Grafted

Opportunistic or one of those coincidences that occasionally occur with film release schedules. Grafted bears some relation with the current critical and commercial hit, The Substance. But it’s best not to get too hung up on that.

The film opens with a nasty sequence where Wei’s (Joyena Sun) father’s skin grafting experiment goes wrong, and he dies. Wei is promptly packed off to New Zealand to stay with her aunt Ling (Xiao Hu). Who welcomes another Chinese speaker unlike her cousin Angela (Jess Hong) who doesn’t and can’t speak Chinese.

At university Wei turns out to be a brilliant student and lands a post as lab assistant with creepy lecturer Paul (Jared Turner) who has an eye for the female students as well as Wei’s father’s research notebook.

Both have their own agendas with Paul looking to exploit the research for commercial reasons. Wei wants to carry on her father’s work and cure her skin condition. However matters soon begin to get out of hand as jealousy, bullying and naked ambition begin to take hold.

Director Sasha Rainbow and co-writers Lee Murray and Mia Maramara delve into the world of university rivalries and the perception of beauty in a fairly crude way from a fairly compassionate start. Both Wei and her father have skin conditions that make life difficult for them and are looking for a cure.

That gets stamped all over once the devious Paul sees the dollar signs and Wei’s bullying by Angela and Eve (Eden Hart) intensifies as does her own fixation with beauty, fitting in with the ‘uni’ elite and society in general. This all ensures that bloody mayhem ensues.

While there’s some satisfaction in the bloody horror, the film also spares a little time to look at the adjustments immigrant families and their offspring have to make regarding language and tradition. Wei and Aunt Ling speak in Chinese which excludes Angela. They also keep to their traditions which Angela doesn’t understand or respect. These small matters play on Angela’s mind and possibly go some way to explain her feeling of exclusion that she then takes out on Wei at university.

Grafted will be on Shudder from 24 January 2025.