Fresh

Mimi Cave’s first feature, from a screenplay by Lauryn Kahn. Sebastian Stan got the part by filming himself dancing with a knife in hand and sending Cave the video. By his account the dance sequences were her main worry, so he recorded himself to remove the doubt. The title and credits arrive about 33 minutes in, when Noa collapses after being drugged. That card splits the film in two: until then you are watching a dating comedy, after it another genre. Shooting ran from 3 February to 17 March 2021 in British Columbia, Canada. In the United States it went to Hulu rather than cinemas, elsewhere to the Star hub inside Disney+. That showed up in the awards: at the Critics’ Choice and Satellite awards it ran in television movie categories, not film. It won best horror at the Hollywood Critics Association midseason awards. The premiere buffet matched the film: cleavers on the wall, raw meat in glass jars, snack boxes shaped like body parts. Because of the subject, a reception came before the screening instead of a party after. A good fit if you read the credits held back to minute 33 as an announcement of the genre change rather than a flaw. Not for anyone unwilling to sit with a film built around cannibalism and bodily violence.