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****
Dir: Julia Ducournau (18, 99 mins)
A cannibal horror with a feminist slant, this is a gore fest with a resonant agenda that is not for the squeamish. Grace Merrier plays the 16 year old Justine, a vegetarian arriving at veterinarian college, joining her elder sister played by Ella Rumpf. To be fully accepted she has to undergo some hazing rites, eating raw rabbit offal. Not nice, but it awakens in her a taste for human flesh and the horror escalates from there. A bloody twist on the coming of age tale writer/director Ducournau’s film is fresh despite sharing genetics from female led body horror films like Ginger Snaps or Teeth. It’s sensual, unsettling and boasts a fantastic performance from Merrier as she negotiates a new world of female sexuality whilst still engaged in a battle with her sibling for superiority. There are plenty of eye watering scenes, including a bikini wax that will make most men look away. The effects are visceral, the intelligence evident, Ducournau is making a horror with substance, this is not a cheap exploitation flick, but something far deeper and more meditative. Laced with images that will haunt, Raw is exactly that – raw.
Opens April 7