If you've been around on the internet, you may have heard of this horror movie called Raw. Basically, its supposedly one of the goriest movies ever made. When it premiered at a film festival, supposedly there had to be medics to take care of people who dramatically fainted during the showing. It's THAT bad apparently.

If you don't know what it's about, Raw is a French-Belgian horror film about a girl starting at veterinary school adjusting to parties, hormones, and, also, a possible cannibalistic urge. It also starts when naive vegetarian (irony), Justine, is put through hazing and forced to eat raw meat. Cue the title!

So originally, I was not interested in seeing this movie. It was not on Netflix and not exactly findable on the world wide web. On a personal note, I didn't really feel like having to keep a barf bag near me while I watch this film. I hate gore and the idea just made me feel uncomfortable. I hate seeing blood.

Finally, my luck changed! I was sick in bed one night when I found a reliable source to watch this movie! I could always fast forward through the bad parts, right? There can't be that much blood right?

Well, what I found from this movie was that it was shockingly an extreme coming-of-age movie. This girl, Justine, is thrown into a whole new school with her popular sister. She appears to have no friends before coming here and wanders confused at parties watching drunk and horny teenagers. It's a fish-out-of-water experience much like any newbie entering the party scene, especially alone.

She has to go through a hazing ritual where they're drenched with blood and harassed in the middle of the night to go to parties. The faculty seems to be aware of the whole situation but I can only assume they think this is expected behavior. Could this be a comparison to the lengths we go to meet expectation to society? We're willing to change everything about ourselves to be apart of something and that's considered normal behavior? It's very interesting to think about. Of course, hazing this extreme should not be allowed but maybe in some parts of the world this is normal?

Justine finds her sexuality in her gay (?) roommate and blossoms into a new confident image. However, this image still has the ulterior motives. Of course, she's attracted to him but she also wants his flesh. She struggles between her appetite and still containing her human self. To let herself slowly go and consume humans as a way of survival seems crucial for her body, but obviously, there's social conflict.

The gore was not that bad. I may have watched a censored version but I was not that startled by the content. Of course, veterinary school activities made me look away but the gore was not that eye shattering. I think the direction was very intriguing. A particular scene I found fascinating was one where she starts to show her sexuality and she wears a more revealing dress of her sister's and she's dancing in front of a mirror to Plus Putes que toutes les puts by Orties. Google the lyrics, trust me. It's a sexual and primal song.

I think this is definitely more of a psychological, coming-of-age movie rather than a horror movie. We get to see her lose herself to her primal and sexual urges and I think it's a good story. I think it could be compared to modern-day college, metaphorically I mean. Obviously, being drenched in blood constantly isn't really "normal" that I'm aware of. It's definitely something you check out for a Halloween movie to watch! At least Google the infamous mirror scene I mentioned earlier!