Movie Review: Fresh (2022)

I love films with Satan in them. The more creative and inventive the approach to presenting the QAnonish (or as I love to call them “CuckooAnonish”) ideas that are vibrant with satanic panic, the more I would love the film. Rosemary’s Baby, The Blood on Satan’s Claw, Satan’s School for Girls et al; there can never be enough panic and conspiracy involving the great antagonist of Abrahamic religions.

Fresh – a cute mix of horror, thriller and comedy, released earlier this year on Hulu – ticks both, the creative and inventive boxes in my books when it comes to satanic panic; in this movie the dark lord appears in a form of a plate design, the meaning of which is boosted by something that was a thing during the late Renaissance, and a while afterwards among the monarchs and aristocracy in Europe, namely, consumption of what is known as human. Literally and physically. The difference from the well known cases in history being that the whole affair has nothing to do with medicinal purposes – in Fresh it's all a 21st Century industry. What a theme to work with when making a feature film directoral debut...

The dark conspiracy theme however is a relatively minor undercurrent in Fresh. The movie, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones as Noa and Sebastian Stan as Steve, deals more with “girl meets a guy” case and as such impressed me right off the bat with its opening scene set in a restaurant. As the intro titles appeared only half an hour after the film started, I didn’t know who the cast, director and writer was, but the aforementioned scene did look like it had been written by a woman who knows a thing or two about going on disappointing dates with men. In other words, a very non standard scenario, and yet realistic enough to get my instant like. There is also something else besides the writing, that makes one admire Fresh right from the beginning – the film is easy on the eye in every sense of the expression. The writer, the director and production designer – they have all managed to achieve a great level of consonance among themselves in this project. And they are all of the fair sex: Mimi Cave – director, Lauryn Kahn – writer, Jennifer Morden – production designer. The taste and the sense of mood + pace and aesthetics in different situations, starting from interior design to lights, to details such as how hair color melds with a piece of clothing; none of that goes unnoticed.

_{Sebastian Stan and Daisy Edgar-Jones in Fresh movie. Source}

Lauryn Kahn has settled for a Ted Bundy type of character when it comes to the male lead role in Fresh: Sebastian Stan is chatting up, smiling, pursuing and dancing like that exciting date a girl could not say “no” to. And Daisy Edgar-Jones’s character is made an example of – Noa is that poor stupid girl to whom bad things happen because she doesn’t say “no” when a situation calls for it. More than once. All in all a decent cautionary tale, which develops into a story different from standard scenarios dealing with kidnapping. Which is the reason why this little review is being written.

The finale however was disappointing. Almost like something written in a hurry and having quite the opposite level of realism to it than what it all was at the beginning. I mean, why weaken your antagonist with a stupid level of trust? Cannibalism will always belong to horror genre, which is to say that one of the themes is already horror; why not just say “f.ck it, I’m gonna plunge and indulge,” and make it all as evil and complicated as possible? The horizons behind the last circle of hell is the limit.

Peer Ynt

_{**** Fresh can be streamed on Starz via Disney+}

_{**** Read my thoughts on the three initial episodes of Pam & Tommy series, released earlier this year on Disney+ and starring Sebastian Stan among others here.}

_{**** Read my review of The Weekend Away here, a movie released on Netflix earlier this year about which I wrote the following:
"The reason why I feel like I’ve been lucky to watch this film is because it’s practically built upon a rebellious premise that every known mystery thriller trope that involves looking for missing person should be twisted, and every expected expectation should be proven futile."}