Grafted is a 2025 horror film directed by Sasha Rainbow, and the cast includes Jess Hong, Eden Hart, Joyena Sun, Jared Turner and Mark Mitchinson.
*Grafted was originally released in New Zealand in 2024, but made available in theaters where I am in 2025, so I am counting it as a 2025 horror film*
So I recently managed to watch Grafted, and I think I watched a film that if The Substance and Audition had a baby, this would be it, but in truth, the film references quite a few different horror films, and it doesn't suffer for it.
Wei is a Chinese exchange student in New Zealand who has birthmarks all over her face, who gets treated like an outsider everywhere she goes, and her dad also happened to have the same condition and used experimental skin grafts to try and 'fix it', but that went horribly wrong.
Fast-forward a few years, and Wei picks up where her dad left off, working with a scientist at her school, and I don’t know, maybe find one person who doesn’t treat her like a freak, but no such luck.
Her cousin Angela, immediately turns on her, calling her a weirdo and making sure she has no shot at making friends, and then there’s Eve, the blonde queen bee who’s mean as hell, her lackey Jasmin, and their sleazy professor Paul Featherstone, who thinks women should shut up and look pretty.
We know where this horror film is going, and by this point we are just asking ourselves how it is going to happen, and it doesn't hold back.
Mei continues her research with school scientist Paul, and she discovers that a plant called the Corpse Flower can help attach new skin over damaged areas, so fueled by anger toward Angela and her cruel friends, Mei starts using their skin, literally, to "fix" herself.
Grafted then becomes quite a dark and disturbing film.
Got a problem with someone? No worries, just slice her up and steal her good looks.
Want to be paler and more conventionally attractive? Easy, just skin a white girl.
While the film has a few different strong themes at work, the first half or so does feel a bit forced, and we get a lot of dialogue spelling out what the film is trying to say, but while the story isn't always tightly put together, Grafted is about the journey and not the destination, and the film’s gore is quite unique as each cut and peel is as detailed as a close-up in a food commercial, making it both stomach churning and hypnotic.
But as soon as Wei makes her first kill, the movie really kicks into gear. and we see her go full Psycho, and the film does a great job showing how society treats others, and Wei isn’t just trying to be pretty; she’s trying to be seen.
The acting is pretty solid too, in particular Joyena Sun, Eden Hart and Jess Hong, and we witness director Sasha Rainbow showcasing the influences the film clearly has, while adding in her own unique fun into the mix as well.
Overall, Grafted is a bloody, unsettling, and thought provoking horror movie, and while it's not perfect, as the film isn't always as clear as it should be to what themes we should be concentrating on, if you’re into body horror and don’t mind social commentary with your gore, it’s worth a watch.
It wears its influences proudly, and that works in its favor, but maybe don’t eat while you’re watching it. [Grafted on IMDB] [Where To Stream Grafted]