At the beginning of the movie, one might be deceived by the image of Justine, a seemingly innocent young girl entering veterinary school. As a strict vegetarian, she definitely did not know what she was getting into trying out meat for the first time. Her true character was revealed. It became some kind of addiction. She would try it over and over again, not to mention lusting over her best friend/ room mate’s flesh and would turn to choking herself to regurgitate all the meat out of her system. She had thought she was going crazy and she did not know how to stop the cycle, only to find out her sister, Alexia, has been on it all this time. Alexia acknowledges whatever it is going on with her sister.
This drama-horror is a visually disturbing movie with scenes that will be better off with your eyes closed. Some scenes include watching two sisters literally biting each other’s hands off like wild animals, regurgitating tresses of your own hair, deliberately getting cars into accidents to devour the victims and seeing your best friend dead beside you, only to find out he was eaten by your sister. Every scene made me ponder whether or not the scene was a mere dream or if it were reality.
The director has a great technique and style in letting us go deeper into Justine’s life of cannibalism unfolding before us. From watching her experiences of gripping, soul-stirring nightmares under her bed sheets to watching her eyes full of desire lust over the people’s flesh. The audience is left overwhelmed with scenes of carnage in unsettling ways.
Aside from cannibalism, we are also let in on disturbing hazing rituals in colleges, and other common harassments that could happen in school grounds. The audience understands the pressure she’s feeling from entering this school almost clueless, wanting to succeed and find herself, she was forced to eat rabbit kidney as a part of the many alarming initiations the school had. Moreover, it touched up on familial relations like sibling relationships and it was a fearless and spectacular performance by the two sisters. It was the same vet school both her parents attended and her sister is currently attending. Towards the end of the movie, it was later unveiled that her mother suffered from the same illness. No wonder their mother was so adamant about not eating meat as seen in the first few minutes of the film. From this, it gives us hope that Justine could eventually find a solution to this, the same way their mother did and still found a way to live a somewhat “normal” life with their father.
One thing is for sure, it is not for those afraid of the sight of blood and human flesh. To me, it was not scary but rather disturbing. It does not exactly startle you but you would much likely choose to look away in a lot of scenes. Nevertheless, it was entertaining and captivating— the twists and turns of the movie make it a strongly executed film. This cannibal fantasy film was definitely gruesome. It went on from being a subtle horror film to frame after frame of horrifying flesh-eating scenes. Many unpleasant aspects of humanity are portrayed in the film like cannibalism, humiliation and even topics of sexuality, which makes it somehow relatable. It’s an ingenious film that has a fresh take on cannibalism, blurring the lines between a growing sense of self and pleasure-seeking.
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European Film (2019) 