'Raw' is a squirm-inducing sibling rivalry horror-comedy

I expected the new French thriller Raw to be many things based on its kinetic trailer. I thought it would be intense (it is), that it would be gory (it is) and oddly sexy (it is that too), but I must admit I never expected it to be funny.

The film, directed by Julia Ducournau, is generating buzz for its grisly qualities -- it is about cannibalism in part, after all -- but it's not so much terrifying as it is queasy and creepy. And at it's at heart a very clever dark comedy about competition between sisters taken to its furthest extremes.

It's a visceral, dynamic piece of work that feels like a wholly original vision. If you can stomach it (and for some, that'll be a big 'if').

I like to think of myself as someone with a high tolerance for gore, and this film takes an almost gleeful delight in reveling in its grossness, but it wouldn't work if its only selling point was shock value. As with all great genre films, it works because you genuinely care about the characters.

It's about a young vegetarian girl (Garance Marillier) attending a very intense, by any standard, veterinary school. The upperclassman, which include the protagonist's charismatic older sister, indoctrinate the new students with some truly brutal hazing techniques (including the forced eating of rabbit kidneys) which seem more at home at some kind of post-apocalyptic fantasy world than the modern one.

Marillier is sympathetic and believable throughout, even when the plot takes a turn towards the truly macabre. But the movie also never settles into the traditional rhythms of a horror film, there are barely any jump scares and no supernatural element whatsoever, which is some ways makes the film that much more unsettling.

Ducournau bathes scenes in gorgeous lights and colors, supplies a throbbing soundtrack and creates an immersive atmosphere infused with sexuality and menace. The results are shocking and always watchable.

Its humor springs out of its sheer audacity -- the movie's willingness to 'go there' in some truly awkward and intimate ways. Now, this may be the result of the fact that this is far from a Hollywood production, but hopefully those American studios are taking notes, because this is the kind of bold, unpredictable moviemaking we always need more of.

I can't recommend it to be people who are easily made uncomfortable or who are in the mood for light entertainment. But I found the experience of watching it truly exhilarating, which is all I could have asked for.