Fresh
Being a fan of In My Skin, Martyrs, Hellraiser, Saw, Videodrome, intensified my interest in Fresh because body horror movies aren’t released often. Especially for one of the production companies to be Searchlight Pictures. They are known for putting out prestige Oscar worthy content, which heightened my expectations for Fresh. Unfortunately, it is an underwhelming movie that drags.
Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones), is burned out on the dating scene. Tired of the apps, horrible dates, filtering through all of the bullshit, and just wants to give up. Till she meets Steven (Sebastian Stan) while shopping for groceries. Steven is the complete package: a plastic surgeon resident, handsome, with a charming personality. The two instantly hit it off and start dating one another. Steven invites Noa on a trip outside of the city. Unable to drive due to traffic reasons Noa comes over to his house for the first time. Scheduled to leave the next morning for their vacation. But, as Noa wakes she finds one of her legs chained to a wall in the bowels of the house inside a cell. Either she fights for her life to survive or will be gradually hacked to pieces with her meat being sold to the mega rich 1% exclusive buyers.
During the date scenes the main dialogue is filler with no depth. Some of it serves a purpose for plot and character motivation, but at the expense of having two adults talk and connect on a deeper level. If that dialogue revolved around meaningful conversations Steven’s transition would’ve been more horrific because we as an audience would have been invested in his character. Still, we connect with Noa and her dating struggles. The pacing in the beginning is great and flows very nicely, and there is a natural chemistry between Noa and Steven that is believable.
But once she wakes up chained to the wall everything falls apart and I wish I would have skipped through the second half to the end. The pacing completely slows down to the point of frustration. Dragging through scenes that are trying desperately to speak to abusive relationships and power dynamics but doesn’t say anything new on the topic.
Noa develops a friendship with another victim in the cell next to hers, Penny (Andrea Bang). Even though we only hear Penny’s voice the vocal performance ruined the intensity and the believability of the torture happening to these women who we don’t see but hear about. There was no pain, loss, devastation in Penny’s voice. It is delivered in such a carefree airy way like she is at the mall. This took me out of the film.
Unlike other body horror films where the production design is raw, dirty, and cold, Fresh explores a comfortable and aesthetically pleasing cell. Due to this specific intentional contrast to the violence alluded and depicted creates a necessity for performances that have to go even further. The nature of the material demands this as well. Both Daisy and Sebastian needed to take even more risks. Despite this they delivered powerful moments, and I look forward to seeing more of their upcoming work.
The cinematography by Pawel Pogorzelski along with Jennifer Morden’s production design spoke to the violence and power dynamics in a fresh way that elevated the film.
Fresh is streaming on Hulu.