Fresh (2022) - A cannibal horror-comedy film review

Dating your 20's is already hard enough but imagine after a horrible first date, you just want to get some groceries and some guy starts talking to you about grapes and that guy turns out to be Sebastian Stan. Welcome to the horror-thriller-comedy Fresh directed by Mimi Cave and available now on Hulu. As a single woman in my 20's actively out and about trying to date, this film actually kind of scared me. Meeting up with anyone for a first date is terrifying enough but with the added possibility of the guy kidnapping me, drugging me, and then showing me his cannibalism business, yeah I don't really want to meet anyone anymore.

This film is Mimi Cave's directorial debut and its a great film to start a filmography with a great cast including Sebastian Stan, Daisy Edgar-Jones, and Andrea Bang, and standout iconic performances that led to a micro-trend on tiktok with a dance accompanying it. It's a pretty solid film and a good watch if you like romcoms or thriller-horror mix stories. I also say it's a comedy because there are a few elements that are supposed to be more comedic and dark-comedy-esque. There are very few jokes that are cringey but there's one early on in the film that makes me cringe a bit but I can forgive it for the rest of the humor is pretty good in the film.

I love Daisy Edgar-Jones' performance in this film and I'll be honest, usually I can't stand her but this film and Where the Crawdads Sing are some of her best performances ever! She makes believable choices that as a viewer watching a horror movie and knowing what it is you'd be like "Why would you do that?" but if I put myself in her shoes I know I would probably do the same thing or something similar because you never think this stuff is going to happen to you and I'd honestly react in a very similar way to Daisy's character Noa. Sebastian Stan can always play the charming but really freaking dangerous guy and absolutely crush it. This film is no different as he plays Steve who's a charming guy luring women to his huge house in the middle of nowhere to use their meat to sell to the Uber rich and wealthy and it's interesting because Steve has some sort of conflict inside him. He actually likes Noa and might even love her but he lured her in to use her meat and sell it so we see him struggle with doing what he thinks he needs to do (sell Noa's meat) but also he kind of likes this girl he has chained up in his basement. Oh and Steve has a few other girls in his basement that he's harvesting their body parts and selling them so we get some prisoner rebellion kind of escape plans that are crazy and shouldn't work but end up actually working because the main female lead is actually smart and resourceful and well written.

This film portrays women as instinctual and resourceful and is pretty accurate to what any woman would do in any situation like this and honestly these are the best female characters I've seen in a horror/thriller in a long time! They make sense and as a woman in a similar age bracket and situation, I can see myself acting the way they do to escape, to fight for their lives, their thought patterns like everything is realistic and I love that! I can see how Noa fell in love with Steve at the beginning, they both seemed genuinely in love and ready to go on a trip together and even though I knew Steve was gonna be the cannibal from the second the movie started, I still felt sad and betrayed when he drugged Noa and then the whole cannibal thing started kicking off but that kind of relationship felt genuine even though it was a brief part of the movie and was just the setup for other events more critical to the film's plot. Steve genuinely seemed to love Noa and I think he did throughout the whole film which is why he only took a very small part of her meat and left her alive for as long as he did. He's a very humanized cannibal and I can appreciate that character development since it makes him seem a bit more relatable and complex even though he's a cannibalistic douche-bag.

Ok a very short spoilers section below so scroll at your own risk...

Searchlight Pictures and Hulu poster for Fresh (2022)

When Noa decided to flirt and play along with Steve in order to escape I thought that was so clever and well-executed. She didn't go directly for a sexual flirty distraction but rather just showing interest (albeit fake) in his business and cooking, agreeing to dinner and then playing along until the time came when she um, bit his, thing. That was the most comedic part of this film in my opinion. It was effective yes, but I probably wouldn't go for that area and maybe the throat or something but in the moment I guess it worked out since she was able to get the keys while Steve was being a little baby crying on the floor about his little man issues.

Noa then tried to escape and then Steve's real wife shows up (yeah Steve is a cheater and liar) and tries to kill Noa and earlier on we see that Steve's wife Anna actually has no leg which to the viewer means she may once have been in the same situation as Noa. Noa's besties Penny and Mollie show up and save her and then one of Mollie's ex-hookups, Paul, is driving by trying to find them and then picks them up and happy ending. Steve gets shot in the forest though and dies half naked which is kinda funny.

Overall, I give Fresh a very solid 8/10