raw 2016 movie review

On International Women’s Day, it seems only fitting to write a review of “Raw,” a horror film about a brilliant but innocent teenage girl who finally lets loose and asserts her true identity as a cannibal.

It may not sound like it on the surface, but “Raw” is absolutely a celebration of female power—of realizing who you are, what you want and how to go after it, albeit with brutally bloody results. And it comes from the mind of another young, brilliant woman, French writer/director Julia Ducournau , making her wildly assured feature debut.

Ducournau’s lurid, vivid film is visually striking, full of images that will shock you while others will lull you with a hypnotic beauty. And though it has glimmers of style that are reminiscent of thriller masters—the body horror of David Cronenberg , the gaudy surrealism of David Lynch —“Raw” is very much its own artful entity with its own singular voice.

“Raw” will make you curl up in a ball in your seat, daring to watch through splayed fingers—and not necessarily in response to the film’s violence. Ducournau pinpoints and expertly depicts the frights that exist in the everyday world—especially when you’re a young woman trying to figure out your place within it. That’s what’s so startling about the film: It’s not necessarily the monstrous moments that’ll shake you up, but rather the mundane ones.

Having said that, it’s exciting to see a female filmmaker establishing herself so forcefully in what traditionally has been a male-dominated genre. And she’s only 33 years old. (The recent “ XX ,” which consisted of four horror shorts by and about women, also entered this territory, but with frustratingly inconsistent results.) Ducournau mixes it up visually with a combination of eerily austere establishing shots and long, fluid camera movements. She knows when to hold back to create suspense and when to unleash the full fury of her grisly imagery.

With the help of cinematographer Ruben Impens ’ beautifully nightmarish use of color and light and Jim Williams’ chilling score, Ducournau creates a lingering sense of mystery throughout: How much of this is a hallucination? Could what we’re watching possibly be real?

“Raw” begins on a note of understated tension as 16-year-old Justine ( Garance Marillier with a thrilling, daring performance in her first major role) travels to veterinary school with her parents, where they both studied and where her brash older sister, Alexia ( Ella Rumpf ), is currently a student. This is a prestigious institution, but the campus itself is especially bleak and unwelcoming; during the rare instances when these aspiring doctors get to go outside, the skies always seem to be cloudy. It’s an unusual and unsettling location for a film.

Everyone in Justine’s family is not only a veterinarian but also a strict vegetarian, a lifestyle choice she finds difficult to adhere to when confronted with a series of raucous and sadistic freshman hazing rituals. In one of them, the older students force her and her classmates each to eat a small piece of raw rabbit kidney. She’s initially resistant and repulsed, as anyone would be. But soon enough, she finds that the tiny nibble of animal flesh stirs something primal in her—a hunger she never realized was there. In no time, Justine is sitting in front of the refrigerator in her dorm room in the middle of the night, tearing into a raw chicken breast to the bewilderment of her flirty, gay roommate and only friend, Adrien ( Rabah Nait Oufella ). The look in her eyes lets us know that this won’t be nearly enough to satisfy her.

Ducournau cleverly takes her time in these moments as she slowly reveals each shocking step in Justine’s carnivorous evolution. She never judges this character, even as her choices have increasingly harmful consequences. Rather, she seems fascinated by Justine, watching both from afar and up close as she morphs from shy little girl to sly huntress.

Clearly, the physical seizing of flesh is a metaphor for a sexual awakening, but the transformation Justine undergoes in “Raw” could be interpreted in a variety of ways. Justine is a little awkward as she gets gussied up, goes to parties and flirts with boys. An attempt at bikini waxing goes horribly wrong in the film’s most squirm-inducing scene. She clearly has no idea what she’s doing, and that insecurity gives her character—and the film as a whole—an unexpected element of relatability.

But as Justine gives into her yearnings in a way that’s drastically opposed to the philosophy under which she was raised, she becomes more brazen, yet also more confident and powerful in her femininity. Somewhere, beneath the blood, she might even be happy—entranced by her newfound lust for life. It’s like a drug. And it’s clearly habit-forming.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series “Ebert Presents At the Movies” opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

• Joana Preiss as The Mother
• Rabah Nait Oufella as Adrien
• Laurent Lucas as The Father
• Garance Marillier as Justine
• Ella Rumpf as Alexia
• Jean-Christophe Bouzy
• Jim Williams
• Julia Ducournau

Cinematographer

• Ruben Impens

Leave a comment

Now playing.

