Raw [Grave] ** (2016, Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella) – Movie Review

Garance Marillier stars as misfit teenage vegetarian Justine, who is forced to eat raw rabbit in a hazing initiation ritual at her veterinarian college, sparking a taste for meat – and human flesh at that – in writer-director Julia Ducournau’s feminist-inclined French body horror movie.

Ducournau delivers a quality product, but it really is quite shocking and unpleasant in places, but not in a fun way. So you need a strong stomach for the aberrant behaviour and the bloody, grisly images, and also to be able share its nasty sense of black humour.

It is very strong meat, way too strong for me. Marillier is very good, and so is Ella Rumpf as her sister Alexia, a pair of fine young cannibals. Laurent Lucas and Joana Preiss play their mother and father.

Also for good measure, there is strong sexuality, nudity, language, drug use and partying. Ducournau does not hold back and her self belief pays off in a polished, confident, if repellent film.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review

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