Hulu’s two new films “No Exit” and “Fresh” explore the experiences of women being kidnapped and abused
This weekend, Hulu’s “No Exit” on February 25th and “Fresh” on March 4th show the stories of women being kidnapped and abused from different angles.
The heroines in the film also fought back with the help of their friends and tried their best to escape with wisdom and courage.
Among them, “Fresh” also won a very good reputation in this year’s Sundance Film Festivel for its outstanding performance and novel techniques.
Although the endings of the two films may make the audience breathe a sigh of relief for the protagonists, in reality, the reality of women being kidnapped and mutilated repeatedly is still deeply disturbing.
This type of theme also focuses on the story of single girls who are not around their families and who are most likely to be attacked, reminding female audiences how to protect and defend.
Related Post: “No Exit”: A woman lost in a Blizzard night encounters a kidnapper, strangers help each other but have their own plans.
“Fresh”: Sundance’s stunning debut
Although it is also a thriller work, “Fresh” may bring a stronger visual stimulation, because it involves a very rare “cannibal” theme.
This small-budget film has attracted great attention from fans since its appearance at the Sundance Film Festival because Sebastian Stan, who played the well-known Marvel superhero character Winter Soldier, joined the starring role.
Sebastian Stan also changed his previous screen hero or warm-hearted image and starred in a “pervert” who kidnapped and maimed women.
“Fresh” tells the story of a young single girl named Noa who is tired of dating, finds it difficult to find a good man, and even wants to not marry at all.
But she happened to meet a handsome man in the supermarket to strike up a conversation. The two can chat very well, and this man is a rich plastic surgeon.
Noa thought that he had finally found the right man, and was dazzled by happiness for a while, even if the other party didn’t have a social network account, he didn’t care.
After only two meetings, the doctor named Steve suddenly offered to take Noa on a trip, but didn’t tell her where to go, saying it was a surprise.
Noa also happily followed along, but who knew that he was drugged on the first night. When Noa woke up again, he found himself imprisoned in the cellar with handcuffs on his hands. . .
The doctor also shows his true colors, and his vacation cabin is a living hell.
The first 20 minutes of “Fresh” are built like a romantic comedy, vividly depicting the struggle and exhaustion of single girls in finding a partner and the joy of finally meeting the ideal one.
What happened afterward, however, may surprise viewers. Unlike the previous abduction and trafficking of girls for sex, the girls in the film are treated inhumanely to satisfy a person’s peculiar preferences.
In order to avoid spoilers, I can only say that no matter what happened to these girls, it actually reflects the contempt for women that still exists in the current society.
Many toxic men are still using their power to exploit women with no bottom line.
With his excellent appearance, Sebastian Stan has been playing supporting roles in “Strong Heroine” movies in addition to being a household name in Winter Soldier.
Sometimes he is the protector of women around him, and sometimes he is the villain who betrays them.
And this time, the surgeon Steve he plays is even more perverted, cold-blooded, and well-disguised, and he is completely different in the film.
This also fully demonstrates Sebastian Stan’s acting skills. “Fresh” has an 86% media rating on Rotten Tomatoes, thanks to his outstanding performance with actress Daisy Edgar-Jones.
The latter’s Noa in the film, though seemingly weak, is a victim.
But she also showed amazing courage and wisdom in the second half of the film, dealing with bad guys many times, and even a bloody battle was inevitable.
Noa is the heroine of the “little woman turned female fighter” type that often appears in Hollywood movies. Under difficult circumstances, ordinary women can only resist and escape by themselves, showing the potential power of women themselves.
“Fresh” is actually very similar in structure to the Oscar-nominated “Get Out,” and it’s divided into three parts: it begins with a romantic love story, then uncovers surprising secrets that culminate in a bloodbath.
However, “Get Out” explores race as the theme and accuses the exploitation of African-Americans by the white upper class, while this film is about the exploitation of women by wealthy white men.
“Fresh” most resonates with its depiction of the plight of single women.
The heroine was originally a smart and independent girl, but she still takes it lightly when she meets the person she likes.
When she found out that she was fooled, the regret and despair may have empathized with many women: Are there really no good men in the world?
In the face of endless social news such as fraud, rape, abduction and trafficking, women do gradually lose confidence in contemporary love and marriage.
“Fresh” was bought by Fox Searchlight after acclaimed Sundance Film Festivel and will be available on Hulu on March 4.
“No Exit”: Chinese-American Rookie Challenge Thriller Action Movie
Another Fox-produced action thriller “No Exit,” which will hit Hulu on February 25, also depicts a woman’s abduction and tragic escape.
Havana Rose Liu, a 25-year-old Chinese-American rising star, plays Darby, a young girl addicted to drugs, who was hit by a blizzard on her way home to see her sick mother and had to take a short break in a small hotel.
Here she met four other tourists passing by trapped in snow, but at the same time, she also stumbled upon a kidnapped little girl in a car parked outside the hotel!
Who among these four strangers was the kidnapper? With no cell phone signal, no weapons, and the car can’t drive away, how will Darby rescue the kidnapped girl?
Although the cost of the film is small and the actors are not very famous, the plot is very tense and full of suspense.
From arriving at the hotel, almost every minute was tense, and at the end, there were various crises.
The film also made Darby encounter a lot of cruel and real physical torture in the process of saving people, and the situation was quite distressing.
Chinese-American rookie Havana Rose Liu is actually a model and is studying at New York University. Her father is Chinese and her mother is white.
Although she has only just stepped into the film industry, she has an amazing performance in this film.
The format of the film is small, with only six characters in total. She appears in almost every scene, and has many action scenes of wrestling with villains, successfully creating a gritty heroine character.
Coincidentally, “You Won & apost Be Alone”, which will be released on April 1, is also a horror movie about the experience of a kidnapped girl.
It’s just that this story has content related to alien spirits. The girl turned into a witch after being kidnapped, and incarnates herself as a person to take revenge.
The film was also a small budget and participated in the Sundance Film Festivel, which was bought by Focus and distributed.
At present, because of the increasing number of female directors and producers, filmmakers around the world are constantly developing film and television works with female protagonists.
Among them, women are kidnapped, violated and finally escape, and revenge is a very popular type of story.
On the one hand, such stories accuse the reality that women in modern society are always in danger and uneasy, and on the other hand, they also create strong female characters by showing the heroine’s resistance process.
Often these works are R-rated in order to reflect the cruelty encountered by women, and they are not stingy with the use of blood and violence, and often make people see a happy ending in anger and revenge.
