“Grafted” (2024) is the latest merciless horror film from Shudder. Seeking to continue her father’s work and make herself look beautiful, Wei (Joyena Sun) immigrates from China to New Zealand to live with her Aunty Ling Murray (Xiao Hu) & her cousin, Angela (Jess Hong), to study at a nearby university under a professor with no scruples, Paul (Jared Turner). Due to a series of unfortunate, accidental events, Wei transforms into a homicidal mad scientist searching for a way to cover a family birthmark thinking that it makes her ugly and removing it will get her love. We all drink from the same stream, and director and cowriter Sasha Rainbow and cowriters Lee Murray and Mia Maramara in their first feature film come out strong in a tale that explores similar themes to “The Substance” (2024) and strives to explore more intersectional themes.
“Grafted” introduces Wei as a child, and she did not stand a chance. Even if her father’s experiment did not go wrong, the inexplicably motherless child was not raised in a suitable environment as she witnesses her dad, Liu (Sam Wang), conduct dubious experiments and participate in inappropriate activities more suitable for a budding serial killer. The filmmakers are at their best when they balance the horror with sympathy. Because of how people react to her face since she was a child, and her dad’s reaction to his own blemish, Wei makes it her highest priority to finish his experiment and is an excellent student, but not a person who knows how to socialize. In New Zealand, her earnest efforts to fit in are met with resistance because of her foreignness. If other people were not monstrous, maybe her life would be different. Instead, she is determined to follow in her father’s footsteps and resorts to mimicking others to find acceptance, which has the opposite effect and puts her in a worse position than she originally was.
Angela was born in New Zealand and is completely assimilated, but her association with Wei highlights how she is different from her friends. She suffers from internalized xenophobia and complains that Wei is weird for the wrong reasons—her diet and her practice of honoring their ancestors. Angela is right though so she is sympathetic for being dismissed while in danger and her overdue awakening about her identity. Also Angela is in the middle of a “Hope Floats” domestic drama realization and is not handling it well so Wei proves to be an excellent punching bag since kicking the dog is not an option. Side note: the dog lives.
Angela’s best friend, Eve Meadows (Eden Hart), is happy to mob Wei because Wei is now top of the class. Eve is also projecting her issues on to Wei to externalize her insecurities about her ability to snag an eligible bachelor and stay on top of the desirability food chain. She believes that being sexually exploited is a prize, which makes her a tragic character although most moviegoers will not be as generous with their assessment of the mean girl. Only Jasmine Leilani (Sepi To’a), who is probably indigenous, enjoys Wei’s company and culture and could act as a lifeline, but has difficulty separating from the pack immediately. While most of the characters in “Grafted” are in exaggerated tragic circumstances that render them worthy of sympathy, Jasmine is an almost perfect character whose only flaw puts her on the chopping block. Unlike everyone else, she seems to have a warm, loving family. Even if Jasmine never faltered, Wei spends more time fixated on self-destructive work, which is not worth it.
While Wei may be a mad scientist, and body horror is the draw, “Grafted” is also hard to watch because of the true horror of social awkwardness. It takes a while for Wei to realize that others are insincere, and her violence starts as self-defense, but after being called and treated as a monster, her choices are narrowed down. The difference in countries’ social mores leaves her vulnerable to abuse and manipulation, especially from Paul, which is one reason that some people like immigration—easier to exploit the other because an immigrant is vulnerable, has fewer rights and maybe less familiar with what behavior is abusive and are grateful, a theme explored in “The Brutalist” (2024). It is “Carrie” with science substituting for the supernatural. It is possible that Wei is the problem since the movie never shows her interacting with her classmates in China. If “The Gift of the Magi” was a horror story, everyone wants what the other has, and Wei misses the fact that so much envy directed at her means that she has the potential to be someone special.
“Grafted” opens with such a bang that when Wei becomes unhinged, it is not a reach. The filmmakers take facial masks to their logical, extreme conclusion, and the solution becomes a cross between “Silence of the Lambs” (1991) meets “Face/Off” (1997), which gives an opportunity to Sun, Hong and Hart to play each other and show off their acting chops. (Side note: while Hart was terrific, Anya Taylor-Joy would have killed that role.) Each give stellar nuanced performances that go beyond the archetype of their characters. When people hate their bodies, it leads to self-mutilation, and the filmmakers just make it literal. Without explicitly making the point, beauty standards have a pecking order as Wei sees the world through different eyes and receives better reception with each societal upgrade. The most poignant scene is when she experiences parental love, which has been missing from her life for ages. The sound design is almost as graphic and evocative as the stylized, gorgeous and gruesome visuals.
Whenever a movie starts at such a high point and maintains that level for most of the film, finding a satisfying conclusion is almost impossible. “Grafted” begins to lose steam as Wei decides to give up on being herself and to just fit in. It obviously cannot end well, and the denouement is not exactly satisfying; however, the film works because the bad characters are not the only ones who meet a bad end. Also, it is unclear though implied that the experiment has negative psychological side effects, but it starts to go left field when Wei’s dietary habits change. It just felt like sensationalism for the sake of gore and needed further elaboration.
Another shortfall is the under-exploration of sex in “Grafted.” When she steals people’s identities, the romantic interests are unaware, and there is at least one case of rape by deception. It is a cinematic systemic problem that movies do not treat men in these circumstances with more sympathy unless something additional happens to them. It is just treated as a prurient joke. Also it is implied that Wei has no sexual experience so for her to go from zero to hundred without any psychological ramifications for her seems unrealistic. The men are just treated as clueless for not noticing that the women in their lives have completely altered their demeanor.
“Grafted” is a stylish, textured mad scientist film that falters as it runs out of ideas approaching the denouement. The first half was too strong to sustain the momentum or find a resolution that resonates as much as the story does in the beginning. Overall if you enjoy a merciless movie that does not follow a formula but lets the decent fall with the awful and randomly keep others safe, it is worth a watch even if it does not stick the landing.
