The Horror Show
Raw
by Julia Ducournau
The French have really earned my respect in the world of horror. From Frontier(s) to Haute Tension, so many pieces of extreme cinema have delighted my bloodthirsty eyeballs from this particular country. This was one of the reasons I was looking forward to checking out Raw along with initial responses that made the film sound like it was shocking and authentic. So, I watched it. Did it stack up to my expectations? Unfortunately, while it's not necessarily a bad film, my ultimate answer is no.
Raw follows Justine (Garance Marillier), a young woman just entering veterinary school. Her sister is also in attendance, but that doesn't save her from the abusive initiation process that dominates the institution. Justine is also a firm vegetarian, something her parents share and embedded into her. During an initiation ritual, Justine is pressured into eating a rabbit kidney and from that point on she begins craving meat in all forms, which spirals out of control.
The plot sounds straight-forward, but a lot of the film is just stuff happening, people responding oddly to said stuff, and then the movie remembering it had a plot and getting back to it. I can't say I felt much of anything as it had a bunch of moving parts that just didn't jive with each other. There are moments where I felt for the main character, but in retrospect it had more to do with how awful they made everyone else as opposed to actually making an intriguing protagonist.
There were definitely moments I liked where the music, images, and mood worked together. This was not the case for the most part, however, and a lot of scenes just made me feel like the movie was making itself up as it went along. I'm trying not to sound too harsh because there's definitely things to like about it, but a whole lot of randomness happens that I didn't feel served the story. Some of my favorite movies are slow burns. When done correctly, a slow burn film is never boring. Instead, an atmosphere builds that makes the payoff that much more powerful. This one, however, could have got moving a little faster than it did. I get why they had to ease into the cannibalism element, but way too much time is spent with Justine just having a bad experience in vet school.
One of my concerns was that the film was going to be preachy and while I won't call it that, there are moments that made me wonder. At the end of the day, the story deals with a girl who tries to stick to her vegetarian values but turns murderous after meat-eaters pressure her. While her vegetarianism is certainly a way to introduce the meat obsession into the story and it does come full circle in the end, it never feels completely devoid of a message. So much emphasis is put on others accusing Justine of thinking she's better than everyone else (admittedly for reasons other than her dietary beliefs) and making the world she lives in specifically awful and aggressive towards her. This would be fine if that was simply the plot; a girl having trouble fitting in. The turn towards meat-induced insanity, however, seems like more than a simple plot device in this regard.
At times, I got the feeling that the film was drawing inspiration from one of my all-time favorite films Ginger Snaps. I love the Ginger Snaps series so much but where GN wonderfully blends its werewolf elements into the overall metaphor for puberty, Raw never quite reaches such a smooth allegory. Instead, it just tosses the girl's insatiable hunger in with a bunch of other stuff going on and I honestly feel like an additional draft of the script would have been a good idea.
I truly don't want to come across as overly negative. Raw is well-acted, well shot, and has an interesting concept. However, what could have been a fantastic little coming of age drama horror film that uses cannibalism to represent a young girl stepping out in the world ends up feeling like a heavy-handed art piece that tries to toss in horror elements that don't really mesh. It's an ambitious concept and done right could have been spectacular. I can't say enough how much I want to see more drama/horror films that deal with younger characters. There are so many honest, wonderful things you can do and say with such works, but this one unfortunately didn't quite do it for me. It's a difficult thing to pull off so I'm not sticking my nose up at its issues, I just feel it ultimately missed the mark.
In the end, Raw had its moments but I don't at all understand the praise and shocked reaction it's garnered. If anything, it came across as a relatively forgettable film to me. It's bland quite often and doesn't make the more emotional moments work for itself. I may be a gore hound, but I love all sorts of different horror films and they all work for different reasons. If a film's not going to bring the gore, it should at least be interesting, emotionally authentic, at least something. A film can be as grounded or wacky as it wants, but at least make me believe that the project itself knows what it is.
PJ Griffin, HMS
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