## 2025-02-22 This was pretty good! It has the unfortunate fate of being compared to [[The Substance]], though, which is sort of unfair. They're both body horror movies about women unsatisfied with their bodies, but **Grafted** has about 100x less budget as an indie film, with a focus on a different set of themes. Of course appearance is still the heart of both films. But **Grafted** is focused on the immigrant experience as well. It examines beauty standards for someone who's a POC in a majority-white society, as well as the cultural differences between a POC that just came to a new country vs one that was born in it, and the clashes that come from those differences. It handles all of those themes mostly successfully, but it also felt too long to me...which is wild, because it's like an hour and thirty minutes, but it still could have used some trimming. For a budget indie film it has some pretty good and affecting visual body horror effects. It felt like a mix of Cronenberg and **Carrie**, so if that sort of premise intrigues you, I'd say check it out. But again, the perfection of **The Substance** will forever loom over this film. I just kept thinking about it, against my will. I think on its own it's pretty good, but next to that movie it was just okay. Either way it's a solid feature debut from director Sasha Rainbow[^1], and I'll be keeping an eye on what she does next. And if nothing else, definitely one of, if not *the* best original to come out of Shudder. [^1]: What a cool name btw