actor in me being like, “What did they do? How did they [perform]?” But, yeah, what I was given for this character was actually just the scene of Beth and her husband, Jay, when they’re first gathered around the fireplace.
Without giving too much away, Jay brings the medical bracelet, and it’s sort of their conflict there, and on the page, I think it was a six or seven-page scene of just the two of them really confronting something that they haven’t talked about before, about what this illness has done to both of them, and sort of how much tension there still is between them and their marriage. So, that’s all that I had to go off of. I knew it was going to go beyond that, but I really didn’t know where it was going beyond that. I just knew that if this is where it’s starting, because it’s very early on in the script, I knew that it was going to only get more intense from there.
Halverson Didn’t Want Beth To Be “A Shrinking Violet”
At the start ofConsumed, Beth finds herself frequently being catered to by Jay, something that comes to frustrate her as she tries to rebuild her life and her strength beyond her cancer survival. Halverson found this detail to be one of the most important when it came to portraying her character, wanting to ensure that Beth didn’t feel “like a shrinking violet” or come across as a “damsel in distress”, even as she’s “still just working through a lot of grief”:
Courtney Halverson: I think there’s a real sense with her that she has been to the absolute bottom of how depressed and filled with grief she’s already been through before we even meet her. We know that she’s fought her way back from essentially dying, she came very close, and she’s someone who has already fought her way back once. I think she’s aware from the very beginning, we know that she’s aware that she’s gonna have to fight again. We don’t know what that’s gonna be, but it does end up being, obviously, a much more physical fight than I think the previous time. So, for me, I really wanted to make sure that there was a strength to her. I didn’t want her to feel like a shrinking violet or just like a damsel in distress, because she really does need to carry a lot of the story. So, for me, I wanted there to be that strength, obviously, still tempered with someone who’s still suffering actively, and who’s still just working through a lot of grief.
When it came to building this dynamic with her co-star, Mark Famiglietti, Halverson recalls the scene in which she auditioned with was one of the first they had on set, with the duo having to craft this relationship “from scratch”, all while trying to make it “look like a real marriage”. Despite the short time, though, Halverson ultimately credits the isolated set to avoid COVID-19 exposure with helping the two build this rapport:
Courtney Halverson: So, Mark and I worked together initially in the film — actually, I think some of our first scenes together were the first scenes from the film. So, we were really building it from scratch, still trying to find a way to make this look like a real marriage, but two people that are almost, in some ways, living in their own opposite worlds. He really isn’t understanding that she’s still actively suffering, and she’s not understanding, necessarily, that he went through it too. When a couple goes through a serious illness like this, it does take its toll on all parties. There’s no separating that from the marriage, and I think, in a lot of ways, Mark’s character of Jay is trying to just move on, “Let’s move on. Let’s get past this.”
And it’s something where Beth really can’t, she’s really still stuck in it for a lot of reasons. So, Mark and I were working together, this was our first time working together. I think because it is such a limited cast, we really were able to get to know each other well and to really bring their relationship to life, that it’s not this perfect marriage. It’s really definitely two people that are struggling, that used to probably have a lot of life enjoying them, and it’s just been beaten out of them.
I think simply from the long days that we had together, because this was being filmed during COVID, we were pretty isolated, so it’s a case of you really can’t go out, you needed to be very safe about not being exposed at all, and just being safe with a very intimate cast like this. So, I think we got to spend a lot more time together than I’m used to.
There’s a lot of cases where you just start rolling on day one, and it’s a, “Hi, nice to meet you. Let’s go.” I think we had about a week and a half of rehearsal prior, where it was just the two of us really getting to work alongside Mitch, our director, and then Phil Flores, who make up The Butcher Brothers. So, we really got a little bit more time together than I expected.
He came into it similarly, I think his audition scene would have been the same as mine, and it was something where we both were immediately drawn in, and that was the scene that we were both so excited to shoot together. I think that was one of our first scenes together, and I’m really glad we got to do that one.
