Throwback: Raw (dir. Julia Ducournau), 2016

The remoteness is palpable at the elite veterinary school. Rural, tree-lined roads provide entrance to and from the campus, composed of stark Brutalist buildings bathed in concrete and endless grays. Even when Justine arrives, chauffeured by her alumni veterinarian parents, she finds herself alone in the parking lot when her second year sister fails to meet them. Isolation is a foundational theme to Raw and it boldly is explored through the body-horror genre. After all, body-horror is the supreme subset of the genre where our mind is overpowered by our bodies. What else is more horrific?

Justine, raised a militant vegetarian by her parents, struggles to fit in at her school. Her older sister, Alexia, seems more frustrated than pleased at her presence. Aside from her gay, charismatic roommate, Adrien, Justine rubs her peers the wrong way. While discussing rape among apes, Justine affirms the apes have self-awareness and therefore feel the rape in the same way as a human woman. “So monkey rape is the same as human rape?” a group of girls snicker at the end of their lunch table. “Yes,” Justine responds. “Isn’t this why we’re in veterinary school?” Despite her sympathy for animals and apparent natural gift for veterinary sciences, rookie hazing rituals dominate the first year students. When one ritual involves eating raw rabbit kidneys, Justine refuses. Looking to her sister Alexia for an out, Alexia merely responds that she no longer is a vegetarian and forces the raw kidney on Justine. And so, the body horror begins.

Raw is the debut feature film of director Julia Ducournau, fresh off a Palm d’Or win for her sophomore feature, Titane. Ducournau has an apparent interest, and natural gift, for body horror and narrative pieces. At the surface is blood, gore, and a series of disturbing events. Yet, beneath there is an oddly beautiful narrative in both of the feature films Ducournau has gifted. In Raw, Justine finds herself at odds with her body. After ingesting the raw rabbit kidney, the immediate reaction is a ghastly rash. She thrashes and itches at the dry, flaking skin covering large swaths of her body. Yet, despite this initial pain, her hunger is for meat. Justine understands this is wrong and against her upbringing. At first she attempts to indulge this hunger in secretive ways: sneaking a burger patty from the lunch line or late night snacks to her mini-fridge to eat raw chicken. Life becomes complicated when her uncontrollable cravings turn to human flesh.

There are twists to Raw that are so horrific, and brilliantly salacious, that I prefer not go further. These moments are best experienced as one watches in awe, through their fingers and half-closed eyes. However, I can say that Raw is one of the best horror films I have seen and perhaps the best modern horror film of the last ten years. Unlike other recent films admirably tackling body horror and unbelievable premises, Raw requires no extra credit or graded curve—it fully stands on its own. The characters and their motivations, much less inner relationships, make sense. Ducournau has managed to craft a world, adorned with a beautifully chilling score and coldly imposing visuals, which clearly exists within our own despite feeling otherworldly. And, while the closing scenes are not exactly a surprise, or even shocking by the end, they make recent horror phenomena like Hereditary seem like a first draft.

Rating: 10/10