Fresh (2022) is the debut feature film of director Mimi Cave, and stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan, Marvel’s Bucky Barnes. With its close-up shots and bright cinematography, it starts out innocently enough with the two lead characters seemingly lost in a new romance.
However, when the opening credits roll in after half an hour, it becomes more and more unsettling until its dark subject matter finally comes forth. The film takes several well-worn tropes of modern love stories and combines it with shocking reveals and tongue-in-cheek humor for an unconventional and darkly comedic thriller.
What Is Fresh About?
The film begins with Noa, the jaded, twenty-something protagonist, on a date with someone she matched on an online dating app. After telling her that she should wear dresses and taking her food, the guy ends up insulting Noa and storming off when she politely declines another date. Understandably so, she is irked by the swipe-right culture and is disillusioned about the notion of love.
Later on, she runs into a plastic surgeon named Steve in the produce aisle while at the supermarket. He is good-looking and charming, and she agrees to exchange numbers with him. The first 30 minutes of the film play out as a typical rom-com: they bond over cherries, dancing and the loss of their parents.
Finally feeling hopeful about her dating life, she immediately says yes when he asks her to go on a weekend getaway with him, even though her best friend Mollie (Jonica T. Gibbs) seems skeptical. At the last minute, however, Steve tells Noa that they will leave for Cottage Grove the next morning due to bad traffic, and they should spend the night at his place instead. On the way there, she realizes there is limited cell service and cannot update Mollie about her whereabouts. Once they reach Steve’s luxury home, he hands her a drink that causes her to lose consciousness.
When she wakes up, she discovers that she has been imprisoned in a room. Steve calmly informs her that he is, in fact, a cannibal who plans to slowly mutilate her so that he can sell her meat to a group of wealthy clients. He reassures her that he will keep her alive for as long as possible, since the meat needs to be “fresh”.
While the movie touches on the risks associated with modern dating, it is also quite blatantly about the commodification of female bodies. With an antagonist who sees women as pieces of meat quite literally, Fresh highlights how men think they are entitled to be at the top of the food chain. Even the comically bad date in the opening scene features a casually sexist man who remarks on what “femininity” should be.
However, Fresh does not make any overbearing statements about these causes, but simply shows the difficulties of being a woman. This can also be seen when Noa walks back to her car from her date, and is paranoid that she is being followed.
What Is Sebastian Stan's Character?
Sebastian Stan plays the role of Steve (whose real name is Brendan), whose charismatic facade masks a cold and collected demeanor. He fluidly changes from scene to scene, asking for Noa’s number with cheesy pick-up lines to chopping up his former girlfriends while listening to upbeat music. He is completely at ease while carrying out brutal acts of violence — much like the character of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho — and is quite methodical. He makes sure he only approaches those women who have little to no connections to their families, so no one comes looking for them.
Little is revealed about his past, and Mollie warns Noa that it is a “red flag” that he has no social media accounts. It is only until Mollie tracks him down that it is revealed he is actually married to a woman named Ann (Charlotte Le Bon) with two kids. In another scene, Ann is shown with a prosthetic leg, suggesting that she had also been Steve’s victim once and he may have manipulated her to the point that she becomes his accomplice.
How Does Fresh End?
When Noa tries to escape, she proves to be unsuccessful and Steve punishes her by surgically removing her buttocks. From there onwards, she changes her approach and pretends to have an interest in cannibalism so that she can get closer to Steve. As he is still attracted to her, Steve prepares food for her with human meat, and even buys her a dress for another candlelit dinner together.
Noa does not know that Mollie has also been taken captive (after Ann knocks her out from behind). When he shows Noa the personal belongings of his past victims, she spots Mollie’s phone. This is when the third act of Fresh becomes much more dramatic and messy. Noa continues to seduce Steve until they end up in his bedroom. She suddenly bites his private parts, shoves soap into his eyes, and grabs the keys to the cells and her phone before locking him in his room. She frees Mollie and Penny (another one of Steve’s victims), and they are about to escape when Steve manages to get out as well. The women knock him out and finally head out of the house towards the woods. Steve emerges again with a gun, until he is tackled and shot dead by Noa.
Ann arrives at the scene by this time and discovers her husband’s body. When she runs into Noa, she attempts to strangle her before being killed by Mollie. As the two friends collapse to the ground together in exhaustion, Noa hilariously expresses disbelief at the fact that Steve was married all along. The final shot shows a text popping up on Noa’s phone (“U up?”) from her date from the first scene.