The Fire Inside

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

The Six Triple Eight

The Count of Monte Cristo

The Room Next Door

The Brutalist

Mufasa: The Lion King

September 5

The Last Showgirl

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

Latest articles.

Process the Environment: Rachel Morrison on “The Fire Inside”

It’s Time to Give a FECK: Elevating Humanity through Forgiveness, Empathy, Compassion and Kindness (book by Chaz Ebert, with Foreword by Tamron Hall)

The Great Performances of 2024, Part Two

The Great Performances of 2024, Part One

The best movie reviews, in your inbox.

We sent an email to [email protected]

Didn't you get the email?

By joining, you agree to the Terms and Policies and Privacy Policy and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

• About Rotten Tomatoes®
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening This Week
• Top Box Office
• Coming Soon to Theaters
• Certified Fresh Movies

Movies at Home

• Fandango at Home
• Prime Video
• Most Popular Streaming Movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• 90% Nosferatu Link to Nosferatu
• 81% Babygirl Link to Babygirl
• 76% A Complete Unknown Link to A Complete Unknown

New TV Tonight

• 100% What If...?: Season 3
• -- Squid Game: Season 2
• -- Doctor Who: Season 1.1
• -- Call the Midwife: Season 13.1
• -- Queen Woo: Season 1
• -- Maestro in Blue: Season 3
• -- The Flipping El Moussas: Season 2

Most Popular TV on RT

• 93% Black Doves: Season 1
• 70% Dune: Prophecy: Season 1
• 85% One Hundred Years of Solitude: Season 1
• 75% Dexter: Original Sin: Season 1
• 79% No Good Deed: Season 1
• 79% Landman: Season 1
• 90% Star Wars: Skeleton Crew: Season 1
• 86% The Day of the Jackal: Season 1
• 75% The Madness: Season 1
• 68% The Agency: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV

Certified fresh pick

• 96% Laid: Season 1 Link to Laid: Season 1
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

30 Most Popular Movies Right Now: What to Watch In Theaters and Streaming

54 Video Game Movies Ranked (with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 )

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming.

Awards Tour

Upcoming Video Game Movies and TV Adaptations

2025 Golden Globe Awards Ballot: Complete with Tomatometer and Popcornmeter Scores

• Trending on RT
• Awards Season
• Verified Hot
• Renewed and Cancelled TV
• Happy Holidays

Where to Watch

Rent Raw on Fandango at Home, or buy it on Fandango at Home.

What to Know

Raw 's lurid violence and sexuality live up to its title, but they're anchored with an immersive atmosphere and deep symbolism that linger long after the provocative visuals fade.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Julia Ducournau

Garance Marillier

Rabah Nait Oufella

Joana Preiss

Laurent Lucas

Related Movie News

‘Raw’ Review: Cannibal Coming-of-Age Movie Is a Modern Horror Masterpiece

• By David Fear

It’s the cannibal movie that caused people to faint at a film festival – this is what people talk about when they talk about Raw, the extraordinary body- horror parable from French director Julia Ducournau. The incident, which happened at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival , might cause folks to view this as some sort of cinematic dare, a splatter shocker designed to test the limits of the scary-movie marine corps. Consider this a disclaimer, and a reclamation: The story of a young woman (Garance Marillier) who develops a taste for certain off-the-menu delicacies is indeed intense. It’s also after much bigger game than merely thrilling folks who’ve studied Fangoria photo spreads with Talmudic-scholar fervor. Smelling salts are not required, but the ability to recognize a near-perfect movie when you see it most certainly is. If Get Out reminds folks that you can smuggle intelligent social commentary and timely conversation-starters in to theaters via explosive genre packages, then Ducournau’s feature debut doubles down on the notion. In terms of the female-body politic, it’s an art-horror dirty bomb.