Halverson & Sawa Sought To Take Their Characters “As Far As We Could Beyond The Page”
While the movie may largely focus on Beth and Jay,Consumedalso puts the former in a unique position as she finds herself in a tenuous collaboration with Sawa’s character in the hopes of either escaping or killing the monster in the film. Halverson praised Sawa as being “a brilliant actor” and recalled inviting each other to “take the characters as far as we could beyond the page”:
Courtney Halverson: He’s a brilliant actor. I think everyone knows that it’s just amazing to get to see the breadth of his career and the variety that he’s done. He’s obviously been killing the game since he was a kid. I know that he’s just such a horror buff, and he’s been obviously so immersed in this world for so long. So, the second that I read the script, and the second that I found out that he was on board, it was like, “Absolutely I could not picture anyone else from that point on.”
He is an immensely talented actor. I think the two of us decided fairly early on that we were willing to take the characters as far as we could beyond the page. So, there’s a lot of scenes where we are quite physical with each other and, obviously, under the supervision of our stunts team, that was both of us just saying, “Let us do this. We trust each other, let’s take this as far as it can go, and let’s really make it feel like it’s two animals circling each other the whole time, just trying to figure the other one out.”
Halverson recalled a scene, in particular, in which she and Sawa’s characters get into a scuffle, with the script initially describing it as a brief conflict before moving ahead. The star explained that she and her co-star ultimately wanted more from the scene, with Sawa explaining that it would make sense there would be “a bit of a fightback” after her prior illness, though did ensure they were under the supervision of the stunt team while doing so:
Courtney Halverson: There’s a struggle with Devon and myself, where we’re fighting over something — I, again, don’t want to give anything away. That was one that actually was not in the script, I think, as it was written on the page. It was maybe two lines of, “Someone grabs something, and then the other person just gives up.” And both Devon and I — mostly Devon, I think, led this. He was like, “What if there’s an actual struggle here? Like, you’ve been pushed and pushed and pushed at this point, wouldn’t there be a bit of a fightback?” And I’m like, “Absolutely, let’s do this.”
So, that was just sort of us being able to really, unleash, like I said, these two animals that are circling each other. That was, to me, the two foxes or wolves, or whatever, just going at each other. That said, again, the stunt team is right there watching it and making sure we’re not doing anything too unsafe. But yeah, he’s a very giving actor, in that he was really willing to go there physically, and I was right there with him. So, I think that’s definitely one of my favorites from the film, and I hope it plays as well.
Halverson Stuck To The Script’s Version Of The Wendigo Rather Than Do Any External Research
After meeting Sawa’s character, Beth ultimately learns that the creature haunting them all isthat of the Wendigo, the Algonquin-based mythical creature, which presents itself as both an ominous fog and a large physical creature. Despite there being a wide variety of depictions of the ancient spirit on screen and plenty of real-world lore about it, Halverson ultimately stuck to Dave Calbert’s script to learn about the Wendigo, wanting to capture the same “element of surprise” as the audience:
Courtney Halverson: For me, I went more with what was on the page. So, what our writer, Dave Calbert, had written, I didn’t want to go too far into it, I think mostly because there’s a bit of an element of surprise. Even when we finally do see the creature, when Beth finally is faced with the creature, I wanted there to still be some element of unknown, because she really doesn’t know what it is that she’s dealing with. She’s just trying to get her husband and her out of this situation, so I did kind of want to go into it a little bit more blind in that sense.
That said, as soon as every sketch was coming out, or every little bit of the creature that I could see as it was starting to take shape, I was like, “Oh, what’s that like? What’s it going to be? What’s it going to look like? How’s it going to move?” All of those things. I think just because I’ve been in this industry since I was a kid, some of those practical effects, getting to see those brought to life is kind of rare.
