The film caused some audience members to faint at the Toronto film festival, due to highly realistic depictions of bite marks and lacerated extremities
Paramedics were called to a Toronto film screening on Tuesday, after some cinemagoers fainted during a cannibal horror film.
The swoonings occurred during the movie Raw, a blood and guts offering that has been described as a huge, satisfying surprise, but also has prompted one critic to warn that viewers may need to reach for the barf bag.
An ambulance had to be called to the scene as the film became too much for a couple patrons, Ryan Werner, who is handling the films marketing, said in a statement.
Raw, written and directed by Julia Ducournau, tells the all-too-common tale of a vegetarian woman becoming a cannibal after being forced to eat raw rabbit liver during a veterinarian school initiation.
This relatively innocent tasting quickly develops into a lust for man-flesh as the lead protagonist, Justine, turns from a naive freshman into blood-thirsty cannibal.
Often so realistic that they are hard to look at, scenes that viewers of a sensitive nature may find disturbing see lacerated extremities, bite marks and gaping wounds perfectly walk the line between the visceral fun of practical effects and overt attention-grabbing, Variety wrote of the film.
Screen Daily noted that feminist and youth culture angles, plus distinctive visual flamboyance, give Raw a fresh flavor.
It is far from the first time that cinemagoers have bitten off more than they can chew.
In 2012 a number of people fainted during screenings of the horror film V/H/S. Others reported becoming unconscious during the film Prometheus specifically during a scene where a woman performs surgery on herself to remove a space alien from her gut.
Going further back, in 1974 the New York Times reported that during The Exorcist a number of moviegoers vomited at the very graphic goings on on the screen. Others fainted, or left the theater, nauseous and trembling, before the film was half over. Several people had heart attacks.
Raw is a French language film. Its initial release date was 14 May, at the Cannes film festival. The movie currently has a 100% fresh rating on review website Rotten Tomatoes.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/sep/14/cannibal-horror-film-raw-toronto-film-festival