Flesh of any kind is initially carne non grata for Marillier’s Justine, a college student who comes from a long line of militant vegetarians; Mom freaks out when a morsel of beef makes its way into some mashed potatoes. But at the veterinary school where she’s enrolling as a freshman – and where her older sister, Alexia (Ella Rumpf), is a long-established alpha – the young woman discovers that no one cares about her culinary ideology. After a hazing ritual involving newbies being covered in animal blood (paging Carrie White), Justine is forced to eat a duck kidney. Instant nausea leads to a gnarly rash; soon, she’s going in to town and stress-gnoshing on kabobs with her gay roommate Adrien (Rabah Nait Oufella) at a Gas ‘n’ Sip. Then an accident causes her sister to lose a digit. While waiting for the paramedics, Justine impulsively explores the notion of literal finger food. And now the craving starts.

Editor’s picks

The 100 best tv episodes of all time, the 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, the 200 greatest singers of all time.

To say that things begin to take on an even stronger metaphorical resonance once our heroine indulges in her newfound gourmet obsession would be grossly understating the point; the fact that this coincides with Justine’s sexual awakening, made implicit via solo dress-up grinding in front of a mirror then explicit by her ecstatically biting her own arm during sex, isn’t coincidental. College is when you try on numerous identities and experiment with new ideas before your in-flux personality calcifies into an adult-shaped mold – so, the film suggests tongue-in-chomped-cheek, why wouldn’t anthropophagy be on the docket as well? (Nor is she potentially the only cannibal on campus.)

Ducournau has referred to her movie as a coming-of-age story, and you can see this waifish character go from awkwardly tottering in high heels (a shot that spells out the movie’s ideas on femininity drag; don’t even ask about the Brazilian waxing sequence) to aggressively asserting herself over 99 blood-flecked minutes. Girl, you’ll be a man-eating woman soon, and though references to bulimia and trichophagia suggest control issues run psychologically amuck, Justine also discovers a sense of empowerment in this taboo line-crossing. She begins to take ownership of her body by consuming others’.

None of which should suggest that Raw is simply a grad-school term paper smothered in gore. Ducournau knows how to make the vocabulary of horror filmmaking either finesse or bludgeon with a frightening degree of facility. Few movies have used pacing and composition to such an effective degree in the name of XX-centric dread (the film owes as much to Roman Polanski’s Repulsion as it does to the cinema of repulsion), or understood how to employ color so effectively – from a seven-minutes-in-heaven encounter involving blue and yellow paint to the crimson drop on a white lab coat that signals a Type-O deluge. There’s a hallucinogenic quality to the deadpan scenes of Justine coming to grips with this personal channeling of passion and perversity, and a shocking aspect to the carnage that feels invasive in a way most shock artists can’t conjure. You never get the sense that you’re not watching a master at work, regardless of how scant Ducournau’s filmography is. She is the real thing.

You could say the same for her partner-in-crime Marillier, who lets viewers join her heroine’s journey of carnal knowledge through carnivorous free-fall. A dead ringer for the fictional future offspring of Paul Dano and Saoirse Ronan, the 19-year-old actor can radiate innocence, depravity or bewilderment in a glance, and toggle between humiliated and animalistically hungry on a dime. It takes a certain type of performer to pull off the abandonment of embracing one’s dark side and barking like a dog when her sister forces her into a drunken canine act at a party, and Marillier instinctively knows where the do-not-cross line is – then fearlessly hops over it. Ducournau is the one who gives this cunning exploration of crossing the no-man’s-land between girlhood and womanhood its transgressive bite; her young star is the one who gives it a recognizable humanity amidst the amuse-bouche arterial spurt. They both allow the film to get under your skin in more ways than one. Your semiotic meal is served. Your appetite for smart, savvy, sick-as-fuck horror will be sated.

