Raw, 2016.
Directed by Julia Ducournau.
Starring Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella, Laurent Lucas and Joana Preiss.
SYNOPSIS:
A vegetarian veterinary student gradually turns into a bloodthirsty cannibal after being exposed to meat.
In recent times – or relatively recent times – the cannibal movie has gone the way of the zombie movie where the core concept of cannibalism has become a metaphor for something else. Gone are the days of grubby, low budget cannibal gut-crunchers set in the jungles of some made-up South American territory, where the natives (or extras shipped in) are portrayed as evil murderers who eat any sub-Indiana Jones tour guides or drug dealers on the run from New York (it was always New York, wasn’t it?) who dare to step foot where they don’t belong, and ever since the Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs became the ‘respectable’ face of cannibalism the productions have gotten a little slicker and a bit more, for use of a better word, intellectual.
2016s Raw is one such movie. The feature-length debut for French director Julia Ducournau the movie tells the story of Justine (Garance Marillier), a young veterinary student being dropped off at university by her parents. Justine and her family are strict vegetarians and Justine begins to find it difficult to resist the lure of meat, especially after she and her fellow students are covered in animal blood as part of a university initiation and she is also forced to eat a rabbit’s kidney by her sister Alexia (Ella Rumpf), who is also at the university and has apparently left her vegetarian beliefs behind her.
The kidney seems to bring Justine out in hives and makes her skin flake off but once this has been treated she begins to succumb to the taste of meat, stealing burgers from the canteen and eating shawarma from the local truck stop. However, things escalate when Alexia accidentally injures herself and things – for both women – will never quite be the same again…
Taking inspiration from David Cronenberg and his particular brand of body horror, Raw is a movie with themes of identity at its core, a journey through the coming-of-age of a young girl into womanhood who learns who she really is in possibly one of the most disturbing ways possible. The actual cannibalism itself is handled almost matter-of-factly, as if we aren’t to judge Justine too harshly on her actions because what is happening to her is (possibly) inevitable, and in amongst the bloody feasting Justine goes through the awkwardness that every teenager who leaves the safety of the family to go into the wider world faces – pranks, bullying, unfortunate sexual encounters, failing grades and the revelations that come from within her own family circle all play a part in Justine’s journey and Julia Ducournau directs the hell out of it all.
But a lot of the credit must go to Garance Marillier as Justine who manages to make her a hugely sympathetic character despite some of the grisly acts she does. Raw has a healthy dose of black comedy amongst the more dramatic stuff and although everybody brings their A-game it is Marillier who shines in every scene as Justine’s demons take hold of her. Her transformation from a quietly confident teenage girl into who she really is comes gradually, as each encounter she has almost peels back another layer – much like her shedding skin after eating meat – and although there are metaphors aplenty being flung around and you can interpret what happens in several different ways it is the human drama that lies at the centre of it all that is so compelling, making the cannibalism almost incidental when it fully envelopes Justine.
To back up such a such a bizarre but strangely compelling movie Second Sight have packed the disc with extras that offer up several perspectives about Raw from those involved. There are two audio commentaries, one from film critic Alexandra West and the other from Julia Ducournau and film critic Emma Westwood, plus interviews with Julia Ducournau, producer Jean des Forets and Garance Marillier. However, there are deeper dives here as film critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas provides a fascinating video essay that attempts to collate all of the meanings behind Justine’s plight (and nails it), plus footage from the Australian premiere, a Q&A with Julia Ducournau, a panel discussion between several female filmmakers regarding female genre directors and alternative opening, deleted scenes and trailers.
It’s a fully-loaded package for a movie that was well regarded by many upon its initial release but this special edition Blu-ray should hopefully bring it to a new audience that maybe missed it first time round. Julia Ducournau has not directed a feature since Raw but let’s hope that she returns to the genre soon as she clearly has a voice and given that Raw has the polished look of a Hollywood production – more impressive given the grisly subject matter – thanks to perfect lighting and framing to enhance the more surreal sections of the film it would be a shame not to see the like again. But apart from that metaphorical and character study stuff, Raw is also quite simply a remarkable contemporary horror movie with bite.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
Originally published April 17, 2021. Updated May 16, 2022.
