Mimi Cave poetically brings a timeless social commentary to life in this unnerving thriller Fresh(2022). The film plays on the known aspect of the dating landscape and elevates it to a crazy level, mystically combining romance, terror, and black comedy. Written by Lauryn Kahn, Fresh takes a sinister turn as it reminds us of the potential dangers of online dating going back to last week’s first released trailer for Fresh (below is everything we know about them so far) | ComingSoon.net.
Fresh is a standout horror movie of 2022, featuring great performances from its film leads Daisy Edgar-Jones & Sebastian Stan to spin an anxious and gross story that you can’t look away from. Boasting a fresh storyline and compelling performances, Fresh is a uniquely chilling entry in the slasher genre.
Plot Summary: Dark Romantic Trot
Fresh is centered around a young woman named Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) who is pissed off at what modern dating has become. After a string of botched app dates, Noa runs into Steve (Sebastian Stan) in the grocery store. Steve is dangerously sexy, if charming and darkly attractive, perhaps a little too normal for someone who spends sleepless nights rewriting the course of history only to realize he still lives with his mother. They click and Noa is feeling positive about her future with Erev. Steve asks her for a weekend away and despite herself, Noa goes along.
But after reaching their remote location, events take a sinister and monstrous turn. Noa wakes to find the man she married is not quite who he seemed. When in reality, Steve is keeping a dark secret — he is actually a cannibal preying upon the women who fall for his charms.
With only her intelligence to aid her, Noa plays the rounds for time as Steve’s world wide open and discovers tanks she was never meant to see. What ensues is a game of cat and mouse with dread, psychological horror and twist after twist.
Subjects: Satire, Dating & All your SOCIALS
The series ventures into the shallow and sometimes treacherous waters of dating in a digital age, addressing doubts, fears, and unknowns associated with putting your trust in strangers. The movie is a bleak satire about how in the age of online dating, love can feel transactional, alien, and carnivorous. It delves deeper into loneliness, and those places of vulnerability, especially if you are a woman and crossing the vast world of digital touch.
Ultimately, Fresh is a horror film that doubles as a scathing social critique of this era in dating culture where everything —even you— has to be perfectly branded. Steve’s cannibal business is a nightmarish extension of the concept that dating can dehumanize to the point where people are turned into only physical items for consumption. The dichotomy of this—both the ultimate boyfriend material on the outside but that soon exposed to harbor a beast beneath, is symbolicof what we can sometimes see as dual sides to people online.
At its core, Fresh exploits the fears of unknowability when people begin to know one another for whatever reasons they may trade access to their deeper intentions behind beguiling fronts.
Standout Actors Performances: The Leads Make the Horror Real
Normal People star Daisy Edgar-Jones excels as Noa Swiftly setting the emotionalstage of a woman who starts out idealistic and bright, only to harden like an iron bar when shattered by unprecedented cruelty. Edgar-Jones is both believable and a revelation at once in her portrayal of Noa, as she struggles through the initial chaos between Steve and herself and the seduction from him later on.
Daniel’s Steve, on the other hand, is shivering in his shoes – and not in a good way: Sebastian Stan. Despite seeing his way through the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Stan goes a bit darker in Fresh — as much of a charmer as he is, he’s also pretty frightening. His portrayal is chilling as he effortlessly goes from soft spoken boyfriend to calculated killer. Stan is perhaps the standout of nearly all horror film baddies nowadays with his version of Steve.
A major part of this comes from the chemistry between Edgar-Jones and Stan, which is rightfully front and center in Fresh. From its playful and romantic beginnings their dynamic spirals into twisted power plays and the audience is kept in a permanent state of uneasy tension as they watch Noa fight for her life.
This film is a dark stylish thriller. Direction & Cinematography
One such debut is with Fresh, an interesting era in horror presented under fresh eyes of director Mimi Cave. Her visual style is also pristine and contemporary, emphasizing the horror of what happens as she worked it in further through her sharp cinematography, setting up a perfect counterbalance to the sweetness of this film’s romance early moments. Cave masterfully creates suspense in every scene, compelling us to feel trapped inside Noa’s horror.
The two distinct halves of Skincrawl are marked by Cave’s use of colour; the bright, vibrant romantic shadings of Noa and Steve’s early encounters bled out in the second half to give way to a brighter, more sterile colorisation for Steve-the-maniacal-doctor. The cinematography by Pawel Pogorzelski is especially nice to look at, with stunning framing that supports the unsettling mood.
Fresh not only has a beautifully distinct visual style, but the sound design and score meticulously helps to build an effective atmosphere of were on the edge of your seat terror. Both of these things are apparent in the score by Alex Somers, that unique tension nesting in the back of your brain as you watch on. Delicate moments such as these, of quiet waiting fearful anticipation, are given another layer thanks to the soundtrack- like for when Steve waits in his own private macabre lair, or most other times during Truth Or Dare there is a tension which cannot be masked with a simple scary set.
The Best of Both: A Horror-Comedy Meld
Although darkness and horror are a main part of what Fresh is, it never forgets a dark joke. As violently suspenseful as the film is, it also has an often zen-like sense of clarity and irony moments. With the violent insanity of Steve’s cannibalistic operation set against the backdrop of everyday dating, MAKING MONSTERS deftly balances darkness and humor.
It’s that tone blending that separates Fresh from most Horror. It is never overly serious, but also never makes a mockery of the horror within its very premise. Humor is the main garnish in gruesome horror dish that Noa serves, breaking tension with jokes & chuckles which are around every corner.
Fresh is also a film that plays with your expectations of horror narratives, especially where agency is concerned. Noa is not some captive damsel, she fights back with her wits and guts to outsmart this killer. If appears to justify the subversion — it gives a heroism to the film that lifts it above horror-thriller status.
Would I recommend this book?2
YES, but only if you are looking for a bold & disturbing thriller.
This review was fresh on my brain when I heard about Fresh, a bold, albeit imperfect horror-thriller commentating on and critiquing modern courtship in a fearful but entertaining manner. Fresh stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Keith Stanfield, is directed with style to spare, balances horror and dark humor in equal measure, featuring a script that gives it the distinction of one of 2022’s most original and audacious films.
For horror loversafter a film unbound to tradition with an inventive take on the genre (see what I did there), Fresh is a must-watch. This is the sort of film that will change your mind0when you look at for another swipe on that dating app next time.
