Film Review : "Raw"

Here is the problem I run into when prospecting horror movies. I read something that says people are passing out at film festivals and being carted off in ambulances because it is so gruesome and then when I go to watch it the movie is border line horror more of a dark independent film. So what I have to remind myself is that the people who go to film festivals like Cannes to begin with would not know a horror movie unless it fucked them up the ass and are such goddamn pussies they could sit through the first Human Centipede. So needless to say my hopes and dreams in regards to “Raw” were very high. The French film was well made. The acting was above average even for art house fare. It would be hard to call this a horror movie if it were not for the subject matter . Cannibalism.

It is really more of a coming of age film. The liberal veterinary college they go to is filled with all of the people I detest in southern Europe. Lots of pretense. They make terrorism seem like a good way to thin the herd. So they are fodder fit to be eaten. I am not sure if this was the point of the movie, but it was one of my take aways. I need horror to be scary. Sometimes this comes by way of tension. There is a tension to the movie. Sometimes they hyper realism, adds to this and makes you feel a little uncomfortable at times. So it is hard for me to say this is a bad movie, though it does drag at points, but it does illict that feeling from you so it that way it certainly succeeds when not being full of it self in the way you almost expect french films to be.

With that French atmosphere comes a sexual element. Here the blood is almost a lubricant for the complicated social circles these two sisters have . There is a love hate relationship with these two sisters and the fight they eventually get it feels like a little bit of a release. We have seen cannibalism portrayed on screen in various ways, but not in this same way. To compare it to the Green Inferno, would be absurd though both movies have cannibals . so a movie like “We Are What We Are” might be more fitting though the latter is more of a horror film. 2017 has been more sparse in terms of horror. I was not able to even cobble together much of a top ten list last year, but might have more hope this year, so you take what you can get. It depends on how much you like French Films and what you want from horror when it comes to asking if this film will give you what you want. I am glad I did not pay 11 dollars to see if ,but it was not a bad movie, just not the kind of movie I was hoping for.