GRAFTED on Shudder is a body horror movie you should definitely check out. Joyena Sun is amazing in the lead role, but it’s not easy to watch due to both the emotional and very physical scars of the plot. Read our full Grafted movie review here!

GRAFTED is a new Shudder addition to the body horror niche. The opening scene alone was terrifying, but it gets a lot worse. It reminded me of Lucky McKee’s 2002 horror movie May starring Angela Bettis. More in vibe than the actual plot, of course.

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Joyena Sun is amazing in the lead role, though there is a twist in the tale that I won’t reveal here. The title has to do with skin grafts and there is a lot of skin being “transferred” throughout this movie. Not for anyone with a weak stomach.

Continue reading our Grafted movie review below. Find it on Shudder from January 24, 2025.

“Beauty is only skin deep”

The tagline of Grafted is “Beauty is only skin deep” which is perfect for the plot. We first meet the main character Wei as a young girl watching her dad do research. Or, well, experiments as it were.

The goal is to fix a large facial birthmark that both he and Wei have via a new kind of skin graft. Hence both the title and tagline. He is convinced that he needs this fixed to be “good enough” and (of course) his daughter also grows up to believe this.

Years later, as a teenager, Wei (Joyena Sun) travels to New Zealand as a Chinese scholarship student. She is as brilliant (and wild) as her father and continues his research as she studies medical research at a prestigious university.

Grafted (2024) – Review | Shudder Body Horror Movie

Well, that escalated quickly…

As brilliant as Wei is, she is also shy, introverted, and always struggling to hide her genetic facial birthmark. She is a sweet and kind soul who does her best to fit in, but Wei is shunned by those who should be her friends.

Especially Wei’s cousin Angela (3 Body Problem‘s Jess Hong) and her glamorous friends Eve (Eden Hart) and Jasmine (Sepi To’a). The latter is much kinder, but that doesn’t change the fact that Angela clearly isn’t proud of her Chinese heritage. Quite the opposite.

This means Wei is just a very unfortunate reminder of all the things Angela wants to shy away from. Wei throws herself into her work which means continuing her father’s research and experiments to develop a revolutionary skin grafting procedure.

This evolves in unexpected and very dark ways resulting in Wei’s willingness to eliminate anyone who gets in her way. The title subject Grafted becomes clear from the opening scene and continues to play a larger role.

After Wei focuses even more on her research it escalates quickly and in amazingly terrifying ways. I loved it!

Watch Grafted on Shudder!

The director of Grafted is Sasha Rainbow, and from her name alone, I had high expectations. All of which Sasha Rainbow delivered on. I wasn’t even sure what to expect based on the plot or images, I had seen, but I do know it exceeded everything I hoped for.

A brilliant and bold feature film debut for director Sasha Rainbow who also debuted as a screenwriter as she co-wrote the screenplay alongside Lee Murray, Mia Maramara (Beyond the Veil) & Hweiling Ow.

Up next from Sasha Rainbow could be a sci-fi series. She is working on developing several feature-length scripted films, and one of them is a sci-fi set in the Bay Area with the title Beta and a female lead. I’m already excited to see what this becomes, so hopefully it will be made.

As mentioned earlier, this isn’t an easy movie to watch – the comparison to May should reveal as much. Wei goes to bloody lengths to get rid of what she feels is a “deformity”. The runtime is 95 minutes, which works really well with the story. Neither too long nor too short.

GRAFTED is available to stream on Shudder from January 24, 2025.

Details

Director: Sasha Rainbow
Screenwriters: Sasha Rainbow, Mia Maramara, Hweiling Ow, Lee Murray
Cast: Joyena Sun, Jess Hong, Eden Hart, Jared Turner, Sepi To’a, Xiao Hu

Plot

Chinese scholarship student Wei travels to New Zealand to study medical research at a prestigious university. Shy, introverted, and hiding a genetic facial birthmark, Wei is shunned by her social butterfly cousin Angela and her glamorous friends. Determined to change her fate, Wei immerses herself in her late father’s research, working on a revolutionary skin grafting procedure that could cure her deformity. As her experiments take a dark turn, she becomes more dangerous and unhinged, willing to eliminate anyone who threatens her secret.

I write reviews and recaps on Heaven of Horror. And yes, it does happen that I find myself screaming, when watching a good horror movie. I love psychological horror, survival horror and kick-ass women. Also, I have a huge soft spot for a good horror-comedy. Oh yeah, and I absolutely HATE when animals are harmed in movies, so I will immediately think less of any movie, where animals are harmed for entertainment (even if the animals are just really good actors). Fortunately, horror doesn't use this nearly as much as comedy. And people assume horror lovers are the messed up ones. Go figure!
Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard
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