On a lark one night, I watched Nicolas Pesce’s The Eyes of My Mother and, a few years later, followed it up with Piercing, a deliciously macabre mix of gialli and dark comedy. The director immediately became one to watch for me because of the way he could horrify one minute, make me laugh the next and, on occasion, have me feeling both emotions simultaneously. I bring Pesce up because I had the same feelings watching his movies as I did Mimi Cave’s debut feature Fresh. At this point, it’s very difficult for a horror film to really surprise me and knock me on my ass, so when I find one of those rare beasts I want to sing its praises from the rooftop. Fresh is one of those films. Written by Lauryn Kahn and directed by Mimi Cave, this, forgive the pun, fresh take on modern dating, cannibalism and Sebastian Stan’s charm is a darkly comedic and brilliant work of cinema.

Fresh opens on Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a young woman anxiously sitting outside a restaurant and swiping through her dating app. She’s on an ill-advised date with a man who, earlier in the day, texted her to tell her the place only accepts cash, so…you know, get ready to pay for yourself. When she meets the man, coiffed in a designer scarf and spouting statements about how the women of their parents’ generation cared more about the way they dressed and looked, the date quickly descends into cringe. It ends with the man taking all of the leftovers (his brother’s in town) and, when rebuked by Noa, calling her a stuck up bitch.

Welcome to dating in the 21st century.

She’s ready to give up on the dating scene entirely when she receives an unsolicited dick pic. That moment sends her to her empty fridge which, in turn, sends her to the grocery store where she meets Steve (Sebastian Stan), an unthreatening and charming figure who’s picking up cotton candy grapes on his way to his sister and niece’s home. It’s an adorable meet cute, with the awkwardly charming Steve making romantic comedy blunders before asking for her number. “I didn’t think people met people in real life anymore,” Noa confides in her best friend Mollie (Jojo T. Gibbs), bemoaning the fact she’s already thinking about the fact he hasn’t texted her yet. And then he does and they go on a date, where 21st century insecurities are laid bare as Noa complains about the small talk dating forces. “I’ve been alone for so long I’m actually kind of good at it,” she muses.

But Steve sweeps her off her feet and soon he’s planning a romantic getaway for the two of them. And it’s here that Fresh begins to show its gnarly teeth, right before the title card shows itself around 30 minutes into the film.

To explain anymore would give away a lot of what makes Fresh an appetizing first watch experience. It’s not really a spoiler, based on the title and the film’s brief synopsis, to infer that cannibalism makes its way into the story. But the way Fresh unfolds is entertaining and disgusting, crossing boundaries and lines that good horror films should cross. While the script is barebones in terms of character development and paints a mostly one-dimensional picture of its female characters, the way the story unfolded kept me on my feet. Sebastian Stan gets an incredibly meaty role to dig into, one which uses his sublime and effortless charm to subdue the audience. It allows him to play up to his strengths but then upends that expectation with delicious glee as he, for example, belts “Restless Heart” while doing something nasty. The juxtaposition of vacuously cheery pop music and bloodshed balances on the wire between dark humor and camp in such a perfect way.

A good portion of the film takes place in a singular location and cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski brings the same attention to detail he gave in Hereditary and Midsommar. Those pictures looked stunning because of his work and it carries into Fresh, giving it a vibrant sheen that also plays with and against the acerbically funny and fucked up nature of the narrative. He brings with him a signature look and Fresh is all the better because of it. The dialogue, too, from Kahn is bitingly sharp. One moment, you’re laughing in spite of yourself and the next you’re sitting there uncomfortably because of the uncanny way the film utilizes familiar conversational topics surrounding dating and romance and mixes it with dark satire and horror.

A few tropes and issues hold it back, though. The characters are archetypes who don’t really change much throughout the film and the main character is understandably reacting to events as opposed to leading the story. Fresh is more about survival and putting its characters through their paces instead of creating deep characters. The deepest it skirts in terms of character is someone not knowing whether they want to fuck or eat someone. Spoiler alert: it’s probably both. And the film misuses its POC/WOC characters in a trope that I wish would simply go away. It attempts to give Mollie (and her ex) something to do, but falls into the supporting character trope, which is unfortunate and glaring because of how fresh the rest of the film is.