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Plot[]
Noa, a young woman trying her hand at online dating, has become increasingly disillusioned with dates due to the men she interacts with not having general decency. One day at the supermarket, a man named Steve flirts with her and they exchange numbers. On their first date, the two quickly hit it off and have sex. After several dates, Steve invites Noa for a weekend break away alone with him. Against the advice of her best friend Mollie, Noa agrees to the trip. Planning to travel early the following day, Noa spends the evening at Steve's luxury home. Later, the two share a cocktail. Steve drugs Noa's drink and she falls unconscious.
Noa wakes up in captivity, chained to the ground. Steve explains that he is a butcher of human meat, and that he harvests women's body parts and sells them to wealthy clients for consumption. He notes that he will keep her alive as long as possible in order to keep her "meat" fresh. Steve allows Noa to take a shower, but she uses it to try and escape, prompting Steve to surgically remove her buttocks as punishment. Later, Noa befriends another woman named Penny, also being held captive in an adjacent room.
Meanwhile, Mollie becomes concerned about Noa’s disappearance and begins investigating with her friend Paul, a bartender who coincidentally served Noa and Steve drinks on their first date. Searching online, Mollie discovers Steve is actually a man named Brendan, and is married to a woman named Ann with whom he has children. Believing he is having an affair, Mollie visits Ann and informs her of her suspicions. During their conversation, Brendan arrives, and when confronted by Mollie denies any knowledge of Noa. As she leaves, Mollie calls Noa's phone which begins ringing in Brendan's pocket. Ann, revealed to be Brendan's accomplice, knocks Mollie out unconscious.
Hours later, Brendan invites Noa to dinner after she off-handedly asks what human meat tastes like. He persuades her to taste a meal containing the meat, disguised as spaghetti and meatballs, which she reluctantly does. Brendan returns Noa to her cell, and she vomits the contents of the meal. Meanwhile, Brendan takes Mollie away for harvesting. Sensing a connection with Noa, Brendan invites her to another dinner, providing her with a pink dress as a gift. Before dinner, Brendan shows Noa a hidden compartment filled with items belonging to the victims. Noa recognises Mollie's phone among the stolen victims' phones. Following dinner, Noa persuades Brendan to have sex with her, where she pretends to perform fellatio on him and instead bites off his testicles. With Brendan in pursuit, Noa runs and helps Mollie and Penny escape from their rooms.
The three encounter Brendan in the kitchen and begin fighting him, during which Mollie kicks him, knocking him out. They escape into the woods, with Brendan pursuing them with a gun. They manage to attack him again, with Noa taking the gun and shooting Brendan dead. Ann arrives at the house and finds Brendan's body. She encounters Noa in the woods and tries to strangle her, but Mollie bludgeons her to death with a shovel. As she and Mollie relax at a nearby tree, Noa receives a text from a man she went out with at the beginning of the film.
A mid-credits scene depicts five of Brendan's clients in a white room, seated at a table with bleeding human meat at the center. A Satanic symbol is displayed during the end credits, indicating that Brendan and his clients are part of a Satanist organization.
Cast[]
- Daisy Edgar-Jones as Noa
- Sebastian Stan as Steve / Brendan
- Jonica T. Gibbs as Mollie
- Charlotte Le Bon as Ann
- Andrea Bang as Penny
- Dayo Okeniyi as Paul
- Brett Dier as Chad
Reception[]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 81% of 190 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's consensus reads, "As gripping as it is upsetting, Fresh makes a provocative meal out of the horror of modern dating." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 67 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
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