From director Mimi Cave and writer Lauryn Kahn comes Fresh, a Hulu Original horror thriller film starring Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People), Sebastian Stan (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), Jojo T. Gibbs (Twenties), Andrea Bang (Kim’s Convenience), and Dayo Okeniyi (See). The film is produced by Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up), Kevin J. Messick, and Maeve Cullinane. Fresh premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20th, 2022, and was released on Hulu on March 4th, 2022, by Searchlight Pictures.
Fresh follows Noa (Edgar-Jones), a young loner submerged in the world of dating and frustratingly only matching up online with guys that turn out to be horrible dates. After seemingly giving up, Noa runs into Steve (Sebastian Stan) at the supermarket, and the two immediately hit it off. Noa meets Steve for a second date, and the two spend the night together. After a few dates, Steve asks Noa to come to a surprise location with him for the weekend. Noa agrees against the advice of her best friend, Mollie (Gibbs). The two go to Steve’s house the night before the trip, and after being drugged, Noa wakes up to find that Steve has chained her to the floor for a simple reason: to slowly dissect, harvest, and sell her meat on the Black Market to wealthy cannibals. Noa’s survival lands squarely on her threshold for pain and patience as Steve plans to take her apart, piece by piece.
At first, Fresh’s story seemed like it was going to turn into your typical abduction thriller film, as the first 30 minutes or so felt very similar to run-of-the-mill abduction films. This was almost certainly done on purpose, as the film’s title screen and credits don’t even roll until 33 minutes in, when everything gets serious. A lot of the film editing throughout the first act makes even a predictable start feel creative and unique, and the soundtrack is filled with bops from all decades, which somehow liven up such a serious premise and gets the viewer in a groove. I particularly loved a scene with Sebastian Stan singing “Restless Heart” by Peter Cetera while performing surgery. It gave me some American Psycho vibes, in a good way. There was also a darkly comedic feel to the film, bringing up memories of Ready or Not, which I feel would make a fantastic double feature with this film.
You could tell the film was helmed by women because of the level of detail that went into scenes showcasing the uncomfortable feelings women experience from men with things like staring and following. These moments showed fantastic direction and focus in even the tiniest scenes, though they are unfortunate because these moments have a strong base in reality and are not something men could ever truly understand and replicate.
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Both Daisy Edgar-Jones and Jojo T. Gibbs played their parts brilliantly. Edgar-Jones weaved through different emotions flawlessly, having to put on an emotional mask for much of the film. It’s always more impressive when an actor has to act like they’re acting. Gibbs, in particular, never felt like the “comedic relief” or helpless side character you maybe would have seen for this role a decade ago. She was smart, funny, and a driving force in the story. I haven’t seen Sebastian Stan in many things outside of his work in the MCU, but it was nice to see him in a deeply psychological villain role instead of a robotic villain. He shined throughout the second half of the film.
Fresh did an excellent job at toeing the line between making the audience feel safe and worried about what was coming next and ironing down the purposeful intensity by the end of the film. I still left the movie with a few questions I wished were buttoned up, but the ending was gripping, compelling, and satisfying.