Fresh to Death
This Post contains spoilers to Fresh
What has become such a refreshing trend in horror films now a days are the multitude of perspectives that we see in our story telling. The camp, the exploitation, and yes even the “dirty old men” are still out there, but there has been a shifting of the tides in the last fifteen or so years. Let me tell you I am here for all of it, especially when the story involves women literally taking the power back and beating the ever-living shit out of their abusers. Don’t we all just want to take a wine bottle to the head of those skeezy men that make our skin crawl? Fresh is (pun intended) a fresh take on the revenge horror sub-genre, pulling inspiration from the likes of I Spit On Your Grave and others in that cannon. Written by Lauryn Kahn and directed by Mimi Cave, Fresh is the story of Noa (Daisy Edgar Jones) a young women who is tired of meeting dud after dud on dating apps but who genuinely wants to meet a partner in life to share in happiness with. Despite the dating concept in this film, I never felt like this was her only quest and the prospect of finding a decent man felt genuine. I’ve been there before. At the end of the day some people do just want someone who they can relish in happiness with. After meeting Steve (Sebastian Stan) in the grocery store and falling for him hard, things start to take a turn for the serious. When Steve suggests that after only a few weeks they take a weekend getaway together she is hesitant at first but wants to jump in and “say yes”. After a spiked glass of wine and a cold opening that takes up the first 30 minutes of the movie, Noa awakes chained to the wall in a cell-like room, unaware of how she’s gotten there. Steve explains that she, like a few other women held captive, are being held so that pieces of their body can be sold on the black market to men who like the taste of human flesh. A twist on a classic cannibal story, what Fresh costume designers Christina Flannery and Athena Theny, do so well is to create a visual feast for the eyes. As the story is being established close in shots of mouths blissfully enjoying food, savoring each bite are shown as a foreshadowing to the films plot. The textures of the clothing start out disarmed and warm, meant to throw us off and make us believe that Steve is not like the others, not truly knowing where the story is going to turn. Noa is 28, young, an artist, and has a unique style that is comfortable yet pronounced to the woman that she knows she is. There is nothing to indicate that she is unaware of herself, so within her quest to find a companion we know that this isn’t to fill a void within herself. She is put together, matching colors and patterns, with the right texture and the correct amount of accessories. Steve is well dress throughout, a hinting to his Patrick Bateman style complex of perfection. He is a surgeon, perfectionist and obsessed with the human form. Throughout the first half of the film, he is presented in warm knits, and layers that reflect the Pacific Northwest coziness. This allows him to draw in his victims and disarm them. He is a grown man with a job and the ideal prospects that any female mate would look for in a male. When we are treated to his house and the real story sets in, the midcentury modern designs complete the person before us. His modular home is set back in the woods and make it ideal to preform his evils where no one can find him. The exposed cement and brick are cold and feel hollow. The paintings on the wall are more akin to a museum not much a home. But we can see how highly he regards his tastes by displaying this higher society lifestyle within every aspect of his life. From this moment forward his presentation becomes colder, starched suits, and cooler tones make his overall appearance feel very clinical. Even the tones within his family, whom we later find out his wife was a former victim, almost seem to perfect. As if they were a family that come stock with the frames when you purchase them from the store.
When Noa becomes privy to his plans and begins to play the game so that she might plan her escape, she is gifted a pink silk dress to wear to dinner. This dress was so perfectly placed at the climax of the story. The sheen of the silk and the shade of pink allow her to look like a cut of meat. Pink like flesh. The bow adds a level of innocence, as meat industries like to kill their animals young, not allowing them to live their full lives. This also plays into the profession of plastic surgery which is what Steve does. The idea of vanity and perfection that truly cannot be achieved by any human no matter how much work you have done. However, the piece that allows us to know that she is our protagonist are the dirty converse she wears with the dress. As she doesn’t have any other shoes. Steve could have bought her shoes, but he too was mesmerized by her and thought that she wanted his companionship. He saw in her a woman that was interested in the life he lived, because no other victim has ever dined with him. Those shoes are the piece of herself that she held onto, her last fight.
When we descend into chaos in the final act, we see this pristine dress become weathered and worn as she fights and claws for her and the other hostage’s freedom. I was audibly yelling at the screen and cheering these women on. Not since Midsommar have I been so enthralled by a film and felt so satisfied with the reciprocity that our villain faced (literally because he took several blows to the face). By watching the bruises form the perfectionism vanished from him. He was no longer this Adonis, this man in the painting, perfectly preserved for all to see. We saw him for who he truly was, ugly and a brute.
I was truly impressed by the seamlessness with which camera, costumes, and production designed blended. It was a visual masterpiece, weighted with symbolism that was so smartly weaved throughout the foreground and background of the story. These are stories I want to see, and I cannot wait for the wave of filmmakers who are inspired by this to go out and tell their stories. To knock these men down a peg and dismantle the patriarchy one butcher knife at a time.
