This Movie Will Make You Want To Peel Your Own Skin Off!

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2024 saw a resurgence in satirical body horror, as evidenced by Oscar-nominated films like “The Substance” and “A Different Man”. This subgenre of horror, which has not garnered this level of interest since the ’80s, is being rediscovered by fans as one of the most intriguing and thought-provoking in the genre. The trend continues in 2025 with another body horror satire, “Grafted” by Sasha Rainbow, having been released on Shudder this month. This film combines elements of a coming-of-age story with horror, focusing on a Chinese immigrant who shares the same facial birth defect as her father.

Following her acquisition of a scholarship to an illustrious university located in Auckland, Joyena Sun (Wei) migrates to New Zealand to live with her aunt and cousin, harboring the ambition to refine her father’s tissue transplant project. As a social outcast throughout her life, Wei uneasily endeavors to forge friendships with her cousin and their companions. Wei’s discomfort and poor self-image, coupled with her cousin’s mortification, foster an unhealthy atmosphere that ultimately results in turmoil.

In an extraordinary turn of events, Wei found herself in a predicament that was hard to believe, leading her to adopt the roles and personas of those around her. Here, we delve into the details of Wei’s experiment and the reasons behind her assumption of multiple identities.

How Wei’s Experiment Went Horribly Awry

Due to the fact that Wei has the same skin issue as her father, it became her ambition in life to complete and advance his scientific research aimed at addressing their facial imperfections. Initially, her father had been working on an experimental skin transplant intended to adhere to her damaged skin and smoothly cover the unusual blemishes. Upon relocating to New Zealand to enroll in her cousin’s esteemed university, Wei’s primary focus is perfecting this transplant technique and ultimately finding acceptance among her fellow students.

In her childhood, her father underwent a grafting procedure intended to repair skin defects. The process was effective but excessively so, bonding with every square inch of his facial skin, including his mouth and nose, which ultimately led to suffocation. Later on, Wei successfully develops the correct formula for the skin graft to adhere only to the affected area. Tragically, her professor Paul (Jared Turner) pilfers her father’s research journal containing the crucial scientific notes needed to produce the formula, aiming to claim the discovery as his own.

Eager to employ her father’s research and her own discoveries, Wei endeavors to apply the skin grafting method without referring to the journal instructions initially. However, the formula lacks a crucial bonding agent needed for the graft to seamlessly adhere to the affected skin permanently. Consequently, the inadequate formula causes the grafted skin to detach easily, resulting in a gruesome scene of blood and dislodged skin on the patient’s body.

Why Wei Assumes Angela’s Identity

In a state of intense distress, Wei learns that her professor and guardian had stolen her father’s research journal with intentions to claim credit for his scientific discovery. Matters worsen when she returns home to find her cousin Angela (Jessica Hong) has destroyed an altar dedicated to Wei’s late father, severing a vital link to him. This provokes a violent confrontation between the cousins, culminating in Wei striking Angela and causing fatal injuries. Overwhelmed by fear of her aunt’s reaction and the ensuing repercussions, Wei moves Angela’s lifeless body into the bathroom and disposes of it in the bathtub.

In a state of intense urgency, Wei finds herself pushed to extreme measures. Not only is she determined to conceal the truth about Angela’s fate from her aunt and classmates, but also to grasp the opportunity to finally belong among her peers. In this moment of decision, she chooses to implement the skin grafting formula, even without her father’s journal as a guide. She removes a layer of skin from her own face and Angela’s, intending to fuse Angela’s face onto hers. Adopting Angela’s identity, she studies her habits and speech patterns by observing videos on Angela’s phone, and soon finds herself socializing with Angela’s friends, dating her boyfriend, and attending university under her name.

Why Wei Assumes Eve’s Identity

It’s impossible for anyone to study or mimic Wei as Angela for long without being exposed by those closest to Angela, even if she appears physically as Angela. Her friend Eve (Eden Hart) soon picks up on Wei’s unusual actions that don’t align with Angela’s usual behavior. At first, Eve might attribute these oddities to Angela’s stress due to her peculiar cousin. However, the signs become increasingly obvious, and Eve eventually recognizes that Wei/Angela poses a threat. After a pursuit that ends with Eve seeking refuge in the pond outside the house, Wei/Angela tracks her down and murders her in the pond.

Given that Angela’s disguise no longer fits her and she needs to conceal another victim, Wei decides to impersonate Eve in a similar manner. She even changes her hair color to blonde, the same as Eve’s. As Wei had learned about Eve secretly dating Paul, she chooses to leverage this connection. Posing as both Angela and Eve, Wei visits Paul at his home after he announces his skin grafting discovery, which was actually developed by her father and herself.

In this current situation, Wei doesn’t seem overly concerned about faithfully capturing Eve’s gestures or essence. Instead, she dons one of Eve’s dresses while wearing her own Mary-Jane shoes. Paul observes that Eve appears to be behaving unusually, but he seems indifferent because he believes he has recently achieved recognition in the scientific community. This situation gives Wei an opportunity to reclaim her father’s research notes and refine the skin grafting solution. Once Wei/Eve departs, it only then strikes Paul that the research notes have vanished, leading him to realize that Wei had been employing the skin grafting formula all along.

Who Does Wei Become at the End?

When Wei takes over Eve’s persona, all sense of reason and logical thought is discarded. She goes to her cousin’s house carrying the journal, and Paul shows up not long after. By now, Wei’s face is no longer Eve’s; it’s a gruesome, scarred visage. She binds Paul to the coffee table in the living room and begins to graft some grisly skin onto his neck, which quickly spreads beyond that area. Just as things are getting truly unsettling, Angela’s curious neighbor drops by to check on her dog, causing Wei to make a hasty exit.

In an unsettling panic, I dash haphazardly through my backyard and into the town, constantly casting glances over my shoulder as the wailing sirens chase me. Eventually, I find myself in a subway station, utterly clueless about where to seek refuge further on. Desperate for assistance, I approach a familiar homeless man I’ve seen outside the university and beg him for help. The man, whose face bears a disfigured appearance, somehow brings me a sense of comfort in this frightening situation.

Hurriedly trying to elude the authorities, I find myself darting beneath a stranger’s blanket. In my haste, I unintentionally spill the grafting formula and skin grafts, scattering them on the floor between us. The solution seeps onto our bodies, leading to an appalling fusion of our forms. This bizarre event recalls the genesis of Monstro Elisasue from The Substance, leaving Wei with a transformed appearance and identity, yet not the one she had envisioned.

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2025-01-31 02:33