Fresh also repeats itself in the way it piles on another character searching for a missing person in its second half, though this also results in one of the movie's funnier moments right before its climax. There are some aspects of the story, such as the discovery that Steve has a wife and kids, that don't do much to add to the overall plot (except for a pretty funny moment in the final minutes). This may not be that surprising considering there were similar problems in another recent McKay project ( Don't Look Up), but it still keeps the script from being as cutting and incisive as it could be. However, some of these metaphors and observations can sometimes feel somewhat obvious, and come across as just a bit too on-the-nose. When Noa's best friend Mollie decides to investigate her whereabouts, she makes sure to share her location with a former boyfriend, just in case. Lauryn Kahn's script is packed with sharp critiques about how cruel the world can be, and how women have to keep their personal safety and security at the forefront of their minds in so many situations. A repeated motif of people eating, extreme closeups showing the food going into their mouths, just amplifies the unease, whether it's a burger or pâté made from human liver. Fresh also does an excellent job in skewering food movies and their elongated shots of cooking and elaborate dishes. Instead, its horror comes more from the situation that Noa (as well as the other women Steve has captured) find themselves in. Though it is firmly in the horror genre, Fresh is not loaded up with jump scares or an overbearing sense of dread. The funnier moments tend to land pretty well, and they feel organic, even during some of the more grotesque moments.Ĭave does an excellent job in balancing these two tones, which can often be hard to pull off. Despite being produced by none other than Adam McKay, the man behind movies like Anchorman and Step Brothers, Fresh is not what one might call joke-filled. There are moments of intense violence, saved mostly for the end, but mostly the film sticks to showing the aftermath of Steve's work, which is still brutal and horrific, but not quite as splattery as other horror movies with a similar inclination toward cannibalism. Though the subject matter of Fresh is squirm-inducing, it does handle its humor and tone fairly well. Steve clearly enjoys what he does, and he is good at it, but the fact that his guy is the villain of the story never gets lost or bogged down in all of the fun he is having. The imagery of Steve butchering human body parts accompanied by 80s pop-rock is particularly disturbing, even if Stan's performance is still very endearing (though he's a long way from his Winter Soldier heroics, it's a solid reminder that his Marvel character started life as a charming soldier and eventually became a ruthless killer). This is where the movie most clearly practices its tendency toward juxtaposition. Once Fresh barrels into its second act, the horrific implications of Noa's predicament are made clear. Yet with Steve, she is able to let her guard down, but this is ultimately what lands her shackled in a cell in Steve's house, where he tells her exactly what he plans to do with her: "I'm going to sell your meat." Noa is the kind of person who lets her best friend know where she is and who she is with before a date, who walks a little bit faster when she notices a man walking behind her. This is where the trouble begins.įresh, like many other elevated horror movies, derives its story and its terror from real-life anxieties. All of those qualities are what help him get Noa to agree to a weekend away. Steve, played by Sebastian Stan, is charming, easygoing, funny, and accomplished. Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Noa, a young woman who is stuck in a rut of online dating before meeting the (seemingly) perfect guy outside of the online realm. The film is anchored by its two stars, whose chemistry is apparent right from their meet-cute in the produce section of a grocery store. RELATED: Why So Many Comedians Are Making Horror Movies The fact that the title card and opening credits are held back until almost 30 minutes into the film almost seems to signal that intent: what the audience has been experiencing in the first act is not at all what this film is about, and things are about to get far more horrifying. The answer that Fresh provides is "a whole lot," as the horror-satire moves from something akin to a romantic indie comedy-drama into full-fledged horror. Mimi Cave's first feature film dives right into the most unsettling aspects of being single from its opening minutes, using a particularly bad date as a jumping-off point, as if tempting the audience to ask, "what could be worse than this?" It can also be nerve-wracking, especially for women. Dating can be incredibly complicated, frustrating, and, as Fresh demonstrates in its opening scene, tedious.
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