With Sebastian Stan attracting awards buzz for The Apprentice and A Different Man, it looks like an applicable time to revisit Fresh, which for my cash, is among the most warped and fascinating horror comedies of current years. However, it is a film that’s arduous to debate with out giving one thing essential away, so earlier than studying any additional – and in case you’ll pardon the pun – it’s possible you’ll first favor to go and expertise it recent.
After a date from hell, Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is near giving up on connecting with any regular human being. But an opportunity encounter in a grocery store leads her to fulfill eligible physician Steve (Stan). The pair hit it off instantly and their burgeoning relationship strikes quick. Within a few weeks Steve invitations Noa for a shock weekend away; it’s virtually as if he’s too good to be true. And after all, he’s.
It seems this is the worst date of Noa’s life as a result of Steve is a cannibal and excessive finish butcher, offering boutique meat supply to the “1% of the 1%”. To that finish, he medicine and kidnaps Noa, imprisoning her in his basement.
From the outset, we’re led to imagine Fresh is a romantic comedy and director Mimi Cave makes us suppose we’re treading enjoyable however predictable floor, earlier than deftly manoeuvring us to an altogether darker place. It’s not that the clues aren’t there. Noa’s greatest buddy Mollie (Jojo T Gibbs), the voice of cause all through, voices concern about Steve a number of occasions. But we’re cleverly invited to miss it, simply as Noa does.
Noa thinks Steve is regular and effectively adjusted, a person who won’t inform her to decorate nicer or smile extra, however she quickly discovers she was mistaken on each stage. As she understandably begins to freak out at her predicament, Steve tells Noa to “cease being so dramatic.” Even whereas chained up within the basement of a serial killer’s home, she will’t escape the diminishing and patronising opinions of males.
As Steve, Stan is in nice kind. He is humorous and charming, however capable of flip ice chilly immediately. Edgar-Jones is sympathetic as Noa, whose lapses in judgement solely appear poor with the advantage of hindsight. Their chemistry makes Fresh an uncomfortable watch, but additionally fairly a humorous one. Particularly when Steve is dancing round his kitchen whereas tenderising meat sliced from a human leg, singing alongside to 80s hits throughout surgical procedure, or when the pair make grim cannibal puns over dinner.
But Fresh is actually unsettling, particularly when the main points of Steve’s work are revealed. Every bundle of cannibal delicacies that will get despatched out is accompanied by a photograph and souvenirs of the sufferer, like a demented Happy Meal. It can be a superb satire on meat consumption, which could ruffle some feathers amongst carnivores; the movie invitations us to view meat preparation as a grotesque and visceral follow. We get photographs of meat grinders and slicers at work, and excessive closeups of unknown mouths sloppily chewing and slurping on miscellaneous flesh. It turns one thing mundane and seemingly unremarkable right into a gleefully nasty spectacle, and makes Fresh a considerate counterpoint to the cannibal style, which traditionally has been notoriously merciless to animals.
While Fresh was rightfully acclaimed on launch, it could be a disgrace if it have been forgotten within the fixed deluge of latest streaming content material, as a result of horror comedy is a tough factor to steadiness. But Fresh stands out as a result of it approaches its horrors of contemporary courting with a morbid sense of humour and an urge for food for the unpredictable.
Fresh is on the market to stream on Disney+ in Australia and the UK and on Hulu within the US. For extra suggestions of what to stream in Australia, click on right here
