One day, back in February, I impulsively chose to watch a film called “Raw” after reading a blurb of its story on Letterboxd. I was mind-blown, unable to comprehend how a person is capable of imagining and coming up with stuff like this and I watched the whole filmography of the director, Julia Ducournau.
The horror elements in her movies are so fresh and new. It’s unlike anything that I’ve seen before. It was grotesque- but in such a beautiful way. All of her movies have very unsettling elements, like inserting a hairpin into your body for a do-it-yourself abortion or killing a person by stabbing them in the ear by said hairpin or devouring your sisters’ freshly cut finger or swallowing raw liver as a college induction ritual or having intercourse with a car or your skin shedding mucus. It’s nauseating. If the feeling of ‘bugs crawling under your skin’ were a movie, it would be her films. That is her style of filmmaking and I love it.
Here are her films in my order of recommendation to you,
1.Raw (2016)
This movie is about a girl from a family who are stout vegetarians (not for the reasons you would think) and is forced to eat meat for the first time in college which brings about horrific consequences. If I were to recommend one film of Julia Ducournau, it would be this.
2. Titane (2021)
I don’t think I can summarise this hell of a movie , but let me try. Pregnant Woman who is on the run for murder, pretends to be estranged son of an old man. Go for this movie with an open mind as it has some fantasy horror elements. This film is the wildest , most insane, grotesque and disgusting (in a good way) movie I’ve seen in my whole life.
3. Junior (2011)
It is her debut short film, about a girl going through adolescence. I watched it solely to be able to say that I watched her whole filmography, I would give it a pass though, her other two films are eons ahead.
