Movie Review: ”Fresh” Will Make You Never Want To Date Again

Dating in the modern world is hard. With all the dating apps we’ve hit a bit of a disconnect when it comes to getting to know someone face to face. Some of us have tried online dating, and some of us think it’s too creepy and opt to meet people the old-fashioned way. Well, Director Mimi Cave’s film “Fresh” starring Daisy Edgar- Jones and Sebastian Stan is about to ruin that too.

What it’s about:

The horrors of modern dating seen through one young woman’s defiant battle to survive her new boyfriend’s unusual appetites.

Note: Before continuing to read our review, just know there are some spoilers ahead.

The moment we saw the trailer for Fresh, we were curious. It looked creepy and left us with questions. Going into the film, we thought we had a pretty good idea of what it was about but there was so much more than we expected. Noa (Edgar-Jones) has been attempting to navigate the dating world filled with apps yet all she’s been getting are a bunch of assholes like Chad, the one she meets up with at the beginning of the film. By the way, why do they always make guys named Chad, absolute D-bags? Anyhoo, Noa’s gone through a lot of frogs. Then comes nice guy Steve (Stan) who turns it all around.

When Noa meets Steve at a local grocery store, they have an instant connection. He’s charming and sweet and has a good career as a plastic surgeon. The biggest plus is that she’s getting to see right in front of her face what kind of guy he might be. After going on a few dates Noa is clearly smitten. Steve invites her to go away for the weekend and to her best friend Mollie’s (Jojo T. Gibbs) dismay, she goes. First of all, Noa has known Steve for like two seconds, so we were totally with Mollie because going away for an entire weekend with some guy you barely know is not a good idea. Boy, were we right.

We knew things were going south when the place Steve took Noa to was woodsy and in the middle of nowhere. Not to mention cell service is not an option. Things quickly turned dark when he made her a drink. Take note ladies because yes, you can still be drugged even by the guy you’re dating. Noa realizes too late that something is off and immediately passes out. This happens thirty minutes into the movie and the title card pops up along with opening credits. My mouth dropped open, and I was thinking to myself, “was that like a prologue or something? Do you mean to tell me the movie just started now?” That was an indication we had a lot more in store.

When Noa wakes up she’s chained to the wall and Steve reveals that he’s in the business of nabbing women and selling their “meat.” Yes, you heard that right. He’s selling the women’s bodies for food. I’ve watched movies about cannibalism before but nothing quite like this. Fresh is like a mashup between Hostel: Part Two and Silence of The Lambs.

The thing about Steve is that he keeps the women held captive for extended periods of time and he slowly cuts pieces of their bodies off to be frozen like he works in a freaking butcher shop. When the buyers are ready, he cooks the parts and puts together a special box. Think of a subscription box you get but imagine its this one prepared by Steve. The boxes come with a photo of the woman the meat belongs to and a pair of their panties or some other lingerie.

Noa discovers that she’s not Steve’s only captive, so she works to save herself and the rest of his victims. The whole film is a wild ride. I have no idea what was going through Lauryn Kahn’s mind when she wrote this screenplay, but this movie is totally fucked up and will remind you that people we meet in person in the dating world can be just as dangerous as the ones we meet online.

While Fresh has its WTF moments, it’s a film that is oddly entertaining. Sebastian Stan and Daisy Edgar-Jones worked together so well and both of them pull you in. Sebastian really kept me glued to the screen though. He is definitely a charismatic guy and watching him prepare his meat boxes while dancing and singing along to “Obsession” by Animotion while creepy, will also put a smile on your face. I think that Mimi Cave did a good job of keeping a story like this one a little light-hearted because obviously it deals with a pretty dark situation.

While I did enjoy Fresh, there were some things that I felt were not fully explained. With a run-time of almost two hours, I think we should have gotten a little more insight into why Steve started doing what he was doing. We do learn that he got his first taste of human flesh at age 19 but, we don’t know how that even happened or who introduced him to it.

Also, Steve told Noa that the people interested in the human flesh were the “one percent of the one percent” which is basically five men we see in a few flashbacks opening up their boxes and eating the meat. What we don’t know is who these creepy assholes are. At least, with the Hostel movies we kind of got to see faces and know what was driving them to do the things they did.

Maybe it doesn’t matter in this film and it’s just to remind women some men are not to be trusted. There are a lot of moments in Fresh that showcase what it is like to be a woman and how we pretty much always feel as if we’re in danger from the men around us. You can’t help but feel Noa’s anxiety over thinking a man is following her as she walks to her vehicle. When she pulled out her keys and got them in the ready position, we felt that. Even Noa’s conversation with Steve as to why he only goes after women for their meat is significant.

Despite some of those unanswered questions I had, it is a good movie, and you will enjoy it. The final moments will have your jaw on the floor and if you’re a weirdo like me, you’ll probably be laughing. One thing’s for sure, It may make you re-think dating.

Other Thoughts

• The soundtrack for Fresh is so dance worthy.

• Sebastian Stan and Daisy Edgar-Jones dancing.

• Sebastian Stan dancing alone.

• Chad was a dickwad. His comments about women and the way they dress was so cringe. Also, the nerve of him to expect Noa to pay and then call her a stuck-up bitch. I would have knocked his bag of Chinese food right out of his damn hand.

• “Fuck Ariel, stupid bitch left the whole sea for a man.”

• “Fuck beauty. Fuck the beast. I am the beast.”

• It’s interesting that we assume nowadays because someone doesn’t have social media, they’re shady. Why? We didn’t all grow up on it to begin with.

• The “I’m taking your ass” scene had me shooketh. No, we aren’t talking about a sex thing.

• The way I laughed when Steve said, “Welcome to My World.” I can’t help that I thought about Fifty Shades of Grey, okay? Let me live.

• Mollie is smart. It’s always good to have friends who are internet savvy and pay attention to details.

• Still trying to figure out what the significance of the cherries was because Steve and Noa ate a lot of them.

Fresh is available to stream on Hulu now.