129) Raw (2016)

"I'm sure you'll find a solution..."

Director

Julia Ducournau

Cast

Garance Marillier - Justine

Ella Rumpf - Alexia

Rabah Naït Oufella - Adrien
Laurent Lucas - The Father
Joana Preiss - The Mother

Somewhere on the internet, I read that the 2016 film "Raw," which is currently streaming on Netflix, has been a difficult horror movie for audiences to watch in its entirety. I can't seem to find that article I read. It recommended the movie, but simply because of its shock value. Another article from 2016, this one on ScreenRant.com, claims that audiences who attended a midnight showing of this movie at the Toronto International Film Festival passed out in horror because of what's depicted in this movie and had to be taken to the hospital.

So, I watched it. 

"Raw" is a French-made coming to age horror flick that approaches gruesome horror with complete realism.

The movie surrounds a 16-year-old girl, Justine (Garance Marillier), who's a life-long vegetarian thanks to her vegetarian parents. 

She's on her way to veterinary school. Her older sister, Alexia (Ella Rumpf) is currently attending the same school. And her parents also met at the vet school when they were enrolled.

When Justine arrives, she meets her roommate, Adrien (Rabah Naït Oufella). She's a little perturbed at having a male roommate as she requested a female roomie. But he reassures her that he's gay. So, that somehow makes the situation all better for her. 

That night, Justine, Adrien, and all other new students are forced to undergo an extended hazing ritual. 

At one point in the ritual, she's taken to a wild party where Alexia shows her group photos of previous classes where students are covered in blood. 

The next day, her new class poses for a picture during which they're doused in blood seconds before the picture is taken. Now, they can have their class picture on the wall with the previous classes.

The following morning, the higher classmen force Justine and other first-year students to eat raw rabbit kidneys.

Justine refuses at first as she's a vegetarian. Alexia pressures her to do it, however. Then, just like that, Justine has her first taste of meat. 

That night, Justine wakes up with a terrible rash covering her body. A doctor says it's food poisoning and gives her a rash cream to help alleviate the problem.

But while the rash slowly heals, Justine has cravings for raw meat which don't subside. 

In one scene, Adrien catchers her in their fridge eating raw chicken. 

Later, Alexia offers to give Justine a hair wax in her private area. At one point, the wax sticks to Justine's inner-thigh, and Alexia tries to use scissors to remove the wax. 

Justine reacts and kicks Alexia, causing her sister to accidentally cut off her own finger. 

When Alexia passes out in shock, Justine calls the paramedics who say it's going to be a 15-minute wait. 

Justine finds the severed finger and can't resist tasting the blood. 

The urge takes her to start eating her own sister's finger. 

Alexia wakes up during this moment and sees what her sister is doing. At the hospital, Justine tells her parents that Alexia's dog, Quicky, ate the finger. 

The next day, Alexia takes Justine to a deserted road. She jumps out in front of an on-coming car, causing it to veer off the road and smash into a tree. 

Unharmed, Alexia gets up and takes Justine to the car where two passengers are either knocked out completely, or dead. 

She then starts eating one of the passengers, telling Justine that she needs to learn how to do this. Justine can't help but be shocked by this experience and walks off. Still, her craving for meat grows. 

Soon, she starts lusting after Adrien despite his sexual orientation. 

During another party, someone throws blue paint on her as another part of the hazing ritual. 

Then they force her into a bathroom with a male student covered in yellow paint. Soon, they start making out. 

Garance Marillier as Justine in "Raw."

Suddenly, the boy runs out of the bathroom bleeding as Justine has taken a bite out of his bottom lip. 

Shocked, Justine goes back to her dorm room to shower and gather herself.

Adrien is laying on his bed when Justine finishes her shower and starts confiding in him.

In no time, they start having sex. 

She wants to bite him but ends up biting her own arm until it bleeds. 

Later, at yet another party, Justine gets good and plastered. Alexia takes her sister and other party goers to a morgue.

The day after the party, Aiden shows her a video posted online of Alexia dangling the arm of a deceased person in front of Justine, who's completely drunk and crawling on her hands and knees trying to take a bite out of the arm like a dog. Some people are cheering her on. Others are booing and trying to get Alexia to stop.

Justine confronts Alexia about the video and the two sisters start fighting until they're locked together, biting each other.

Other students pull them apart, and the two of them walk back to the dorms together. 

The following morning, Justine wakes up in Aiden's bed. 

She quickly notices she's covered in blood. 

Justine rips the blankets off, and discovers Aiden is dead in a pool of blood. A huge piece of his leg is missing. And Alexia is passed out on the floor, shocked and dazed, and covered in blood. 

Justine goes into a fit at seeing Aiden dead, but then cleans Alexia up. 

We later see Alexia in prison for Aiden's murder. And Justine is back at home with her vegetarian parents. 

Considering the film's themes of conformity to "social norms" mixed with individuality, the movie seems to try to get one point across while unravelling itself. 

While the movie challenges conformity to standard norms, no matter who surrounds Justine, they're going to expect her to conform.

