Thursday, October 26, 2017

Jacob's 31 Day Halloween Movie Challenge - Day 5


Day 5: Raw

The first movie of this century on the list, and the first written and directed by a woman, when I heard Edgar Wright recommend this movie I knew I had to check it out. 

It's certainly not what I expected, as all I knew about it was that it was about a vegetarian who becomes a cannibal. Taking place in a veterinary university, what made me far more uncomfortable than the cannibalism was the fratty, highly aggressive atmosphere and the bizarre hazing rituals (including tossing the first years' beds out the window every day) that take place at this school. 

This is an incredibly confident feature film debut by French writer/director Julia Ducournau, who certainly knows a thing or two about making an audience squirm (supposedly at some film festivals there were people rushing out of the theater to throw up). The performances are great, and are especially impressive considering how young the actors are, with the lead being just 18 years old. 

My only real issue with the movie was some confusion with a love triangle that starts to develop around halfway through the movie, and by "develop" I mean it's mentioned once or twice and suddenly leads to major consequences that don't quite feel earned. 

What really makes the film is the relationship between the lead character and her sister, which has its ups and downs to say the least. 

This is a stressful, gory movie that's great for a college horror night, as well as any horror fan.

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