By Nicole Jide-Ojo – Student Journalist
Mimi Cave’s “Fresh,” starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan, is not a traditional horror movie. Still, it is every girl’s nightmare wrapped up in a bow. It is a movie about a girl named Noa (Daisy) who is seemingly losing faith in the online dating scene. Every guy she’s met is obsessed with society’s patriarchal standards of women. However, Noa does not give up on dating just yet.
The “pretty girl finds a guy who checks all the right boxes, so she ignores the red flags,” trope is as old as time. However, what sets this movie apart from the rest of the romance movies is this darkly twisted comedy spun into the mix. Since there was little to no information about the film except a tiny blurb and the movie poster, a detached female hand in frozen produce packaging with the words fresh over the packaging label, one can only assume what the movie is about. While watching the movie, viewers might still not know the direction it is heading. The film constantly misleads the viewers right from the start with the 30-minute intro and numerous other events where you think something would happen this way, except it doesn’t.
Most of the time, the story is told from Noa’s point of view. The production’s choice of shots/camera angles to go with her emotions really keeps the audience at the edge of their seat from start to finish. The fact that we only knew as much as the main character and the various shots added a well-appreciated eerieness. The combination of those two elements, amongst other things, works well together to produce insanity while remaining aesthetically pleasing.
You will not be disappointed, “Fresh” is definitely worth the watch.