Graphic body horror is a common theme in Director Julia Ducournau's movies. It's no surprise she made this movie. Her fascination with the subject matter is meant to challenge these social norms we hear so much about, for the sake of being progressive. But people/ characters are going to have to conform to some set of rules or another, even while challenging the idea of conforming in the first place. 

In a 2016 interview with "The Gaurdian" Ducournau says, "A body is a body. In every movie we see, women have to be beautiful and fit or whatever the hell, and they have to fit a certain box, and no: women fart, poop, pee, burp. This is why you can relate to them, because they are not these heavenly creatures; they are real people with real feelings, and when they go down, they go down. This is something we don’t see enough of. Always in movies when people cry, they cry like this' – she mimes a sorrowful weep – 'like Saint Mary crying. We’re all equal with our bodies, so fuck off.”

It sounds like she thinks women's body are important, but also not important because they're like all other bodies. She doesn't present women in a beautiful light because society expects women to be beautiful. 

Ducournau claims we can only relate to women because they "fart, poop, pee, burp" like everyone else. Does she think women should be reduced to their bodily functions and desires just to avoid meeting social expectations? She, a woman, claims women should not be held in any high level of beauty and admiration for the glorious creatures they are because societies world-wide raise them to such levels of prestige, in some way or another, depending on the culture. 

She even throws women in the dust by claiming "they are not these heavenly creatures." I take it that in her mind, women have no need to reflect greatness, heavenly or otherwise, and everyone else should just see and accept women as people who defecate and fall apart. That's how we should relate to them. 

I understand Ducournau is trying to depict female characters as human as possible. But to then negate the ability to reflect greatness and beauty is unfair and strange. Still, women can be greater and more miraculous than their human frailty. The fact that men and women have that ability is miraculous in itself. Women can and should rise above their mere human susceptibilities. And when they do, we can still relate to them, follow their examples, and aspire to greater things. We're all called to perfection.  

Ella Rumpf (left) and Garance Marillier.

Ducournau certainly depicts the worst in humanity in this one film. In the same interview, she says, "Cannibalism is part of humanity. Some tribes do it ritually and have no shame doing it. You have this feeling when you bite someone’s arm for fun, that you want to go a bit further, but you don’t because you have a moral canvas. This thing is in us, we just don’t want to see it. So, I thought, since my characters always feel like monsters deep inside, I wanted the audience to feel like a monster as well, and to understand what she’s doing. Because we are all monsters, really.”

Cannibalism is no more a part of humanity than murder, rape, or any other horrific sin. I don't know if Ducournau is trying to be sound offensive, progressive, edgy, or merely stupid? I say "stupid" because it is stupid to believe that since we, a fallen people, might have inclinations to do horrible things like eat other people (thankfully I have never had that inclination) because "we're all monsters deep inside" that we should and need to embrace that. How will embracing the inner "monster" (i.e. our unrestrained lower passions) will just make us monsters outwardly. Women, too. You know what else people have inclinations to do? Practice self-control! Achieve higher standards.  

This obsession with the human body she claims comes from her parents' medical professions. Her father is a dermatologist and her mother a gynecologist. In her youth, she overheard many of their medical discussions. 

The conclusion I come to is that she depicts the worst animalistic instincts in us and leaves the audience with the notion that that's really what we're all about. There's nothing we can do about it. There's no redemption, so f--k off. How depressing and sad that idea is. And sad and depressed is exactly how I felt after watching this movie. 

The movie ends on a note of no aspiration nor redemption. In the final scene, her father unbuttons his shirt to reveal scars and missing tissue on his chest. He then leaves Justine with the "advice" that she'll just have to find a solution with what she's dealing with. In other words, there's nothing she can do to change her destructive appetites, so she'll just have to indulge in it without getting into trouble.  

Otherwise, as far as horror goes, Europeans seem to take moral depictions to levels Hollywood seldom goes. I think there's still some sensitivities among American audiences that I wonder if European audiences share.

This cannibalistic horror story is presented in a completely serious, real life, tone. So much so that it felt more like a social commentary surrounding our inherent appetites, conformity with societal standards which are slowing sinking lower and lower, carnal desires, and the guilt that follows our submission to our lower desires. Afterall, the tagline reads, "What are you hungry for?" That's the conclusion I walked away with.

As disturbing as it is, the cannibalism aspect seems to fit in a film depicting such elements, especially when considering where the director comes from. It doesn't just seem like a metaphor for self-destruction. Nor is it horror for its own sake. 

Garance Marillier and Ella Rumpf are such strong female leads. Just as the writers don't hold back in the horrific elements to tell their true-to-life story, Marillier and Rumpf (together, their names sound like a European law firm of the 1930s) treat their roles with sincerity and seriousness. The entire film simply does not hold back. For what it is, it is well structured and well-acted.  

The message the movie puts forward leans in the direction of voyeurism disguised as art and virtue. For a movie about cannibalism mixed with sexual awakening, this movie takes itself very seriously. Hidden in the cracks lies commentary about fallen human nature that I agree with. I don't think the movie can help it. Otherwise, it is graphic with some scenes of cannibalism. Despite that, I couldn't recommend it as it leaves the audience with ideas that are as repulsive as cannibalism itself.