Raw * * *

This controversial French film came to Australia a few weeks ago, so I am sorry I haven’t got round to reviewing it sooner, (and no, I wasn’t deferring because I was scared; it just hasn’t been showing  at many places, and I’ve been busy, okay?)

      Raw comes with a wonderful reputation of people rushing out the cinema to vomit, people fainting and even an ambulance being called to one screening.

Lifelong vegetarian Justine broadens 
her dietary experiences.

     I read that the director Julia Ducournau Was quite perplexed to hear these reports, and after viewing it, quite frankly so am I. Despite its scenes of cannibalism, vomiting, buckets of blood, surgery and self mutilation it's no more confrontational than many another horror film - if horror was ever its right pigeonhole.  If you sat through The Neon Demon you’ll find this a breeze.

        It has also received rave reviews, which in my mind are as over-reactive as the reports of it being shockingly confrontational.

Justine is a young woman who has been a vegetarian all her life. During a cruel week of initiation ceremonies, at the veterinary college she has enrolled in, she is forced to eat meat - the raw liver of a rabbit. The act awakens a carnal lust for flesh.
Soon after when someone loses a finger in an accident. It looks delicious to Justine and … you guessed it.
      When other students try to force her to loose her virginity it becomes another opportunity to dine - and she remains a virgin.
With blood lust and physical desire becoming confused emotions, Justine decides she’d like to lose her virginity to her room mate who is a gay young man.  Afterwards Justine begins to develop a jealous attachment to him, especially when sister Alexia buddies up to him too.
When Alexia takes Justine out to a quiet country road and shows her how she satiates her own blood lust Justine is shocked. Is older sister Alexia, the person that Justine will become?

     When Justine goes home to her parents for a break, her father explains Justine will always have this hunger and she must learn to manage it, and shows her how her parents have. And we’re left thinking “ What the hell kind of family is this?!” as we suppress our shock-induced giggles.

It's well acted, well paced - your interest does not wane - , funny in a sick way, and quite thought provoking: though I am still unsure as to what it was actually saying.