Grafted (2025) by Sasha Rainbow


Director: Sasha Rainbow
Year: 2025
Country: New Zealand
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Mad Doctor

Plot:
Going to live with her aunt, an aspiring medical student tries to fit in with her new family and their friends while continuing to advance the studies her father set out to accomplish, but when she’s forced to use it before she’s ready finds her life upended and is forced to take drastic actions to see her work.

Review:

This was an overall enjoyable and highly effective genre outing. One of the stronger aspects of this one is the generally solid setup that offers a fantastic starting point for the type of material present in this one. Going with the idea of her attempting to ingratiate herself within her new family following the death of her father which means attempting to make friends with her cousin and her group of friends at school since they’re nearly the same age only failing due to her inherent quirkiness compared to them provides a nice bit of conflict while she tries to help grieve her dead father that brings her there to begin with. Stuck with her antiquated notions and beliefs that conflict with their more modern approaches to life and social upbringing, the way she starts to loosen up and let go of herself so that she can get a fun role reversal as times go on involving the change in personality going forward.

As well, there’s also plenty to like with the growing realization of what her work is actually accomplishing. The initial stages of her advancement in the class and what's wrong with the deviant teacher show off nicely her desire to finish her father’s formula and what it means to her, even going so far as to graphically mutilate herself to show that the whole thing is worthwhile. When the opportunity presents itself to use the formula and attempt to maintain a sense of social order, this one becomes a more overtly traditional genre effort with some gruesome kills, bloody stabbings, close-up surgical sequences, and even some fun stalking scenes along the way which has a generally fun time leading into the solid climax introducing some fantastic body-horror into the equation that’s effectively utilized. Overall, these manage to give this one quite a lot to like about it.

There are a few issues with this one that hold it back. One of the main pressing factors is the seemingly illogical manner in which she manages to work her work through her friend group without anyone noticing the duplicity of everything happening around them. The physical difference between her and the victim she takes out and assumes control of is quite remarkable, not to mention an obvious height and weight difference that shouldn’t fool anyone who knew the victim. Even more apparent is how little she attempts to mimic their style or mannerisms so it just looks even more apparent how lame the duplicity really is and how she attempts to get away with everything. The other issue here is the abrupt and sudden change into turning into a straightforward slasher where the whole point of her going into this type of figure is somewhat obscure which is never really built up to making for a few drawbacks that bring this one down.


Overview: ****/5
A rather enjoyable and likable genre effort, there’s some really enjoyable factors to this one that help to hold this one up as a few slight drawbacks do lower it only slightly. Give it a shot if you’re a fan of the style presented here, are curious about it, or aren’t turned off by these issues while others should heed caution with it.

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