Body horror spends a moment thanks to The backgroundA film that is reminiscent of Sasha Rainbow’s new film Shudder release Graft. But the story that takes place in New Zealand is also based on elements that go back to The king of the genre David Cronenbergthe founding work of, including The fly– and envelops them in a story that spins Nasty girls and even a bit BarbieExamining the worst case in the “girls of girls”.
Graft begins with a flashback which establishes the unusually strong link between a girl named Wei and her scientific father – or makes sure that mad Scientific father, because his resolute research of a remedy against the unsightly birth of the face that he and his daughter pushed him to make very questionable choices. In this first scene, he meets a tragic and repugnant end under his young frightened eyes, and even if you could think This would give him a lesson on responsibility in the laboratory, but this is certainly not the case.
A few years later, Wei (now played by Joyena Sun) leaves China, where she hears a parent say that she has acquired the reputation of being “a monster”, for Auckland, where a complete university scholarship and A free place to study. Live with your aunt, wait. A new start seems to be the ideal solution for this brilliant but socially clumsy student (she is terribly embarrassed by her appearance), but she immediately struggled to integrate, especially since her cousin Angela (3 Body problemJess Hong de) constantly rolls her eyes when she saw how it is a lame. One of Angela’s greatest cruelties is to disrespect the altar that Wei uses to pay tribute to her beloved father, part of their common Chinese heritage that Angela could not be less interested in adopting .
Shortly after, the sordid girls teacher of girls (Jared Turner) focuses on Wei, imagining that the old research notebook of her father – to whom she clings as a sacred text – contains the kind of great discovery that will restore Its declining university reputation. If there is indeed a breakthrough in its pages, as Graft Soon reveals it, nothing will make the world better, and even less a more beautiful place as we ardently hope.
Graft’The first major twist of the intrigue is presented early in the film; We will not spoil any details, but it is so surprising and happens so quickly that you could wonder where the story can go from there. Things can and become exponentially worse for Wei, but she also benefits from some precious moments of surreal joy, testing new identities by herself when she is briefly released from the ugliness she perceives herself who trapped all his life.
While a lot of Graft is there to make you go back to his bad bad drugs, he also spends time digging the subtleties of relations with friends and enemies, especially among young women. Sun and Hong, as well as Eden Hart in the role of Eve, the best friend of the double of Angela Margot Robbie, make social tensions seem just as important as the secret more and more horrible than Wei has more and more and More trouble hiding. The fact that young women derive in lifeless life (Angela’s mother is perpetually on a work trip; her former father is only a voice on the phone) aggravates the spiral of chaos that begins to surround them.
This is still reinforced by GraftThe design of the production of, which mixes bloody crimes in the dark with the fluorescent pink shades of the house of Wei and Angela, where the discomfort is found in the unfinished renovations which clutter its exterior. The film also makes creative stylistic choices, expressing anxiety to receive an email or a bad news with a quick modifications puzzle – and reaches the perfect ambient anxiety trigger by giving Angela a little dog constantly. This also crescendo towards a finish as surprising as it is well deserved, as well as disgusting like hell.
Directed and co-written by New Zealand filmmaker Sasha Rainbow, Graft Begins the broadcast on Shudder on Friday, January 24.
Do you want more news on io9? Find out when you expect the latest news Wonder,, Star warsAnd Star Trek outings, what is the next step for the DC Universe in cinema and televisionAnd everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.