Movies
[BD Review] ‘Fresh Meat’ Overstuffs Its Narrative But Still Satisfies
Fresh Meat could have been a disaster. Hell, in some ways it is a disaster. But the film pulls off a minor miracle by achieving a sustainable sense of fun throughout its runtime. While the narrative often gets caught up in its own repetitious cycle and bogged down by first-draft one liners (those clunky exchanges that seek to remind you of the cleverness of its conceit at every turn), it has an admirable sense of character – even if it doesn’t always know what to do with it.
Hanna Tevita (in her debut performance) knocks it out of the park as Rina Crane, a budding lesbian away at college who returns home to find that her family has converted to cannibalism in an effort to gain their patriarch (Temuera Morrison) the powers of immortality. This reunion (and accompanying strife) is cut short when a band of escaped criminals seek refuge in their garage and, ultimately, their house. It’s here that Fresh Meat turns into something of a home invasion movie, a detour it sticks with for the entirety of its 2nd act before placing its focus back on the family in the 3rd.
The criminals themselves are impressively distinctive as well, most notably Kate Elliott’s Gigi and Leand Macadaan’s Ritchie (who spends much of the film in a bra and panties after surfing a severe bite on his penis). But once the four criminals decide to split up, each taking their own hostage from the family to different areas of the house, the film sputters. Each family member’s personality (and conflict) has already been established. We know that Morrison’s Hemi is jealous of the success of his wife, Margaret (Nicola Kawana). We know that he thinks he’s immortal. We know that little brother Glenn (Kahn West) hasn’t formed his own identity or moral compass yet. But we get to hear all of this all over again (and experience the same jokes all over again) once the family is forced to bounce off their assailants instead of each other.
Thankfully, the tables are fairly easily turned and the interpersonal dynamics of the Crane Family are allowed to take center stage and escalate during the film’s 3rd act. This is the kind of move that usually doesn’t work, but here it does. And it’s because Fresh Meat is willing to let its characters finally break out of their cutesy mold and become an actual threat to one another. Suddenly we’re in territory where I actually can’t predict what’s right around the corner, which makes for an entertaining and engaging climax. It’s a surprisingly bloody, chaotic blast that veers into some mean-spirited territory without losing the film’s playful tone.
Ultimately, Fresh Meat is a good deal of fun. The gore is heavy and prevalent, but so day-glo happy that it never becomes truly disturbing. It’s a loose, ramshackle film that might grow tiresome in spots, but if you can latch onto and invest yourself in Tevita’s character you’ll zero in on a satisfying coming of age story.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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