This Horror Film Was Pretty Refreshing - Fresh 2022
A date film you say? Well, this isn't quite a normal date film. That was the joke for the first 34 minutes before the credits finally rolled and montage footage of something that alludes to blood and sacrilege paved way for a movie that was about to transition into a horror-comedy.
If you've seen the hand, yeah it is that kind of movie. Devil Worshipping occult logos all over and a hand that comes at the price tag of 16K. Put the pieces together and it's a movie that's about cannibalism.
The movie has a simple protagonist, where a girl in her mid-20s is looking for a good date, the unfortunate aspect of it is that she needs to deal with a lot of bad choices in Tinder, and guys who send her dick pics. In a literal sense of the word. That's where the comedic tone reveals itself, and a few scenes later, Sebastian Stan shows up and whisks her away.
She was smitten, unbeknownst about his agendas and I couldn't blame her, he was very good at his job of making her be smitten. She was drawn, while oblivious of the signs pointing to something being wrong. All the things that her friend, Mollie intuitively becomes cautious about.
It would seem like a simple rom-com, but the score would change to something ominous at times which was something to remind of what kind of film this would be. All that wait and suspense finally paid off when she got drugged and put into his basement. Sebastian Stan plays a rather interesting character, though his intelligence is nothing compared to other TV villains.
The guy just plays a doctor with a higher IQ and morally ambivalent sense of direction in life. Most of the male characters here are either too scared to do the right thing or just terrible people in general. So it's obvious this movie was made mostly for women, pinpointing that it is a sad world for them, in general, to live in.
Outside of those agendas, I did enjoy this film. This has good writing, comedic chops, and the atmosphere is creepy yet delectable. Almost as if the movie knows its way to lure you into being a cannibal yourself.
This movie pokes a lot of fun over the stereotypical paranoia of the dating game, well for women in general. But this movie does a good job of pulling out something like Promising Young Woman. The scenario seems relatable and there were no aspects of the movie that felt shoehorned in.
The writing does a good job of drawing suspense into a movie that is clearly trippy and kind of makes you hungry too. But for the wrong reasons as well. Don't think you should eat anything outside of junk food like chips, and maybe vegan diet stuff. Meat is off the table for this flick.
There are other influences in the movie like Get Out, and Panic Room. The 2nd act is where tension is raised and the suspense stays till the very end of the movie. Which ends in a rather funny joke.
And speaking of being funny, the comedic tone is also pretty consistent. There are some laugh-out-loud jokes like the guy she first dated who, in retrospect, seems like a pitiful individual was messaging her right at the end of the film, even though she had expressed to him of having no interest in him at all.
Oh yeah, Adam McKay also produced this film, so that's where the funny stuff comes from.
You can normally enjoy this film, it's mostly made as a girl's feel good flick. But this movie is disturbing in the most interesting of ways and can rub off on you because you start to relate to the entire circumstances around it.
I think this is our Cabin in the Woods(for women I believe), except the parody is on stuff that has anything to do with cults and Hannibal Lecter.
