Rating: 3/5
Oh My Horror 2025 | 1/52 | Body Horror
Hunter dons her galoshes and trench coat as she scoops leaves out of her upstate New York house pool. Her husband, Richard, gets ready for work, leaving Hunter to perform the domestic duties. Richard’s wealthy parents bought them the house. Hunter tries to adapt to the constrained freedom of domestic life. Richard is always locked to his phone, leaving Hunter feeling alone even when Richard sits across from her. To Richard, Hunter is the trophy who sits on the mantel of his perfect life.
The movie uses Richard’s mother to convey the transformation Hunter must make if she will adapt to this lifestyle. All of it lives in that familiar presupposition that you are lucky to be alive and to have the privileges life affords you. If you are unhappy, then you must change, not your circumstances.
This is it. This is the best it's ever going to get.
After a positive pregnancy test, Richard’s parents take Hunter and Richard to dinner. Richard prods Hunter to tell an uncomfortable childhood story, suggesting her lower-class upbringing, but Richard’s father interrupts to discuss business with Richard. So, Hunter shoves an ice cube in her mouth and crunches it.
Richard’s mom gives Hunter a self-help book about finding joy. A passage reads, “Every day, try to do something unexpected. Push yourself to try new things.” So, Hunter finds a marble and swallows it.
I’m a massive fan of Todd Haynes’s Safe. This film must take inspiration from Safe, the way it depicts women’s domestic isolation and the mental toll it takes on their well-being. Safe allows us to understand our lead’s choices from start to finish, even as they horrify us. Here, the film is more heavy-handed with how it progresses, pulling in Hunter’s upbringing and therapy sessions instead of allowing us to see the person in front of us.
It’s also a visceral and stomach-churning experience. While Hunter’s pica begins with a marble, it quickly escalates to a thumbtack, a battery, and so on.
Haley Bennett gives an outstanding performance. The filmmakers opt out of the exploitation horror film that this could have been. They care about the character and want us to sympathize with her. Unfortunately, they still handle the material well, taking some well-trodden routes (and a poorly considered one) that distance us from Hunter.
I appreciate several aspects of this movie. I wanted to like it more, but the filmmakers underserve the material they’re dealing with.