Line #24 Film/Raw


1	[[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/grave.jpg]]
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3	''Grave'' (English title ''Raw'') is a Franco-Belgian horror film released in 2017[[note]]it was presented at the Cannes festival in 2016.[[/note]] and the debut work of Creator/JuliaDucournau. It tells the story of Justine (Garance Marillier), [[TeenGenius a 16 year old girl entering vet school,]] which her older sister Alex (Ella Rumpf) also attends. Like the rest of her family, she's a vegetarian. What she didn't know was that her new school had a long tradition of hazing the freshmen, which she finds quite unpleasant, unlike her roommate Adrien (Rabbah Naït Oufellah) who just goes with it uncaringly. It becomes even more unpleasant when all freshmen are ordered to eat a raw rabbit kidney.
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5	From then on, something awakens within Justine, who will have to struggle with her new compulsive taste for meat, her growing attraction for her roommate (in more ways than one) and her own sister's dark secret…
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7	Has no connection whatsoever to the series ''Series/{{Raw}}''. [[Wrestling/WWERaw Either of them.]]
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9	!!Tropes:
10	* BodyHorror: A source of a large part of the horrific elements of the film.
11	* BuryYourGays: [[spoiler:Alex kills and partially eats Adrien offscreen.]]
12	* ChekhovsGun: Adrien's ski pole, [[spoiler:which he is [[HoistByHisOwnPetard later stabbed with]].]]
13	* TheConfidant: Adrien and Alex play this role in different ways for Justine. The former helps her to fit in, while the latter is the only one who knows about her "little problem".
14	* ConsumingPassion: The uncontrollable cannibalistic urges that arise after Justine is forced to eat meat are portrayed as sexual awakening.
15	* DeadpanSnarker: Adrien shows this right off the bat, and throughout the film.
16	-->'''Justine:''' You're a guy? But I asked for a female rommate.\
17	'''Adrien:''' Well, they got you a [[NWordPrivileges fag]], same difference.
18	* DownerEnding : [[spoiler: Adrien is killed and eaten by Alex. Alex is arrested for the murder and sent to prison. Justine is sent home where her father reveals that the cannibalism in the two sisters is inherited from their mother, who has been feeding on their father in order to satiate her urges. Not only is there no cure, but Justine realizes that she too must find a way to curb her hunger, lest she suffer the same fate as Alex. Whether she's able to or not is ambiguous thanks to the abruptness of the ending.]]
19	* EatingTheEyeCandy: Darkly played with. Watching Adrien play a football game shirtless, Justine spends a looong time ogling his muscles, to the point of having a NoseBleed. It's quite clear that she's struggling to not eat him more than figuratively.
20	* EnvironmentalSymbolism: The vet school setting. A grey, decrepit environment full of wild students and animals (living or dead). It symbolised the awakening of Justine to her animal urges (sexual or diet-related).
21	* FanDisservice: None of the nude or sex scenes are particularly arousing, and in fact, are quite disgusting or disturbing.
22	* {{Foreshadowing}}: The opening scene where Justine's mom lashes out on a restaurant employee for letting a meat ball slip into her daughter plate. She appears as a slightly obnoxious StrawVegetarian, but... [[spoiler: TheReveal shows that she has knowingly maintained her daughters on a very strict vegetarian diet because cannibalism is [[ItRunsInTheFamily familial]]. A second foreshadowing happens when Justine bites off the lip of a fellow student. It foreshadows the origin of her father's lip scar.]]
23	* {{Fingore}}: Justine pushes Alex as the latter was handling scissors [[ItMakesSenseInContext to cut her pubic hair]], which results in a finger flying and Alex passing out. Justine doesn't find ice to preserve the finger while waiting for the doctors [[spoiler:and can't resist the urge to eat it.]]
24	* GentleGiant: Adrien is very buff and has a bit of a foul mouth, but he's a very nice guy overall and greatly helps Justine to adapt amidst all the hazing.
25	* ImAHumanitarian: Justine starts out just liking meat in general, but [[spoiler:eating her sister's accidentally cut-off finger]] awakens her taste for human flesh. [[spoiler:It turns out ItRunsInTheFamily.]]
26	* InterruptedIntimacy: Twice. Justine walks on Adrien getting a blow job and later on him watching porn. [[spoiler:The second time, it results in them having sex.]]
27	* ITasteDelicious: As she fights an urge [[spoiler:to have a bite of Adrien's neck during sex]], Justine settles on biting her own arm behind his back.
28	* IncompatibleOrientation: Justine eventually falls for Adrien, but he's openly gay. [[spoiler:They do have sex together though, which he immediately regrets.]]
29	* InterplayOfSexAndViolence: All over the place, but especially [[spoiler:in the sex scene between Justine and Adrien, where she repeatedly and aggressively tries to bite him, which he may or may not realize.]]
30	* KilledOffScreen: Quicky, the sisters' dog, is implied to be put down (and later shown dead) after [[spoiler:Alex claims that he was the one who ate her finger to cover for her sister.]]
31	* LiteralManeater: Sort of, as all protagonists are human. However, cannibalistic urges are portrayed as purely sexual urges and only involve women preying on men.
32	* ManlyGay: Adrien is muscular, snarky, abrasive, and makes no secret of his sexuality.
33	* PetTheDog: One of the most sadistic examples of this trope, if not THE most sadistic. [[spoiler:Alex sees Justine eating her severed finger, but protects her, anyway, telling their parents that Quicky ate it. This move ends up getting Quicky put down.]]
34	* PsychologicalHorror: Despite the theme, the use of gore in the film is not gratuitous. There is a heavy focus on Justine's internal turmoil and attempts to fight back her own nature, but also to adapt to her new environment as she's much younger than the other students.
35	* TheReveal:
36	** [[spoiler:Alex likes human meat too.]]
37	** [[spoiler:And so does [[ItRunsInTheFamily her and Justine's mom]].]]
38	* SingleTear: Alex sheds one after realizing [[spoiler:that her sister is becoming like her and their mother.]]
39	* ThousandYardStare: Justine finds Alex half-catatonic [[spoiler:after she killed and ate Adrien.]]
40	* VoluntaryVampireVictim: At the end, [[spoiler:Justine's father]] opens his shirt to show several ragged scars where he had previously allowed [[spoiler:his wife]] to feed on him, as a way of demonstrating that [[spoiler:his daughters' cannibalistic cravings are [[ItRunsInTheFamily inherited]]]].
41	* WackyFratboyHijinx: All of the students at the veterinary college belong a group that involves extensive hazing rituals, hierarchies of seniority, and frequent parties/drug raves/near-orgies. All of this seems to pervade practically every aspect of college life at the school.
42	* WildTeenParty: The college/vet school version. Expect an underground location, students getting heavily intoxicated, nudity and [[APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy sex in the corners]].

Context Film / Raw