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Horror october #22
Oct. 22nd, 2017 09:13 pmJustine, a shy 16-year-old girl raised as a vegetarian, goes off to veterinarian school to join the family business. But the school turns out to be a den of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll where the hazing of the new students is brutal and includes, among other things, eating a raw rabbit's kidney. "It's just food poisoning", says the nurse when she starts feeling strange. But that doesn't explain why she suddenly can't stop thinking about meat. Raw meat. And animals just don't seem to be enough...
Raw got quite a buzz when it showed on festivals last year; reports of people fainting, throwing up, walking out in disgust. And yes, it is - like many a French movie in recent years - exceptionally bloody at points. I don't want to say exceptionally violent, but at the same time I do, because even though there are relatively few scenes of actual acts of violence, the whole plot of Justine trying to adapt to a brand-new world and brand-new desires feels psychologically violent, there are no safe places anywhere including her own mind anymore. And at the same time I love that it doesn't play it for the usual horror beats; both the photo and the plot play out more as a regular, if disturbing, coming-of-age story about sex, family and friendship, where the protagonist just happens to crave human flesh. Not for everyone, but I kinda loved it.
Raw got quite a buzz when it showed on festivals last year; reports of people fainting, throwing up, walking out in disgust. And yes, it is - like many a French movie in recent years - exceptionally bloody at points. I don't want to say exceptionally violent, but at the same time I do, because even though there are relatively few scenes of actual acts of violence, the whole plot of Justine trying to adapt to a brand-new world and brand-new desires feels psychologically violent, there are no safe places anywhere including her own mind anymore. And at the same time I love that it doesn't play it for the usual horror beats; both the photo and the plot play out more as a regular, if disturbing, coming-of-age story about sex, family and friendship, where the protagonist just happens to crave human flesh. Not for everyone, but I kinda loved it.
