Deservedly or not, Raw is one of these “a bit much” films. So fair warning, it’s not for the squeamish, though I’ll touch on that more in a bit.

Raw is French writer-director Julia Ducournau’s 2017 debut feature film in which we follow young Justine (Garance Marillier), a gifted student who’s about to enter her first year at a prestigious Veterinary school that her whole family before her has attended. Her family are strict vegetarians, and there’s definitely a sense that Justine has been more than a little sheltered by her strict parents (Joana Preiss and Laurent Lucas) and up to now.

Just as Justine starts to settle in on her first day with her new roommate and dishy gay best friend Adrien (the scene-stealing Rabah Nait Oufella), the traditional hazing ceremonies begin. You know, the kind of harmless jolly japery kids get up to at Uni, stuff like ritual humiliation and bullying – and forcing everyone to eat a piece of rabbit kidney. Even the vegetarians. Justine turns to her older sister Alexia (Ella Rumpf) for help, but is shocked to discover that Alexia did the same thing last year, and she forces Justine to eat it. This proves to be A Bad IdeaTM, as it awakens a strong and terrible desire in Justine, a deep hunger for flesh that becomes almost impossible to resist and soon develops into a more disturbing and taboo desire. 

But first it gives her a really nasty rash. Ouch.

What follows is a superb film about a young girl who struggles with animalistic instincts to discover what it means to be human. 

Is it a horror film? Yes and no. It’s certainly horrific, and there are some very disturbing and stomach-knotting moments. But at the same time is a touching and often funny story about sisterhood, family, the meaning of humanity and a couple of other themes I won’t bring up for fear of spoiling it for you. I would hate to spoil it for you, because if you have a strong enough stomach then this is a must-see, right through to the powerful ending punch.

Which brings me back to the film’s reputation for being “a bit much”. Whether it really had people vomiting and suffering or whether it was perhaps exaggerated a tad to help drum up sales ala William Castle and his nurses in cinema lobbies (a time-honoured tactic that I can’t really disparage; that’s marketing, baby), it’s certainly safe to say that Raw isn’t for the squeamish. It’s not a gorefest with buckets of blood and chunks of flesh raining from the sky, but Ducournau directs unflinchingly, not letting us shy away from the violence or from such disturbing scenes as Justine’s meat-withdrawal or the unwanted sexual encounter forced on her by the hazing. I’m not particularly squeamish, but there’s a vomiting-up-hair scene that really reached in and clamped itself around my throat. All the blood I was fine with. That hairy vomit? I’m cringing even writing this now. Visceral, visceral stuff. So yeah, viewer beware.

Garance Marillier was just 18 at the time of filming, and her performance is frankly astonishing. I doubt I’m the first to make the comparison, but she has the range and particularly the intensity of a young Isabelle Adjani (I’m specifically thinking of Possession here) and she delivers an arresting performance. She’s completely believable in every stage of Justine’s arc from naive innocent to ravenous monster to actualised human being, and her chemistry with Rumpf is fantastic. Rumpf also shines as the boisterous Alexia, already off-the-rails when we meet her and something of an overpowering force in Justine’s life. They’re perfect sisters, with all the bickering and the nastiness but ultimately all the love that comes with it.

The film is beautiful to watch, too; Ducournau has a great eye for light and shadow, having gone so far as to argue with her DoP and insisting she gets her way on an unusually-lit rooftop peeing scene (and she was right, it worked out brilliantly). The film is perhaps a little slow at times, but certainly no slower than it needs to be. We get to sit with the imagery and chew on it (so to speak), giving it a chance to get under our skin. This isn’t meant to be a thrill ride, it’s meant to disturb and provoke, and on that front it’s 100% mission accomplished.

I thoroughly enjoyed Raw on my first viewing, but this time around I adored it. I don’t know if maybe knowing the journey helped, but there’s lots of clues and tidbits to spot on a second watch that makes it such a rich tapestry.

As I said, Raw is a must-see.  Just maybe don’t watch it while you’re eating your dinner.

★★★★★

• Two commentaries full of interesting trivia on the filming.

• Two deleted scenes that don’t really add much, easy to see why they were chopped.

• Interviews with Garance Marillier and producer Jean des Forets. Some interesting behind-the-scenes info about the funding and distribution, and an insight into the sisterly relationship between Marullier and Ducournau.

• A couple of interviews with Julia Ducournau, in which she practically delivers a directing masterclass and discusses her influences and what compels her.

• A video essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas called A Family Affair – an entertaining deep dive into the family dynamic.

• The Monster Fest 2016 Genre Matters panel discussion – the standout feature for me, a panel with genre filmmakers Marisa Brown, Mattie Do, Heidi Lee Douglas, Julia Ducournau in which they discuss their experiences making genre films.

• The Australian Premiere introduction and Q&A.

• No gag reel, sadly, because that would have been AMAZING