It’s so much more fun to play opposite, too. I’ve obviously done my fair share of acting opposite like a tennis ball on a stick. But when you’re actually faced with something like this, it’s not only the horror of it, but it’s also the artistry that goes into it, all the sculpting and design and the character within the creature. So, yeah, I love practical effects, I’m glad you feel the same.
Consumed’s Forest Setting Became One Of Halverson’s Most Physical Roles Yet (But She Loved It)
In the midst of the movie’s emotional character drama and creature feature thrills,Consumedis very much a survival adventure in the forest, which led to it being a “very physical” experience for Halverson as she trekked through the woods for real. The star humorously admits, though, she was fully ready to “run through the woods” for her life after being trapped in doors due to the pandemic at the time:
Courtney Halverson: It is a very physical role. I think so much of it was easily lent to me just by the environment. We were really out in the woods. When you’re watching this, there’s no parking lot right there, we’re really either hiking in or, some days, being driven in by a little buggy. So, anytime we were out there, you’re really just in it, there’s nowhere to go, and you really just have to commit to it. There’s so many times where, like you said, I’m running, I’m dodging, jumping over things. A lot of that is thanks to having an incredible stunt coordinator, because I think otherwise, I would have tripped on day one, which I think I did on day two.
Something about being able to physically give myself to the character, I think, made it easier to just feel like I was inhabiting her. At that point, I had been stuck indoors for however long we had been, and I think I was just dying to get into the woods anyway, so I was happy to be running around for this one. [Chuckles] The second somebody was like, “Would you like to go run through the woods, running for your life?” I’m like, “Sounds great, I would love to go outside. Let’s go.” [Laughs]
UnfriendedRemains A “Brilliant [Idea]” To Halverson As Much As It Is A “Time Capsule” Of 10 Years Ago
One of Halverson’s biggest roles to date remains asVal in 2014’sUnfriended, Blumhouse’s horror film told entirely through a Skype call in which a group of teens is killed one by one by the spirit of a peer who committed suicide after being relentlessly cyberbullied. In reflecting on the experience for the film’s tenth anniversary, Halverson praises the movie as being “such a brilliant [idea]” that, even in spite of its age showing with some of its technology, it remains a timeless project:
Courtney Halverson: I think that movie is such a brilliant [idea], it was such a new concept, and it’s also such a time capsule if you watch it again. 10 years ago does feel like 10 years ago when you’re watching it, much less from the fact that the iPhones we’re holding are tiny little whatever generation iPhones we had. I think that film really struck a chord with a lot of people, not only because of the way that it’s presented — it’s obviously presented just as you and I are on a computer screen like this — but also because that film was shot in a really unique way, where a lot of it was run like a play.
We would do takes of the entire film almost all the way to the end. So, we would do about a two-hour take, and we were actually physically in a house together. That wasn’t a sound stage, that was someone’s house, so if you watch the film, everyone’s in a different bedroom or room. They ran out of rooms by the time they got to me, so they’re like, “She’s in the laundry room. We don’t know why, but she’s in the laundry room. It’s the only room left.” [Chuckles]
So yeah, we really did get to improvise quite a bit on that one and to really shoot it like a play. I think we, at the end of it, all the way through, had run the film like a play over 20 times, maybe 30 times. It was really a unique experience as an actor, and I think that comes across in the film. I think it’s really the way that teenagers talk, it’s the way they talk over each other, it’s the dynamic that they have that feels like a time capsule, but in some ways, very timeless too.
AboutConsumed
Trapped between a madman (Devon Sawa) seeking revenge and a skin-stealing monster, a married couple must find the strength to fight and make it out of the woods alive.
Stay tuned for our otherConsumedinterview with director Mitchell Altieri and producer Phil Flores!
Consumedis now in select theaters and on VOD.
Consumed
Cast
A woman struggling with a secret illness must find the strength to survive when a camping trip turns deadly, trapping her and her husband between a crazed killer and a skin-stealing monster.