Denzel Washington Receives Minister License Following Baptism Ceremony

• By Larisha Paul

2024 Was the Year of Sex Onscreen

• The Naked Truth
• By Louis Staples

'Nosferatu': Robert Eggers' Remake of Horror Classic Is Anything But Bloodless

• Movie Review

Burt, the Saltwater Croc Featured in 'Crocodile Dundee,' Dead at 90

• By Jon Blistein

Amber Heard Supports Blake Lively Amid Justin Baldoni Smear Campaign Allegations: 'I Saw This Firsthand'

• Sounds Familiar

Most Popular

Pamela anderson’s son brandon thomas lee made it his ‘personal mission’ to shatter hollywood’s view of his mom, blake lively sues 'it ends with us' co-star and director justin baldoni for sexual harassment, all about ethan slater’s ex-wife, lilly jay & her response to his relationship with ariana grande, sfmoma head curator eungie joo fired for alleged workplace misconduct, you might also like, amber heard speaks out on blake lively’s allegations after justin baldoni hired johnny depp’s crisis pr team: ‘i saw this firsthand’ and ‘it’s horrifying’, edward ‘eddie’ haddad, founder of haddad brands, dies at 83, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, what’s your favorite christmas tv episode, si sees tranquil ending to tumultuous 2024.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

• Focus World

Summary Everyone in Justine’s family is a vet and a vegetarian. At sixteen she’s a brilliant student starting out at veterinary school where she experiences a decadent, merciless and dangerously seductive world. Desperate to fit in, she strays from her family principles and eats raw meat for the first time. Justine will soon face the terrible an ... Read More

Directed By : Julia Ducournau

Written By : Julia Ducournau

Where to Watch

Garance marillier.

Rabah Nait Oufella

Laurent lucas, joana preiss, bouli lanners, marion vernoux, l'infirmière, thomas mustin, chef du bde, marouan iddoub, bizut réfectoire, jean-louis sbille, professeur évaluations, benjamin boutboul, vétéran cagoulé, virgil leclaire, bizut couloir, foot, fin coryphée, anna solomin, vétérane couloir, sophie breyer, bizute réfectoire, danel utegenova, bizute toilettes, bérangère mc neese, bizute peinture, morgan politi, barman fête chu, alice d'hauwe, étudiante fête chu, julianne binard, pierre nisse, etudiant vidéo fête chu morgue, critic reviews.

• All Reviews
• Positive Reviews
• Mixed Reviews
• Negative Reviews

User Reviews

Related movies, dekalog (1988), the conformist, citizen kane, the leopard (re-release), the godfather, tokyo story, lawrence of arabia (re-release), rear window, three colors: red, fanny and alexander (re-release), touch of evil, army of shadows, city lights, intolerance, the rules of the game, seven samurai, the wild bunch, au hasard balthazar, related news.

2025 Movie Release Calendar

Jason dietz.

Find a schedule of release dates for every movie coming to theaters, VOD, and streaming throughout 2025 and beyond, updated daily.

DVD/Blu-ray Releases: New & Upcoming

Find a list of new movie and TV releases on DVD and Blu-ray (updated weekly) as well as a calendar of upcoming releases on home video.

The Worst Movies of 2024

We rank the lowest-scoring films released in 2024.

December 2024 Movie Preview

Keith kimbell.

The month ahead will bring a new Robert Eggers horror film, likely Oscar contender The Brutalist, a Lion King sequel, a Bob Dylan biopic, and more. Get details on these and all of the other notable films debuting this month.

The 15 Best Ridley Scott Movies

We rank the highest-scoring films directed by Ridley Scott from throughout his entire career.

Advertisement

Supported by

Review: Give a Student Some Offal, and You’ll Regret It in ‘Raw’

• Share full article

By Jeannette Catsoulis

• March 9, 2017

“Raw,” Julia Ducournau’s jangly opera of sexual and dietary awakening, is an exceptionally classy-looking movie about deeply horrifying behavior. Infusing each scene with a cold, unwelcoming beauty, the Belgian cinematographer Ruben Impens makes his camera complicit in the trashy goings-on. Sneaking beneath bedsheets and sliding over young flesh, his lens takes us places we may not want to go.

