It is difficult to reconcile the family and familiar spelling of the Disney logo with the horrors which, when Freshwill slip between Elsa and Ariel, between The Aristocats and The Velveteen Spy. But the new iron laws of the cinematographic market have decided so. Acquired during the last Sundance festival, in January, by Searchlight Pictures, author department of the late Fox, now a subsidiary of Disney, Fresha feminist appropriation of classic figures of horror cinema, arises directly on the platforms of the multinational, Hulu in the United States, Disney+ in France (with whom we insist on the effectiveness of the parental control tools made available subscribers).
Steve is the monstrous heir to the “Supermarket Dragueur” formerly sung by Jacques Dutronc
But after all, Fresh is also a tale, a variation on the character of Bluebeard (one of the rare European classics that has escaped American animation cinema). At the start of this first feature film by music video director Mimi Cave, future captive Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) wanders like a lost soul in the hell of dating apps. Until, at the bend of a supermarket aisle, she crosses paths with Steve (Sebastian Stan), a handsome man ten years older than her. He is funny, considerate and soon convinces her to spend a few days with him away from the anonymous town (the film was shot in Canada) where they both live.
Steve is the monstrous heir to the Supermarket flirt formerly sung by Jacques Dutronc (here we approach the heart of the film, without being able to do otherwise than reveal its central spring: in order not to spoil the pleasure, it is better to stop reading it here, even if it means coming back to it later). Like greengrocers and dairy products, the women he meets between the shelves are destined to pile up on the shelves of his refrigerator. As a doctor, he gradually carves up his victims, keeping them alive in order to feed a network of gourmet cannibals.
Playful staging
Lauryn Kahn’s screenplay injects a small dose of ambiguity into the relationship between the ogre and his victim. Steve finds in Noa a little more than a source of calories, and the young woman, once she understands the danger in which she finds herself, will play on this attraction. The pattern that governs stories of confinement and abuse is slightly subverted from the outset. The staging, playful, resistant to the clichés of the genre (the threatening off-screen, the spectacle of suffering) spreads a little more Fresh beaten paths.
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