The body horror genre has been making a mainstream name for itself recentlywith the success ofThe Substance. Now comes Sasha Rainbow’s feature debutGrafted, clearly tapping into similar themes about feminity andbody-image issues with gory glee. This take on the subgenre follows an exchange student’s quest to make herself conventionally beautiful. Born with a unique skin condition that she seemingly inherited from her father, Wei (Joyena Sun) takes up his detailed scientific research into grafting new skin onto a body to smooth out imperfections.
‘Grafted’ Crafts a Bloody Revenge Story
An ambitious yet socially inexperienced exchange student strives to elevate her status in pursuit of popularity.
Graftedis something of a coming of age story for this young woman. The origin story with her father, however, foreshadows not just the dangers of her pursuit, but also the inherent struggles the entire film will have. The science of this project is a series of hand-scribbled notes in Mandarin, some wonderfully fleshy sound effects, and then a somewhat imperfect CG flesh-monster effect that takes over the father’s body after he tests the early ‘graft’ on himself. This is what kills Wei’s dad, sending her on a vendetta mission to finish the work he started and make herself beautiful.
Once accepted to a school in New Zealand where she will live with her popular cousin, Angela (Jess Hong), Wei is immediately the star of her science class. This impresses her evil professor Paul (Jared Turner), who is losing his job and in the middle of an affair with the conventionally beautiful — and classic mean-girl archetype — Eve (Eden Hart).
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Wei attempts to do everything the right way in the earlier part of the film. She tries to make friends with Angela and Eve, and attempts to share her genius and father’s mission with her Professor. Unfortunately, Wei is rejected, mocked, humiliated, and taken advantage of. In light of this, Wei decides to impose her will and take what she wants at any cost, which is where the film finds gory glee in body swaps, killings, and torture scenes.
A Clash of Clichés Overshadow Deeper Concepts
Below the surface,Graftedtoys with concepts about diverse looks and cultures versus conventional ideas of beauty. There are powerful ideas about young women faced with strict concepts of attractiveness and acceptance, who are frustrated when forced to sit on the outside looking in. These themes almost sit as a side dish next to the gory mania, exemplified by a scene where Wei attempts to share a traditional meal with the girls she wishes to befriend. They are disgusted by the cultural food norms she is accustomed to, embarrassing her and crushing her hopes of connecting. It reinforces the fact that she doesn’t look like them, eat like them, or sound like them. It leaves her with the one hope… to become them literally.
There is something of an intellectual conflict within this though, since this trio of popular girls is pretty diverse. They each hail from their unique background even if they have become somewhat culturally homogenized in how they speak, dress, and act.
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Grafteddoesn’t spend much more of its 90-minute runtime on these ideas though. The focus must become Wei’s series of body swaps and kills, which become increasingly over the top, dancing all over the fine line between satire and camp. In the initial moments of the movie, we see the grafting attempt by Wei’s father kill him via CG-skin takeover. Later on, as Wei worked on the serum, the process is more reminiscent ofJohn Woo’s Travolta/Cage classic,Face/Off.
In some ways,Graftedcommits a cardinal movie sin in not clearly explaining the rules of its high-concept elements, playing fast and loose with them or redefining them as the story progresses. Audiences will typically accept anything if it’s laid down early within the ground rules of the universe, but when the rules change beneath our feet, we often get restless or find sequences harder to roll with.
Effects (Like Faces) That Don’t Stay Put
One of the uphill battles ‘Grafted’ faces is in the visual execution of its core concept. Faces being removed and placed on top of other faces seem to also impact the nature of the body, which is somewhat confusing. The faces peeling or falling off also look unbelievable in certain scenes,blending comedy with gross-out disgust.
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The complex art of knowing what to show and what to hide is often what makes horror and suspense work. The classic example is how Steven Spielberg ‘hid’ the shark in Jaws for so long. Once revealed, of course, the Shark is never as impressive as it was in our imagination. Alfred Hitchcock was the ‘master’ of leaving things to the audience’s imagination and building tension off of that unbridled force.Graftedpicks its spots, and tries to use suggested visual nightmares to tease things, but occasionally we see too much, and it’s just not entirely believable.
Performances in ‘Grafted’ Vary Greatly
The female leads ofGraftedhave the hardest job. They are tasked with breathing life into some fairly straightforward cliché characters (awkward exchange student, popular mean girl glued to a cell phone, etc.). Beyond that, they also must end up all playing one another. They all end up contributing to the performance of Wei, which is interesting to watch and creates a more dynamic and believable effect than any of the various CG gore-type sequences.
Jess Hong, Eden Hart, and Joyena Sun all do admirable if at times uneven work. The weak link in the cast is Jared Turner as Paul, the criminal science professor who practically twirls his villainous mustache at times. The character isn’t believable as a professor of anything, and he has heaps of bad-guy clichés piled upon him one scene after the next.
The photography and score ofGraftedare its strong suits. The unique horror score helps carry moments that might otherwise fall flat, and the bold, beautiful lighting keeps every scene and sequence visually compelling. There is a lot to look forward to in what director Sasha Rainbow may do next. She’s clearly a thoughtful filmmaker with original ideas and a knack for creating a visual and auditory experience.Graftedbegins streaming on Shudder starting Jun 09, 2025.
