Film

Fresh

Name: Fresh
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Comedy
Released: 2022
Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Sebastian Stan, Jojo T. Gibbs, Charlotte Le Bon, Dayo Okeniyi

Other titles called Fresh: the 1994 film, the 2009 film.

Romantic comedy

A slick, nasty little horror-comedy that swaps swipe-right dread for something much worse. Daisy Edgar-Jones plays a woman who finally meets a charming man offline, and Sebastian Stan plays against type as the reason first dates are terrifying. It's gleeful, gross, and structurally sneaky — for anyone who wants their rom-com poisoned.

TMDb rating

3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy dark satire about dating and modern appetites, where the unease creeps in slowly and the sharp, knowing jokes keep you laughing while you squirm.

Skip it if you want a clean, fast-moving horror with constant scares; this one takes its time, and its gore arrives in sudden bursts that some viewers will find grim rather than fun.

What it asks of you: Settle in for just under two hours of patient build-up, with the tension tightening gradually rather than through jolts, and stay alert to the tone, which keeps shifting between wry and nasty.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Promising Young Woman2020

Same DNA: a woman, a predator, a candy-coloured surface hiding real rage. Carey Mulligan is devastating and the film has the same appetite for turning charm into a weapon.

But Its ending is divisive and the tone shift from comedy to grief is abrupt — some find it too neat, others too cruel.

Ready or Not2019

A bride discovers her new in-laws want her dead in a game of hide-and-seek gone feral. Same gleeful, blood-splattered wit, same woman-outsmarting-monsters energy.

But It's broader and sillier than Fresh — more slapstick massacre than psychological unease.

Bodies Bodies Bodies2022

A generation-Z whodunit that's just as interested in skewering dating-app-era paranoia and performative intimacy, wrapped in the same dark comic voice.

But It's talkier and more satirical than scary — if you wanted Fresh's visceral dread, this trades it for cringe comedy.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Fresh

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Honeymoon Killers1970

Same moral core as Fresh — charm as bait, romance as a hunting ground — but made with total sincerity instead of dark comedy, showing the fear is old, not new.

A grimy, black-and-white true-crime cult classic about a con man who seduces lonely women through personal ads and kills them. Fresh's premise, stripped of gloss, decades before dating apps existed.

But No visual polish, no jokes to soften it — this is ugly, low-budget, and genuinely upsetting rather than stylish fun.

The Invitation2022

A woman is swept into a whirlwind romance that curdles into something sinister at a family estate — same slow reveal of horror hiding behind good manners and good looks.

But More gothic and less funny; if you loved Fresh's dark humour, this plays it much straighter.

You2018

Penn Badgley's charming stalker is Steve's spiritual cousin — a series-length study in how easily 'nice guy' becomes 'monster' when nobody's looking.

But Multiple seasons means the premise gets stretched thin, and its glamorisation of its own villain grows uncomfortable for some.

American Psycho2000

Christian Bale's Patrick Bateman is the ur-text for magnetic monsters in expensive kitchens. Same pitch-black satire of appetite, vanity, and consumption.

But It's colder and more detached — a satire of masculinity rather than a thriller about survival, and less interested in its female characters.

Get Out2017

The blueprint for smiling horror: a seemingly ordinary social situation that reveals itself, in stages, to be a trap. Same tonal tightrope between funny and horrifying.

But Its social commentary is more overtly political and specific than Fresh's — different target, different stakes.

Cam2018

A tense, underseen thriller about identity theft in the world of camgirl streaming — same nerve about how women's bodies get consumed online.

But Slower burn, more psychological than gory — don't expect Fresh's splashier set pieces.

The Voyeurs2021

A glossy erotic thriller about watching and being watched, with the same appetite for turning desire into danger and stylish visuals into dread.

But Its twists lean pulpier and less clever — comfort food rather than the sharper satire Fresh offers.

The Tinder Swindler2022

Fresh turns 'the perfect man from an app is secretly monstrous' into a genre exercise; this shows the exact same fear playing out, unscripted, with real victims and real money.

A documentary about a real con artist who used dating apps to seduce and financially destroy women across Europe. It's the literal, non-metaphorical version of Fresh's nightmare.

But No horror-movie release valve — the victims are real, the damage is real, and there's no satisfying comeuppance arc to enjoy.

Audition2000

Same engine — a courtship that's secretly a trap, gender expectations weaponised — but filtered through arthouse patience and genuinely shocking extremity rather than comedy.

A lonely widower auditions women for a new wife, unaware one of them is not what she seems. Japanese extreme horror at its most surreal, patient, and eventually unbearable.

But It's slow for over an hour before detonating into some of the most notorious body-horror imagery in cinema — a huge tonal swing that isn't for everyone.