Grafted (2024)

When I saw the trailer for this on Shudder I said out loud "I am so horny for this movie". It was advertised as "Reanimator meets Mean Girls". While I'm a little disappointed about the Mean Girls delivery, Reanimator is right on the money. The first scene is pretty gruesome and continues to deliver throughout the movie. This movie touches on identity, beauty standards, and cultural expectations among other things. It's worth a watch for the body horror and acting if nothing else.

SPOILERS BELOW

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PLOT

Grafted (2024) follows Wei, a Chinese student with a facial birth mark who moves to New Zealand to stay with extended family after her father passes away. Wei makes it her mission to complete and master her father's scientific research on skin grafting. This same research is the reason for his untimely end.

Wei experiences a culture clash when she reaches New Zealand. While her aunt attempts to make Wei feel welcome Wei's cousin, Angie, is disconnected from their Chinese culture and seems put off by Wei's failure to assimilate.

Wei excels in her college classes but struggles socially. She tries to get along with Angie's friends but is ill-received. Wei's shady professor uses her talents as an opportunity to steal her research and claim it as his own to secure grant funding. When they finally crack the code, Wei uses the resulting West-ian formula to steal Angie and her friend's face to hide her jealousy fueled murderous actions and steal back her father's research.

Disguised as Eve, a female student the professor is sleeping with, Wei is able to recover the perfected formula. Her father's notebook containing his life's work is translated for the professor revealing the shocking discovery that Wei's father was seen as little more than a mad scientist struck down by his own hubris.

In the end, Wei runs from the police and in doing so shatters the formula and ends up a gruesome fusion with a disfigured homeless man she earlier befriends.

TAKEAWAYS

• Beauty Standards 
• It's implied that part of the reason Wei (and her father) are obsessed with their research is so that they can find a way to "fix" Wei's birthmark. 
• Culture & Assimilation 
• Cultural identity and the concept of assimilation are gently probed through Wei's difficulty fitting in with Angie's friends. 
• Wei's alter for her deceased father and choice of food really seem to throw the Kiwis (New Zealanders) off and establish fairly early on that Wei is not like them - to Wei's detriment.
• Personal Identity/Insecurities  
• The thing I liked the most about this movie was how Wei seemed most targeted/disdained when her own behavior seemed to mirror that of the person observing her.
• For example: 
• Fatherly relationship: Angie's father has seemingly abandoned the family leaving her in a state of duress. We see Wei eavesdropping on Angie's call with her dad saying she wants to be with him. Angie seems embarrassed when she discovers Wei listening in. Likewise, Angie takes a particular disliking to Wei's alter that features a picture of Wei's father. It seems Angie, despite her father being alive, envies Wei's relationship with her father allowing her resentment to eventually bubble over onto Wei. 
• Slut shaming: Eve distances herself from Wei early on. As the blonde haired blue eyed mean girl trope, she has very little in common with Wei. At first Eve's awkwardness around Wei is seemingly just that. A reflection of the fact that she doesn't know what to do or say around the new girl. However, things escalate after Eve and the professor's secret rendezvous is interrupted by Wei innocently showing the professor the graft experiment on her inner thigh. Eve's tone shifts. She is more aggressive. She mocks Wei's appearance and clothes and let it be known that sleeping with professors for better grades is just now how things are done around here. This is obvious projection and jealousy. 
• General Criticism 
• The beginning transitions are pretty choppy and somewhat disorienting