Unfolding during rush week in a nightmarish veterinary school, where freshmen are relentlessly hazed, and every night is a bacchanal, the movie clings nervously to the virginal Justine (Garance Marillier). A jumpy faun in a concrete jungle, Justine is a legacy student and lifelong vegetarian. So when a hazing ritual requires her to swallow raw offal, the angry crimson rash that flares on her body seems a physical manifestation of her extreme disgust.

That repulsion is soon replaced by a craving that will drive Justine closer to her sister and fellow student (Ella Rumpf, terrific) and further from her classmates. Her transformation suffuses the film with animalistic energy — like a cat, she chews on her hair, then vomits it up — and her isolation produces a melancholy that permeates even her erotic encounters, where the connection between sex and sustenance is presented with nerve-twanging literalness.

Like Jorge Michel Grau’s social-decay fable, “We Are What We Are,” “Raw” is an astonishingly bold debut feature that embeds cannibalism in a framework of environmental chaos and familial dysfunction. There’s no love here, and no comfort; yet the movie’s genius is to make us feel for Justine. Ultimately, she’s just a scared teenager with the world’s worst eating disorder.

Rated R for body-eating, buckets of blood and a spectacularly botched Brazilian wax. In French, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes.

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

What Is a New York Movie? : Whether it was “A Complete Unknown” with 1960s Greenwich Village or “Anora” with present-day Brooklyn, filmmakers put new frames around the city .

From Bad Boy to Good Dad : Christian Slater’s tumultuous past has given way to a “very happy” family life . He plays a father on “Dexter: Original Sin,” too — but to keep a serial killer in check, you still need some edge.

Sex, Death and Nicole Kidman : Between her experience on “Babygirl” and her mother’s death, the star has come to understand a lot about women in unfulfilled lives .

Streaming Guides:  If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings   on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime  and Hulu  to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Watching Newsletter:  Sign up to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows  to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.

On: Yorkshire Magazine

• Terms & Conditions
• Privacy Policy
• Arts Interviews
• Bios & Memoirs
• Film & TV
• Food and Drink
• Non-Fiction
• Live Comedy
• Film Reviews
• Bands & Artists Q&A
• Album Reviews
• Live Reviews
• Photography
• Yorkshire Music Scene
• Yorkshire Theatre
• Spa Reviews
• Business Stories
• Jobs and Work
• Car Reviews
• Motoring News
• Food Features
• Recipe Box Reviews
• UK & International Restaurant Reviews
• Wine Questions
• Yorkshire Restaurant Reviews
• Family & Childcare
• Father’s Day
• Product Reviews
• Mother’s Day
• School & Education
• Valentine’s Day
• Hotel Reviews
• Travel Reviews
• Yorkshire Travel Reviews
• Yorkshire Cycling
• Yorkshire Features
• Yorkshire History
• Yorkshire Sport
• Yorkshire Transport
• Yorkshire Walks

Raw (2016) – Film Review

Director: Julia Ducournau Cast: Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella Certificate: 18

By Sarah Morgan

Like a horror movie you can really get your teeth into?

There are no supernatural entities to battle here. Instead, the ‘monster’ could be said to reside inside the belly of the main protagonist, Justine.

When we first meet her, she and her parents are horrified to find a lump of meat has made it into her meal at a cafe – the entire clan are vegetarians, and Justine has never, apparently, tasted flesh before. But that’s all about to change…

Justine’s parents are about to drop her off at university, a place that seems to owe more to Lord of the Flies than to an actual esteemed seat of learning – her fellow first year students on a veterinary course are subjected to a series of hazing rituals by their elders, including being force-fed raw rabbit’s kidneys.

Justine is understandably reluctant to take part, but her older sister, Alexia, who is also a student, persuades her to do so – it’s a move they, and everyone around them, may live to regret because it sparks a desire for raw meat she never knew she had. What’s more, her sibling has it too, and before long, they are going to great lengths to get what their heart (or stomach) desires the most.

Although Raw is gripping and compelling, it’s not an easy film to watch. When Alexia accidentally chops off her finger and Justine decides to take a nibble, I was left feeling genuinely nauseous. However, the fact I was eating sausages at the time probably didn’t help matters…

“Confident”

The film’s graphic content shocked some cinemagoers on its release in 2016, and it’s not hard to see why – it is genuinely disturbing. However, it’s not so much the gore that really hits home (there are far more violent and blood-spattered movies out there), it’s the cannibalistic element to it, as well as the unsettling atmosphere generated by Jim Williams’ score and the direction of Julia Ducourneau, who also wrote the screenplay.

