When a scam like “kill the pig plate” is brought to the big screen, and male criminals not only want to “kill the pig”, but also want to “sell pork”, how will the story unfold?
The new film “Fresh” on the streaming site HULU tells such a story. Although the film only got a rating of 6.3 on Douban, but the classic routine of killing a pig plate, human executioner, and female revenge and other labels, so the film is full of points. In addition, the film’s male and female protagonists, respectively played by the “Winter Soldier” Sebastian Stan and the American drama “Normal People” actress Daisy Jones, in the face of it also earned the audience’s attention.
The film’s heroine, Noah, although not the family’s whole day to rush the marriage, but has a “hated girl” physique, determined to meet Prince Charming, taste the sweetness of love. But the reality is, Noah met the object are difficult to say. The first act of the opening story, it tells the embarrassing story of Noah and his date.
The boy in the meal before the date, told Noah to bring cash in order to AA; dinner, he not only does not pay attention to hygiene, the scarf to the bowl, but also proposed to bring the leftovers packed to his brother to eat; and when heard Noah said the two are not very suitable, you can stop here, the boy was annoyed and angry, the export became dirty. Dating app on the other men and? Either they are uninteresting middle-aged men, or they are the love-seeking prodigal son who uses cute dog photos to cheat people.
The reason why the film will be Noah’s failed courtship routine, laid out so long, the purpose is to highlight Noah’s eagerness to love, and the desire for quality men. So, when she encountered the male lead Steve in the supermarket, and threw out contact information, Noah naturally fell into the vortex of love at first sight.
Affable and handsome, funny, similar background, romantic and gold, so many advantages of the charm collection in one, Steve immediately let Noah messed up, unconditionally believe everything he said. Even though her best friend Molly warned her to be aware of the risk of Steve not having a social account and not to travel alone with him, Noah was indifferent to it.
Until Steve pretended to travel, with Noah drove into the hidden high class villa, this nebulous love fairy tale only reveals its chilling and horrifying side. When Noah drank the ecstasy fainted, she thought she would be raped or killed, but never thought that the purpose of Steve imprisoned her, but for her body meat.
It turns out that Steve is different from ordinary people, as early as his 18 or 19 years old when he became interested in human flesh. When he learned that there are many people and their own “happy to do this”, they found a way to get rich, with their own excellent surgery and excellent PUA techniques to deceive the trust of young girls, and then bring them into the “slaughterhouse”.
After the successful lure, Steve will not kill these poor girls directly, but while serving good food and drink, like raising pigs to let these girls become the meat on the chopping block. The second half of the film tells the story of Noah’s attempt to escape from the clutches of two efforts. Although she failed in the first escape, Steve cut off the buttocks, but she soon learned that the only way to gain his trust is to confuse Steve’s mind.
On the other hand, Molly, the best friend who sensed that the situation was different, risked great danger to find Noah, but soon also fell into Steve’s cage. Can the two sisters finally escape? Will Steve be severely punished? The third part of “Fresh” reveals the final mystery for us.
In fact, from the narrative pattern of “Fresh”, it is very similar to “Escape from Desperado” directed by Jordan Peele in 2017. Escape from Desperado is about a white girl who brings her black boyfriend back to her parents’ home. So the mother, who is well versed in hypnosis, and the father, who is highly skilled in surgery, plan to replace the black male protagonist’s soul with that of an aging white man, thus permanently colonizing him on a soul level.
In “Fresh,” on the other hand, it is an extremely attractive and wealthy man who, after abducting young girls and holding them captive, treats their flesh as a rare ingredient. After satisfying his own eccentricities, he even supplies them as commodities to a very small number of wealthy people. If “Escape from Desperado” is a novel setting of soul swapping that speaks to the sensational exploitation in the context of racism, “Fresh” uses this horror hobby to yell out the blood and tears of women’s complaints.
This is evident in the conversation between Steve and Noah. The powerful people standing behind Steve are not ordinary people, they are the richest 1% of the group. In a way, this group of people since they stand at the top of the pyramid of wealth, naturally they also stand at the top of the food chain pyramid, and the top is the human race.
However, this group of people are only satisfied with eating human flesh? Not, they prefer the flesh of young girls, according to Steve’s original words is: this is the market needs. So, the fetish of eating human flesh is not some kind of addiction caused by genetic defects, but as a group of men with a vested interest in the possession of young girls, from physical to spiritual, from emotional to symbolic.
Because whether it’s Steve, or the male power players, it’s not just the human flesh they care about, it’s the hair, clothing and photos of their victims. It’s as if the male cannibals are doing an evil witchcraft, and the only way to be truly “one” is to hold the tokens of women in their hands and enjoy their flesh. From this point of view, “Fresh” is a new era of “I Spit on Your Grave”.
Both tell the story of women being abused, tortured and appropriated by the male community. Only, one appropriates the sexual power in the body, and the other appropriates the direct physical body. Moreover, both also share affinities in the mode and symbolic level of revenge.
At the end of “I Spit on Your Grave,” the heroine tortures to death each of the men who abused her and cuts off the sexual organ of one of them, while in “Fresh,” three girls who have been mutilated take revenge on Steve, whose sexual organ is also bitten off by Noah.
The most different between the two is that “I Spit on Your Grave” divides the dichotomy between men and women into two, distinct from each other; while Steve’s wife in “Fresh” becomes a domesticated accomplice. From the many details of the film, it is easy to speculate that Steve’s wife is also a victim of abduction and imprisonment.
But in Steve some “tender love”, she submitted to Steve, became his wise helper and a tool to cover up. In the film, there are two episodes of the most ironic and thought-provoking. One is the camera on the woman’s broken leg, after all the picture, there is a close-up of Steve’s legs as fast as he can.
The other is when she saw Steve’s bloody death, unusually calm, and even look with some satisfaction, while in the face of Noah who killed Steve, she tried to strangle Noah.
The former speaks to the hidden pain of persecuted women, while the latter reveals the hidden power of power discipline. Thus, “Fresh” has a stark and direct attitude in the expression of feminism. This element about devouring and hurting on the physical level reminds one of the French female director Giulia Dicuno, whose two controversial works “Eaten Raw” and “Titanium” also revolve around the relationship between women and their bodies, making alternative expressions.
On another level, however, this overly straightforward and crude expression of the theme makes “Fresh” more like a hit piece. The setting of cannibalism and the plot of the behind-the-scenes consortium seem flimsy and lack deeper digging.
The film’s bigger problem is that many of the plot twists are not self explanatory. For example, the female best friend Molly in Steve’s home when visiting, seems too light on the danger, its previous vigilant persona therefore instantly collapsed.
Another example is the exposure of Steve’s identity, which obviously does not make sense. As a successful “hunting women” dozens of highly intelligent criminals, how can use the real name and credit card in the bar to leave traces? Not to mention the wife was also photographed on social media, such a faint trick is not convincing. Of course, as a small budget thriller with a novel setting, these shortcomings and loopholes in “Fresh” are to be expected. If you don’t care about this and just want to watch a thriller, this film is still worth watching.
