To My Beloved, Raw (2016)

To My Beloved Raw (2016):

You are a freaky little bitch! And I mean this in the most sincere way! First things first: please never change. You cannot because you are a film, but I hope your mother Julia continues to produce more rabid artistic babies. 

In all seriousness, Raw (2016), directed by French hot girl powerhouse Julia Ducournau, is a masterpiece in exploring the messy, fucked up nature that is the coming of age. At the age of 27, I still deeply relate to protagonist Justine and her visceral exploration of her desires. Ducournau manages to craft one of the most disgusting films ever made, that at the same time is a beautiful ode to the real life horrors that come from peer judgment.

If you have not seen the film yet, do yourself a favor and stop reading and go watch it. It’s available to stream in many places and though it is gore central, I promise that it’s worth it.

Raw (2016) follows a young girl named Justine who is walking in the footsteps of her entire family by attending veterinary school. Her family are all vegetarians, something that Justine takes very seriously prior to the start of the school’s very intense hazing process. This is the only plot point in the film that is questionable, unless vet schools in France are really like this, in which case I am scared. After being forced to eat a raw rabbit kidney, Justine discovers a hunger for raw meat, which leads to her eating her own sister’s finger that was cut off in an accident. The rest of the film chronicles Justine as she discovers that her sister has the same hunger for human flesh, and we witness all of the humiliation Justine endures as her classmates find out.

Though, yes, Raw is a film about a young cannibal girl, it is all a metaphor, as horror often is. The main takeaway from the film is that having a body and going through life changes is disgusting, but we all go through it: so why is there so much shame and judgment placed upon us?

The answer relies on Justine’s family, in this case, something that is highly relatable for anyone with a conservative or strict upbringing. It is revealed at the end of the film that Justine’s mother has the same trait, and we understand the reasoning behind the strict vegetarianism and restrained lifestyle growing up. Breaking free from these expectations seems to send Justine off the edge, when in reality, she is just exploring what she wants. The taste for human flesh is a pretty one to one allegory for a sexual awakening and the desire for pleasure, something Justine has clearly been denied prior to university. 

In all of the scenes where Justine is experiencing lust or hunger for flesh, the shots are filmed in a sensual manner, conveying the line between her cannibalism and sexual desire. The film, in its entirety, refrains from placing judgment upon Justine and rather makes it clear that her desires are not her fault and that the attempts to repress them will not work.

Raw is lit with miraculous color, steeping the film with the vibrant experience of curiosity, all to contrast the drastic disgusting reality of body horror. Every specific choice Julia makes shapes the film into a very specific visceral feeling that the viewer can recognize, and even if they cannot, are invited to empathize with.

Thank you to Julia for allowing youth to be as messy and disgusting on screen as it is in real life. My own coming of age is happening now during my late twenties, and that claustrophobic feeling of being categorized as Other is all too real. Adult life at times feels like an extension of the social statuses formed in a school setting, but this time is defined by wealth, privilege, and power. I did not experience romance or the feeling of being desired while in high school or college, and this is an insecurity that haunts me. All past crushes have only reacted to make me feel as if I must be out of my mind to think that someone would want to date me, and so I’m in my late- twenties during a pandemic trying to tease those feelings apart. The stakes feel higher than ever, and with Justine’s stakes being at a record high, her arc feels extremely cathartic.

As Justine is bathed in blood, looks as slutty as she wants dancing in front of her own mirror, and tears a chunk out of her make out partner’s lip, I want to throw her a party for all of it. To see a girl go feral is a comfort when that’s all you’ve ever wanted to do after having a sheltered life.

Though I will not be turning into a cannibal, I do hope to find my own messy fluorescent freedom in a post-COVID world some day.

Thanks to Julia and Justine for a finger-licking good romp curled up under the sheets.

Your Past Lover and Forever Friend, 

Taylor