It was the latter’s first feature-length project, but it’s an incredibly assured and confident debut. It’s no surprise that she’s gone on to win great acclaim for her subsequent movie, this year’s Palme d’Or-winner Titane .

Those who love David Cronenberg’s body horror movies will lap this up, as will anyone looking for something that chills to the bone without conforming to the usual genre tropes. Just don’t watch it while you’re having your tea.

5 Ways to Entertain Your Kids Outdoors

Deathstalker ii (1987) – film review, related articles.

The Addiction (1995) – Film Review

Demolition Man (1993) – Film Review

The Gift (2000) – Film Review

The Stone Tape (1972) – Film Review

Leave a reply cancel reply.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Featured articles...

Snow White – Review – Sheffield Lyceum Theatre

Goldilocks and the Three Bears – Review – Hull New Theatre

Pinocchio – Review – Alhambra Theatre, Bradford

Jack and the Beanstalk – Review – City Varieties, Leeds

Sticky Bottle by Carlton Kirby – Review

Christmas Gift Guide 2024

'Raw' Review: A Grisly, Slick and Weirdly Sexy Spin on Coming-of-Age Through Cannibalism

This 1993 Anthology Is the Best Cosmic Horror Film You’ve Probably Never Seen

This horror anthology series hit levels that not even 'american horror story' can reach, what if i told you the 2018 'halloween' is better than john carpenter's original.

[NOTE: This is a re-post of our review from Fantastic Fest ; Raw  opens in limited release this weekend ]

“Beautiful” and “classy” aren’t usually the first words that spring to mind when you think about cannibal films, but director Julia Ducournau manages to pull off both with her feature film debut Raw . It’s a stunning arrival for a new cinematic talent, demonstrating a clarity of vision and confidence of execution that makes for an insightful, nuanced film that's difficult to pin down.

Raw earned a bit of notoriety for itself when an ambulance was called to the scene of a TIFF screening where two audience members passed out, and that may cast the film in a certain light, but it's not an entirely accurate one. Cannibal horror may be an easy moniker to slap on, but while  Raw is flawed, it is undoubtedly more complex than your average gross-out gore gag. In fact, it's rather restrained with on-screen violence (though that is, of course, a matter of taste). It's not that there's an abundance of carnage that makes Raw a test to stomach, it's that the little that's there is is so effectively done. Ducournau is smart enough to know that chunks of flesh are nothing more than meat unless you care about the people they're coming out of.

In essence, Raw is a college-set coming-of-age story between two sisters; there just happens to be some skin-crawling, flesh-eating moments along the way. It’s an examination of the awkward and uncomfortable years when we first step out of from the protection of our parents and start the messy process of finding out who we really are and what we really want...even the naughty stuff we know we shouldn't. It's also unexpectedly sexy with a streak of wry, irreverent humor that works as a highlighting contrast to the horrors along the way.

The film follows Justine ( Garance Marillier ), and idealistic virgin vegetarian (yes, the metaphors can be a bit on-the-nose), who is dropped off for her first year of veterinary college by her doting parents and immediately thrust into the madness and brutality of her school’s hazing rituals. Those rituals are fairly familiar — barked demands from her “elders”, buckets of blood, interrupted sleep and invasions of privacy, but her life-long innocence is all but instantly corrupted when she conforms to peer pressure (from her older, wiser sister no less) and chomps down a rabbit kidney. Justine immediately suffers a severe reaction that leads to rashes, peeling, and an intoxicating appetite for human flesh that grows more dangerous the more she indulges it.

