Director: Aimee Kuge
Year: 2025
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Horror/Comedy
Plot:
After meeting by chance, a man starts a relationship with an outgoing mukbang livestreamer who brings him into her world that slowly comes to include her victims that she kills and cuts up for her career, making him choose between what type of relationship he wants with her.
Review:
This was a fairly decent if somewhat flawed genre effort. One of the better elements with this one stems from its strikingly poignant and specific commentary on the modern nature of toxic relationships and how they operate. The main meet-cute between them and the initial stages of the burgeoning romance work nicely to set the stage for how they become dependent on each other, while the scenes of them going through the early stages of a relationship that would mimic the equal stages of a typical romantic comedy about a free-spirited woman trying to break a shy, quiet person out of their shell makes for a solid and engaging watch. It’s only after several dates and interactions is it apparent that there’s something wrong with the relationship with her using the cannibalism traits to keep him confined to her side as this is the secret ingredient in her live streams that goes about giving him such an obsessive taste for human meat and her that it brings them together even further.
While this works incredibly well in most regards, there’s little else here that works. The romantic undertones for the relationship help to bring them closer together, but it also drains the film of any intrigue or chills, watching as he spends the main part of the running time going through the same interactions with her that can be found in a romantic comedy. Very little of it is threatening or scary, and while it’s not intended to be based on how clumsy and awkward the chase scenes are when attempting to trap new victims, this makes the film rather dull, waiting for something to happen. With the rest of the film involving them livestreaming or going through the pains of being involved in the relationship, very little of this is scary or even wacky enough to be cheesy, with the serious tone in these interactions being quite hard to get through. These come together with its unnecessarily overlong running time to be what holds this down.
Overview: ***/5
A solid enough if overall flawed romantic-tinged genre effort, this was fun enough for what it was, although there are still quite a few issues holding it back. Those who are curious about it or who don’t mind the genre tropes it plays with will have the most to like here, while those expecting more obvious horror leanings might be put off by this one.
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