You know that moment when you should not do something, that doing this will have severe consequences, but for that feeling of instant gratification you do it anyways. One scene in Raw captures that moment perfectly, and, for me, it is one of the most memorable scenes I have seen in a film in a long time. When watching, I even caught myself talking to the television.

Raw, directed by Julia Ducournau, is a French horror film that gained some notoriety on the festival circuit after some people needed medical assistance during screenings. Hearing that, you might assume that this is probably another example of French Extreme Cinema, but that assumption is inaccurate. Having seen the film, I honestly cannot pinpoint why Raw has made so many feel nauseous. The film I watched was mostly warm and tender, like the fleshy meat that rests so tightly above your bicep.

If you have not guessed, Raw is a film about cannibalism, but it is also so much more than that. It is a film about addiction, sibling rivalry, self-discovery, and regret. It juggles a lot of themes, ultimately giving us one of the strangest, but also strangely endearing, coming of age tales to ever be put on screen.

Raw is about Justine (Garance Marillier), a freshman who has gained admittance into a reputable veterinarian school. At the start of the film, it seems clear that though Justine is socially awkward, she would be a good fit for the profession. Her parents are both vets, she loves animals and has been raised a vegetarian. But when Justine is told by her older sister, who also attends the school, to eat a raw rabbit kidney as part of a hazing ritual, she succumbs. The experience gives Justine a rash that is diagnosed as food poisoning, though when she recovers, she begins to have meat cravings. But as the cravings persist, Justine finds that her hunger is not satisfied simply by eating cooked meat. Thus, she finds herself becoming increasingly open to experimentation.

To say the horror in Raw is a bit unconventional is an understatement. If you think you know where this plot is heading, I promise, you are in for a few surprises. Raw takes a concept that should have only one direction to go and manages to take it somewhere else. Much of this has to do with the ample amount of sensitivity Ducournau brings to her subject. Justine’s cannibalism comes across as relatable to other, more common, addictions (drug or alcohol abuse) or diseases (anorexia, bulimia) that a young adult woman could acquire when first setting out on their own. In fact, Justine feels more like she is a victim of late adolescence and the insecurities that come with it than she is of her new-found hunger for human flesh.  If she were not in such an awkward stage of in her life, or in such a toxic setting, you get the sense that she could get by as a “functional cannibal”.

Ducournau’s direction in Raw is awe-inspiring. There is a long shot at the end of the first initiation that looked so difficult to choregraph I had to watch twice. Throughout the film, hypnotic images of animals, or else people acting like animals, seers into out heads, effectively underscoring the degression unfolding. But Ducournau deserves the most credit for her handling of her young lead. Over the course of the film, we watch as Mariller’s character transforms from shy, uncomfortable prey to a salacious predator. It is not so much Mariller’s look that changes as it is her mannerisms and posture. The metamorphosis is stunning and shows a tremendous attention detail on both the part of the actress and director. There is one image in the back half of the film of Justine sitting down leering at her schoolmates at party that is particularly powerful.

As a director, Ducournau is still a relatively new face, so I can not tell if Raw will be the one-off horror movie in her future filmography or if horror is genre she hopes to embrace. Obviously, I hope the latter. I love good non-tradition horror films, and Ducournau already has one of the best under her belt. When some theaters provide barf bags out to patrons before screenings of your film (this really happened) and you still manage to get universal critical acclaim, you must be doing something right.