As far as horror allegories go, cannibalism is right up there with vampirism as a means of exploring corruption and carnal desire, but it’s definitely the dirtier and messier of the two. Perhaps that's what makes it so flawlessly fitting to Ducournau’s story about coming of age through carnage. Exploring independence  is  messy, and discovering who you really are  is  dirty work. Ducournau uses the eating of human meat as a metaphor for sexual awakening and experimentation (sexual and otherwise), but Raw is just as interested in how our identity and concept of self evolves through exploration, and cannibalism also comes to represent Justine’s changing understanding of herself -- both where she comes from and where she’s going.

There is a provocative and engaging subplot between Justine and her older sister Alexia ( Ella Rumpf ) that drives Raw 's deeper meanings home. To divulge too much would do a disservice, but Alexia essentially acts as a foil to Justine's purity, the older sibling who's already "learned the ropes" of their new found freedom and blurs the line between self-discovery and self-indulgence.

But Raw isn’t all allegory and overt metaphor (though there is a lot of that). Ducournau directs with a constant energy, using shots economically, and never letting the tension or the heady current of electricity burn out. One of Justine's classroom scenes demonstrates the sedation of a horse -- a clinical, no-nonsense maneuvering of meat, skin, and bone -- and Ducournau tunes it to an unsettling pitch on par with the film's gorier bits. In fact, I'd wager the folks at TIFF didn't swoon over the more overtly carnal scenes. No, my money would be on a quiet moment about a bikini wax gone wrong (though I can almost guarantee, not in the way you're expecting).

Raw is intimate, it's relatable, and that means we can feel its bloody blows when they rain down. That realism and dedication to keeping it simple allows Justine's bloody rights of passage to transcend sadism and schlock into something singular and special.

Raw  enters limited release March 10.

• Fantastic Fest

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Metacritic reviews

• 91 The Playlist The Playlist Although the film is rooted in arthouse film territory, and is particularly inspired by the films of David Cronenberg and David Lynch, Raw turns out to be its own wild animal.
• 90 The Hollywood Reporter Jordan Mintzer The Hollywood Reporter Jordan Mintzer It’s rare to see such confidence in a first feature, yet Ducournau seems to know where she’s going at all times, keeping the narrative lean and mean while utilizing an array of stylistic techniques – slow-motion, sequence shots and tons of on-screen prosthetics – that never let up until the witty, and inevitably grisly, final scene.
• 90 Screen Daily Jonathan Romney Screen Daily Jonathan Romney The young cast, from the newbie leads to an army of go-for-it extras, are terrific, and Marillier is something else – ferociously expressive in a performance that’s no-holds-barred on every front.
• 90 Variety Catherine Bray Variety Catherine Bray Raw is a deliciously fevered stew of nightmare fuel that hangs together with a breezily confident sense of superior craft.
• 90 ScreenCrush Britt Hayes ScreenCrush Britt Hayes To say that Ducournau’s cinematic introduction is assured would be an understatement; it’s a shrewd, insightful, and surprisingly funny film that feels like the work of a more accomplished filmmaker who has refined their talents over the course of many films and years.
• 90 We Got This Covered David James We Got This Covered David James It’s a wonderfully bizarre movie set in a world that at first glance might be our own, yet quickly slides off the rails into gonzo territory.
• 75 Slant Magazine Chuck Bowen Slant Magazine Chuck Bowen Throughout Raw, Julia Ducournau exhibits a clinical pitilessness that’s reminiscent of the body-horror films of David Cronenberg.
• 70 New York Magazine (Vulture) Emily Yoshida New York Magazine (Vulture) Emily Yoshida Raw is certainly nasty, but its gore is strategic and sparse. It is, however, a very stressful film to watch from beginning to end, even before the real feasting gets underway.
• 50 The Film Stage Ethan Vestby The Film Stage Ethan Vestby Not managing to be as icky as it wants to be, Raw makes one long for the days of exploitation films that compensate for the lack of technical craft with pure, idiotic chutzpah.
• 50 The New Yorker Anthony Lane The New Yorker Anthony Lane The curious thing is that, as with many big-budget horror flicks, this small French-Belgian movie feels too pleased with its own outrage; the grosser it grows, the less interesting it becomes. When the carnage was over, I went out and had a steak.
• See all 34 reviews on Metacritic.com
• See all external reviews for Raw

More from this title

More to explore, recently viewed.