The film took a hammer to knock down the fantasy of meeting strangers and falling in love. Satire, cannibalism, organ trafficking, and horror – Fresh incorporates it all, giving rise to a disturbing yet compelling watch.
Romance is dead- it is about time we acknowledge the sentiment. Even if not, at least we should get a fix on the blurred line between the real emotion behind love and what the silver screen fed us all along. For example, let’s look at modern dating. Today’s people significantly rely on Tinder or Bumble to find their beloved, but do women always get the knight in shining armor? Not according to the new satirical-gory-thriller – Fresh. Starring Sebastian Stan and Daisy Edgar Jones, the film depicts the anxiety and dread surrounding romance.
The culture of modern dating sped up the tradition of meeting strangers in an attempt to stir love affairs. In contrast to the bold and exciting side of contemporary dating, Fresh nudges at the dark side of the notion. This Hulu thriller tells the story of Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones), who believes she has found the man of her dreams in Steve (Sebastian Stan), whom she meets at a local grocery store. Soon, she learns about Steve’s cruel intentions. In practice, Steve is a woman-eater who preys upon reclusive women. He makes them fall in love with his handsome smile and cheesy flirt attempts. Beneath the sweet guy with a questionable-penchant-for-80s-music façade, Steve is a part of organ trafficking network for which he captures women, keeping them alive as long as possible and provide their flesh to the demanding consumers (mostly wealthy men).
The film opens with Noa meeting an insensitive guy on a date whose name is Chad (ironically). With what seems like borderline narcissistic disorder and internalized misogynistic issues, the guy revels in one-sided conversation and snotty remarks on Noa’s unfeminine sweater. Later, when Noa tells Chad that they are not a good match, the guy immediately chastises her, calling her a ‘stuck-up bitch’.
From the beginning, the movie had ominous signs.
The sleeping crab in a tank, the rhythmic chopping sound of sharp knives, and hanging pork meat in the restaurant kitchen were subtle suggestions of something sinister ahead. It is not long enough before a disappointed Noa meets Steve at a grocery store. On their first date, while sipping in her Manhattan and munching on her spare cherries, Noa genuinely laughs at Steve’s jokes. The brilliant camera coordination, which occasionally portrays close-ups, doesn’t go unnoticed either. The flash of a toothy smile and the wrinkle around the eyes are symbolic of the chemistry, homologous to their attraction.
The predator love-bombs his way into the heart of the doe-eyed graphic designer. The tip-off seemed trivial when Steve claimed that he had no social media presence. It did not mean that Steve is in the same stratosphere as serial killers, but if only Noa knew that the man has an appetite for human meat. Funny enough, while hanging out in Noa’s cozy apartment, Steve pretends to be a vegetarian. Noa’s wary friend, Mollie (Jojo T. Hibbs), did not buy the sweet act Steve was trying to put on. But Noa was already knee-deep with fascination, so she waived Mollie’s judgment. Things escalated alarmingly fast when just two hangouts later, Noa was ready to run off the sunset to a weekend getaway with Steve.
No Wi-Fi, zero cell phone signals were like the sound of the howling wind, but Noa lying unconscious after having the spiked drink was the gut in the punch for the viewers. As if to rub salt in the newly obtained wound, the opening credits for the movie finally appears 30 minutes later as a leg-pull. The eerie music and Hitchcock-y essence of the opening credits give the audience time to settle in. After that, it is one erratic event after another. Steve finally blows the gaff of selling her meat, and Noa temporarily loses it. But as a captive, she decides to have the upper hand by feigning to suffer in Stockholm syndrome and winning Steve’s trust.
Noa gathers her vengeful spirit to bring down Steve’s guards and to gain his trust enough to break free. One of the mind-altering scenes was when Steve presented Fettucine pasta topped with a single meatball; no doubt the piece of meat was part of a woman. It is almost convincing to see Noa becoming docile and sympathizing with Steve for becoming his gnarly self. But her strong will and perseverance eventually win over Steve’s ploy to inhabit in cannibalism together.
Both Daisy and Sebastian did a stellar job of performing whatever the script wanted them to do.
Steve’s fleshy errands will certainly make viewers squeamish. Yet the body horror does not seem ceaseless in blend with the black comedy. Fresh threw the genre coordination out of the window and did a stellar job by flipping and mismatching comedy, horror, and romance.