One of best things about watching a horror movie every single Friday evening is the opportunity it offers to stumble across previously unseen gems. So far, among the old favourites and classic choices, we’ve watched a handful of movies that had either slipped under my radar or that I just hadn’t gotten around to watching. Many of these come from ‘best horror movie’ type lists that I research every now and then, just to make sure that we have enough horror movie choices lined up.
Tonight’s movie was Raw, which had turned up on more than one of these lists. It’s questionable whether I would have even heard of it, let alone watched it, if it wasn’t for Horror Friday–which is (almost) a shame, because it’s a great movie. It’s very different style of film than most of our Friday viewing, which shows how versatile the horror genre is (when it tries). Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy a good stalk’n’slash movie now and then, but I also love seeing what can happen when someone plays with horror tropes but is equally happy to leave the other genre markers at the door.
That’s what Raw is: a horror film that isn’t really a horror film. It has some impressively gory moments, but it relentlessly avoids any manifestation of the stalker-victim scenario. The closest analogy I can think of right now is George Romero’s Martin–the vampire movie that isn’t really a vampire movie, but is absolutely steeped in vampire [movie] lore.
So, in summary, if you want to watch a horror movie that isn’t really a horror movie, but is also relentlessly and undeniably a horror movie, check out Raw 🙂