A late-night screening of the French-language horror film Raw at the Toronto International Film Festival Monday night quickly morphed into a medical emergency after paramedics reportedly treated multiple audience members who had passed out while watching the film.
“An ambulance had to be called to the scene as the film became too much for a couple patrons,” Ryan Werner, who was at the screening handling the film’s marketing, told the Hollywood Reporter.
The gruesome, R-rated horror film follows a young vegetarian who develops a deadly taste for meat after enduring a carnivorous hazing ritual while attending veterinary school.
The film was directed by relative newcomer director Julia Ducournau.
Raw won the FIPRESCI Critics’ Prize in May at the Cannes Film Festival. The movie boasts some glowing early reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
“A coming-of-age tale conveyed with deftly handled emotional complexity and chilling thematic subtext, Raw is above all else a gut twisting work of classic body horror,” one reviewer wrote.
“The assured storytelling and direction, including some of the goriest makeup effects this side of Rob Zombie, turn Raw into the kind of crossover film that takes the horror genre into another domain,” wrote another.
Raw is reportedly set to premiere at Fantastic Fest, and then Mayhem Film Festival, followed by screenings at Celluloid Screams, Beyond Fest, and the Sitges Film Festival.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson