With Sebastian Stan attracting awards buzz for The Apprentice and A Different Man, it feels like an appropriate time to revisit Fresh, which for my money is one of the most warped and interesting horror comedies of recent years. However, this is a movie that’s hard to discuss without giving something crucial away, so before reading any further – and if you’ll pardon the pun – you may first prefer to go and experience it fresh.
After a date from hell, Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is close to giving up on connecting with any normal human being. But a chance encounter in a supermarket leads her to meet eligible doctor Steve (Stan). The pair hit it off immediately and their burgeoning relationship moves fast. Within a couple of weeks Steve invites Noa for a surprise weekend away; it’s almost as if he is too good to be true. And of course, he is.
It turns out this is the worst date of Noa’s life because Steve is a cannibal and high end butcher, providing boutique meat delivery to the “1% of the 1%”. To that end, he drugs and kidnaps Noa, imprisoning her in his basement.
From the outset, we’re led to believe Fresh is a romantic comedy and director Mimi Cave makes us think we’re treading fun but predictable ground, before deftly manoeuvring us to an altogether darker place. It’s not that the clues aren’t there. Noa’s best friend Mollie (Jojo T Gibbs), the voice of reason throughout, voices concern about Steve several times. But we’re cleverly invited to overlook it, just as Noa does.
Noa thinks Steve is normal and well-adjusted, a man who will not tell her to dress nicer or smile more, but she soon discovers she was wrong on every level. As she understandably starts to freak out at her predicament, Steve tells Noa to “stop being so dramatic”. Even while chained up in the basement of a serial killer’s house, she can’t escape the diminishing and patronising opinions of men.
As Steve, Stan is in great form. He is funny and charming, but able to turn ice cold in an instant. Edgar-Jones is sympathetic as Noa, whose lapses in judgement only seem poor with the benefit of hindsight. Their chemistry makes Fresh an uncomfortable watch, but also quite a funny one. Particularly when Steve is dancing around his kitchen while tenderising meat sliced from a human leg, singing along to 80s hits during surgery, or when the pair make grim cannibal puns over dinner.
But Fresh is truly unsettling, especially when the details of Steve’s work are revealed. Every package of cannibal cuisine that gets sent out is accompanied by a photo and souvenirs of the victim, like a demented Happy Meal. It is also an excellent satire on meat consumption, which might ruffle some feathers among carnivores; the film invites us to view meat preparation as a grotesque and visceral practice. We get shots of meat grinders and slicers at work, and extreme closeups of unknown mouths sloppily chewing and slurping on miscellaneous flesh. It turns something mundane and seemingly unremarkable into a gleefully nasty spectacle, and makes Fresh a thoughtful counterpoint to the cannibal genre, which historically has been notoriously cruel to animals.
While Fresh was rightfully acclaimed on release, it would be a shame if it were forgotten in the constant deluge of new streaming content, because horror comedy is a tricky thing to balance. But Fresh stands out because it approaches its horrors of modern dating with a morbid sense of humour and an appetite for the unpredictable.
Fresh is available to stream on Disney+ in Australia and the UK and on Hulu in the US. For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here
