Fresh Review
Dating can be incredibly complicated, frustrating, and, as Fresh demonstrates in its opening scene, tedious. It can also be nerve-wracking, especially for women. Mimi Cave's first feature film dives right into the most unsettling aspects of being single from its opening minutes, using a particularly bad date as a jumping-off point, as if tempting the audience to ask, «what could be worse than this?»
The answer that Fresh provides is «a whole lot,» as the horror-satire moves from something akin to a romantic indie comedy-drama into full-fledged horror. The fact that the title card and opening credits are held back until almost 30 minutes into the film almost seems to signal that intent: what the audience has been experiencing in the first act is not at all what this film is about, and things are about to get far more horrifying.
Why So Many Comedians Are Making Horror Movies
The film is anchored by its two stars, whose chemistry is apparent right from their meet-cute in the produce section of a grocery store. Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Noa, a young woman who is stuck in a rut of online dating before meeting the (seemingly) perfect guy outside of the online realm. Steve, played by Sebastian Stan, is charming, easygoing, funny, and accomplished. All of those qualities are what help him get Noa to agree to a weekend away. This is where the trouble begins.
Fresh, like many other elevated horror movies, derives its story and its terror from real-life anxieties. Noa is the kind of person who lets her best friend know where she is and who she is with before a date, who walks a little bit faster when she notices a man walking behind her. Yet with Steve, she is able to let her guard down, but this is ultimately what lands her shackled in
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