Grafted (2024) review – A messy but visceral addition to the body-horror revival

Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are checking out a brand new Shudder body horror in the form of Grafted (2024), from director Sasha Rainbow. The tagline for this movie is “Beauty is only skin deep”, which sort of hints at the message contained within the story.

Before we start, if you are looking for some answers regarding this movie, check out our brand new Grafted Ending Explained article but, keep in mind, there are spoilers, unlike this review which is spoiler-free.

Another horror commentary on beauty standards

This is a film that places the focus on perceptions of beauty, bullying, and the lengths a person will go to to obtain popularity, all the while blending together a number of disparate elements into one fairly satisfying horror package. There are distinct whiffs of movies like Mean Girls, Freaky Friday, and Re-Animator, here.

Grafted follows the story of Chinese exchange student Wei (Joyena Sun) who moves to New Zealand in pursuit of academic success. Wei is an incredibly gifted, but extremely socially awkward girl with aspirations of becoming a scientist.

Born with a birthmark on her neck, she dreams of a way to remove it so that she can become, in her mind, beautiful like the other girls—a dream which will lead her down a spiralling path of violence and betrayal.

A tale of two halves

Grafted is a movie of two halves. If I am being honest, two rather disparate halves that are sure to divide viewers. Hell, I am part of that conversation as it wasn’t until the movie began to open up into something altogether crazier that I actually started enjoying it.

Some will really relate to, and appreciate, the earlier portion of the film where Wei’s story of bullying and feminine beauty standards take centre stage. Despite being generic, this part of the film acts as something of a character study.

“Grafted is a movie of two halves. Two rather disparate halves that are sure to divide viewers.”

A horror with a message, exploring, albeit only surface-deep, the struggles of women within their peer groups and the exploitation they suffer as part of a male-dominated society. It is slow-moving but keen to portray Wei’s complicated life as a loner with self-image issues, and immense struggles to fit into a society she deems to be too different from herself.

Others, however, will really enjoy the second half where the movie really lets loose, turning into a completely traditional horror movie complete with cat-and-mouse chase scenes, ridiculous levels of violence, horrifying mutations, and chaotic craziness. The message is abandoned, perhaps even spat on, to be frank, and the ridiculousness of the genre takes centre stage. This is a movie of two halves, and it is unlikely many will equally enjoy both.

It can be a fairly uneven ride

My problems with the first half were that it simply didn’t feel all that interesting. Naturally, it’s nothing particularly original. The overly familiar setting of a university, replete with beauty-obsessed young adults (that look far too old to actually be portraying people in their late teens), is uninspiring, and I found that the opening half plodded. The clumsy script gets in the way of the important message, and it all feels extremely predictable and a bit lazy.

The story doesn’t make a ton of sense, either, and some of the body horror stuff feels a bit out of place—a bit forced, if you will. I can’t count the number of horror movies I have watched where a slightly atypical person is bullied by the popular kids. Early on, it’s hard to see how Grafted can add anything new to that formula. I should point out, however, that it seems like this is the part of the movie that many really enjoy.

There are numerous quick cuts that make no sense, leaving you wondering what the hell just happened.

It doesn’t help that the movie feels very poorly put together, in parts. Direction is a bit lacking, and the editing is awful. There are numerous quick cuts that make no sense, leaving you wondering what the hell just happened.

There’s, also, a distinct sense of chaos about the picture, with certain shots feeling like dream sequences, despite actually happening, and the continuity seeming a little messy. That’s without mentioning the leaps of logic involved in some of the later parts of the movie. Grafted demands that you ignore much of the silliness and fill in the blanks for much of the story early and often, hinting at a director lacking in experience.

It picks up a lot later on

Things do pick up, however, in the horror department; it just takes a while for it to happen. As Wei’s situation grows more complicated and more intense, she resorts to drastic measures to capture the beauty that she deems to be so important. It’s difficult to elaborate without spoiling the plot but, suffice to say, it involves her adopting other people’s identities, just in a slightly more visceral way than you may expect.

This is when the movie, for me anyway, began to shine. Wei’s attempts to blend in with the popular kids while she adopts these alternate personalities are both comical and engaging. Her awkwardness persists, and the “fish out of water” elements of the story take on a whole different angle. The continuous escalation of the events affords the movie a chance to really dive into some creative chaos, making for some genuinely fun scenes and some hilarious moments of madness.

Acting picks up, at this point, as well. Joyena Sun, as Wei, is very strong throughout, doing a commendable job of portraying a socially awkward person. But the other cast members get a chance to stretch their acting legs, with Eden Hart and Jess Hong both doing a brilliant job when called on to act just a little strange.

Naturally, the movie’s messages around bullying and acceptance sort of go out of the window a bit, transforming the seeming protagonist into a raving lunatic, but it turns out to be quite a lot of fun. I really enjoy movies that place a focus on characters who are just a little different, especially female characters, and Grafted does a good job of this. Wei is an interesting character who becomes fascinating as the movie goes on and she morphs into something of a modern day Asami Yamazaki.

It’s part of a female-led body-horror revival

Coming hot on the heels of 2024’s The Substance, Grafted offers an opportunity to further indulge in the gruesome body-horror genre. Given the success of the aforementioned horror masterpiece, I expect to see more of this over the coming years, with the sub-genre gaining a bit of a boost. That’s not to say that Grafted was inspired by The Substance, of course, but there are a few similarities.

“Grafted does a nice job with its special effects. Some of the scenes are legitimately toe-curling, and Rainbow never shies away from the more wince-inducing shot.”

Many of those similarities come along with body-horror itself: gruesome, overly detailed depictions of flesh being stripped from bone, injuries that look beyond painful, skin being peeled from faces, etc. But Grafted also leans into some mutation stuff that looks fairly horrifying and may be appealing to fans of The Substance who haven’t indulged in the body-horror thing all that much in the past.

Grafted does a nice job with its special effects. Some of the scenes are legitimately toe-curling, and Rainbow never shies away from the more wince-inducing shot. Scenes of characters picking, obsessively, at their skin really provoke a genuine feeling of discomfort. Some of the kills are pretty nasty, as well, though not exactly the best part of the film. As far as what you expect from body horror, Grafted ticks a lot of the boxes.

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