31 by 31 Challenge #6: RAW (2016)

(In)famous even before it was released, Raw (2016) caused moviegoers at last year's Toronto International Film Festival to vomit and flee the scene in disgust, shock, and/or fear of passing out. Now that's quite a reputation to live up to. Few horror films have ever reached this strange pinnacle of terror and revulsion wherein gross physical reactions are produced, and the ones that have are notorious for doing so--think The Exorcist (1973), Cannibal Holocaust (1980), and The Green Inferno (2013). Raw certainly pushes its viewers over the edge, but is there enough to situate it among the ranks of these notorious giants? Read on and see...

Raw (2016)
Released: March 10, 2017 (U.S.)
Director: Julia Ducournau
Screenplay: Julia Ducournau

Tagline: "What are you hungry for?"

Cast:
Garance Marillier as Justine
Ella Rumpf as Alexia
Rabah Nait Oufella as Adrien
Laurent Lucas as Father
Joana Preiss as Mother

First Time View?: You bet



Justine hails from a family from vegetarian veterinarians (sounds like a hidden track from The Music Man), and enters her first year of vet school where her older sister studies ready to live up to the family legacy. Hazing for the newbies begins right away and Justine is forced to eat raw meat for the first time in her life. Afterward, unexpected consequences begin to arise as Justine's true self begins to emerge. 

I'll say this right off the bat: despite the questionable aura surrounding Raw due its reception in the festival circuit, this movie is much more than just a vehicle for shock and depravity. There's lost of preconceptions surrounding the film because of the unintentional reports that followed it at Cannes and TIFF, and the only way to distinguish fact from fiction is to see it for yourself. After reading this review, of course.

Raw certainly uses body horror and extreme images in the style of French New Extremity horror films like Inside (2007), Irreversible (2002), Martyrs (2008), and Frontier(s) (2007), and it can be nauseating at times, but as in those films before it, context is everything. Raw is coming-of-age drama wrapped in horror and so the gore involved is not meant to be cartoonish or excessive, but instead is a tool to communicate each step of intensification in the story as Justine progresses down a path that is both nightmarish and grotesque. The New French Extremity movement was said to have petered out a decade ago, but I think that Raw might be a herald of renaissance for the style. 

Justine's story is a quest of self-identity similar to many of our own, yet vastly different in the outcome (I hope). In entering vet school at only sixteen, Justine is balancing between unencumbered freedom and tyrannical repression under her parents, who told her how to dress, how to behave, and even what to eat. At school, the sheltered vegetarian is exposed to all sorts of wonders and temptations she didn't know existed. Sex, drugs, parties, boys, meat. We get the sense that Justine wants to explore these things responsibly, but the intense hazing and lack of self-control and self-discipline from having been raised in such a dominating environment spells disaster for cautious curiosity.

Sibling rivalry with older sister Alex doesn't help matters, either. The relationship between the two women is central to both the plot and the emotional resonance of the film. As an older student in the same program, Alex partakes in Justine's hazing, symbolizing a far larger struggle between the sisters for parental affection, scholarly praise, and the burning desire to have a friend in one another that becomes complicated by their abilities, status at school, and reputation to their mother and father. It's a very real depiction of being and having a sibling, and all that entails. Nothing is two-dimensional between the women. They are allies but also competitors, confidantes yet tormentors, each capable of outshining the other but each trapped in the shadow of the other as well. 

As for the gore, it's aesthetically essential and even philosophical at times, but it is in no way political. The line between human and animal is blurred, crossed, and then obliterated, but it doesn't come off as preachy. There's no "vegetarian agenda." In fact, the presentation is at times so cold it feels clinical, though is likely intentional given the setting of the film at a vet school and the atmosphere induced by the stark lightning, bare cement walls, and void-like use of shadow and space. The film encourages us to explore consciousness, morality, and power through the dialogue and visual representation of animals in the film. 

The ending is powerful, and almost employs its own three-act structure to guide us towards the final minute, which has caused division and debate among the film's fans. The film lingers on a question of what one does with the power of self-realization. In this case, every answer is terrifying. I applaud director Julia Ducournau and wish her a long and successful career (she's only 33) for crafting such an energizing yet violently sad piece of film. Not to mention casting it to perfection with Garance Marillier and Ella Rompf, who deliver spectacular, enveloping performances that are committed and authentic from start to finish.

Raw is brutal and extreme, yes, but it is also full of compelling and harrowing subtext and depth. There's all sorts of complex themes and messages to pick out here--consumption as sexual awakening is one I didn't have time or space to explore but is apparent and intriguing--but it's also an engrossing and wild ride. If you have the stomach for it, that is...


Raw
5-Totally Terrifying
4-Crazy Creepy
3-Fairly Frightening
2-Slightly Scary
1-Hardly Horror