I recently watched the 2022 horror thriller movie Fresh which stars Daisy Edgar Jones and Sebastian Stan, and to me, it was a story that could warrant a sequel. If you’ve not seen Fresh, I’d suggest you watch it first, as this article will have spoilers as to what happens, but here is my five minute off the top of my head pitch for what a sequel to Fresh could and should be.
To give context, the first film showed singleton Noa (Daisy Edgar Jones) meet Steve (Sebastian Stan) and it turn out he’s a maniac cannibal surgeon who kidnaps women and sells their meat to billionaires.
Noa then discovers that he has several women also kidnapped, and she eventually gains his trust by eating human flesh and then manages to escape after biting off his wang. Along the way, Noa’s friend Mollie tries to save her, but is also kidnapped when it turns out Steve’s wife Ann is in on it with him.
The film ends with Noa, Mollie and the also captured Penny manage to escape and kill both Steve and Ann, although as I noted in my review of the movie, Ann arrived at the end with a goon with her, and the escapee women end the film in the dark woods in the middle of nowhere with the goon still a possible threat. Also in the area is friend to Mollie, Paul who knows something is up, but he seemingly leaves before finding Noa, Mollie and Penny.
At the time of writing this, as far as I know, there hasn’t been word that a sequel is being made. In an interview with Capital Buzz, Edgar-Jones noted that she would like to play Noa again and have a sequel that focussed on her character Noa and Mollie set out after the people behind Steve selling their meat.
Going into a sequel, most people who watch are likely to have seen the original, so the surprise plot twist of what Steve did would be outed before the film begins. Would a sequel have the rich billionaires after Noa, Mollie and Penny because they got away? Or would it be a reversal of sorts and focus on them going after the billionaires vigilante style?
Let’s imagine a sequel for a moment. I wouldn’t take either of those approaches, so here’s my quick five minute pitch for a sequel.
I can imagine a sequel would start with them still in the woods and the goon shows up. There’s another battle to escape and then Paul does show up in his car to knock down the goon and get Noa and company away to safety. The opening credits would then hit with a montage that the police were called and that things found at Steve’s cabin in the woods would lead them to arrest several of the billionaire clients.
Then the film would start properly and all three survivors would be traumatised by what happened, and whilst at least one would share their story publicly (I imagine Mollie), Noa would probably just try to get on with her life whilst having major trust issues to any man and relationships would either be a no go, or fail quickly. She’d also be struggling with the fact that she had to consume human flesh in order to gain Steve’s trust, and maybe even face the families of the people who she ate.
Maybe there are even scandals about Noa and that she was a cannibal too and the public perception of her is cruel. If you wanted to still feature Sebastian Stan in the sequel, maybe Noia could have dreams or intrusive thoughts of Steve who toys with her that she actually enjoyed the meat or that she took things further than she needed to and he points out how she could have escaped without eating human flesh and that on some level, she enjoyed it…
We’ll get the sense that some time, either months or a couple of years since their escape has occurred and suddenly something happens to Penny. As the least featured of the women in the first film, she is the obvious person to get captured again and likely killed off first in a sequel.
This happening would then force Mollie and Noa to be wary, and whoever it is that is targeting them, would then have to recapture one or both them to lead them to need to escape again. This time the killer would either be linked to the billionaire’s wanting revenge for outing their twisted secret cannibalism, or some kind of copycat. Maybe, if they’re hiding from the rich and powerful, the three are put into witness protection, and the killer turns out to be a police or FBI agent who is bought by the billionaire cannibals. Or Steve had a brother…who knows?
Anyway, I imagine, once captured again, they would learn that the group behind Steve and what he did was bigger than you can imagine and they will never be safe, but that they once again manage to escape.
And that’s my pitch for a sequel to Fresh!
Let me know what you think in the comments!
