Fresh Ending Explained (In Detail)

Summary

• Noa outsmarts cannibal boyfriend Steve in the
  Fresh
  ending, flipping the narrative in a twist ending that empowers the victims.
• Steve preys on isolated women without strong ties, illustrating a chilling reality of online dating dangers.
• Fresh
  ‘s finale delivers a social commentary on power dynamics, showcasing women banding together for survival.

The Fresh ending explained the subtext of the horror-comedy and how it explores the pitfalls of online dating. Sebastian Stan stars as Steve, the seemingly charming new boyfriend of Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones). Noa is disillusioned by the online dating process. Fresh opens with her on a date with a man she met on an app, who talks down to the waiter, insults her clothes, and even steals the food that he made her pay for herself. She complains to her best friend Mollie (Jonica T. Gibbs) about her lack of success with dating, and Mollie tells her to adopt a “f*ck it” attitude.

Soon after, she meets Steve at the grocery store. They hit it off immediately and start dating, but after she agrees to go on a trip with him, she quickly learns that he has cannibalistic urges. Steve kidnaps women and cuts off pieces of their bodies to sell as meat, keeping them alive as long as possible to “keep the meat fresh.” Noa, Mollie, and Penny (Kim’s Convenience star Andrea Bang), another of Steve’s victims, must fight for their lives to escape from him by the time the Fresh ending arrives.

Fresh’s Ending Explained

Noa Turns The Tables On Steve Using His Own Tactics

As the Fresh ending explained, Steve uses his good looks and wit to seduce women, who he plans to later sell to high-end clients as meat. After figuring out that Steve likes her, Noa turns up the charm and convinces him that she wants to be with him, despite the fact that he’s taken her prisoner to sell her body for meat.

Noa uses Steve’s own tactics against him as a first step to taking back her power

In the movie, Stan’s charming serial killer takes her on a special “date” and shows her the wall of “trophies” that he keeps from his victims — among which is Mollie’s cell phone. Noa seduces Steve over the course of the evening and when his guard is down, she goes down on him, taking a page out of his book by biting off part of his penis. Using the opportunity to escape, Noa rescues Mollie and Penny, and they make a run for it.

Noa uses Steve’s own tactics against him as a first step to taking back her power, as the Fresh ending explained. She and the other women that he kidnaps are treated like literal pieces of meat. Noa, Mollie, and Penny represent women who have been victims of assault at the hands of men, and when they knock him out in the kitchen and later kill him and his wife, Ana (Charlotte Le Bon), who supports his cannibalism, they represent vindication for those victims.

Fresh‘s ending is reminiscent of the ending of Get Out, where Chris escapes the Armitages before they can remove his brain. Steve, like the Armitages in Get Out, commodifies the women’s bodies in Fresh, literally removing Noa’s butt — a highly desired part of a woman’s body — to sell as meat. Like Chris, Noa and the other women have to literally kill their oppressors in order to escape with their lives.

How Does Steve Choose His Victims?

The Killer In Fresh Finds Women Without Strong Family Ties

As the Fresh ending explained, when Steve first meets Noa, she is at the grocery store and standing under a sign that reads “fresh meats.” Although this is just a tongue-in-cheek nod to his intentions — finding fresh meat at the grocery store — Noa is exactly the type of person that Steve targets, a method similar to Sweeney Todd, who turns his victims into meat pies. On their first date, she tells him that she doesn’t have any family because her dad passed away, and she is estranged from her mother, which tells Steve that nobody will be looking for her.

Steve’s targets are women that few people would miss, which has allowed him to make a career out of being a ”
human butcher
.”

Steve also makes sure that Noa hasn’t told anyone much about him and seems satisfied that she only told her best friend Mollie that she met a guy. While being held hostage at Steve’s house in the woods, Noa learns that Penny, the woman who Steve was holding in the cell next to hers, was seduced in a similar way and also doesn’t have anyone in her life to sound the alarm when she goes missing. Steve’s targets are women that few people would miss, which has allowed him to make a career out of being a “human butcher.”

Why Is Ann Working With Steve?

Ann Is A Classic Case Of Stockholm Syndrome

The Fresh ending explained that Steve’s wife Ann has a missing leg when Mollie goes to their house in her search for Noa. Ann is revealed to be helping Steve with his cannibalistic efforts, but also appears to have been a victim of his at one time. In the magazines that Steve gives to Noa while holding her prisoner, there’s a note from a previous victim that suggests that giving her the magazines means he likes her.

Although there’s no evidence that the note was left by Ann, the note itself serves as evidence that Steve has formed a romantic connection to his victims in the past. Ann represents the victim who ultimately sides with the oppressor, and, worse, who keeps others down to get ahead. She was at one point in the same position as Noa: a woman taken hostage and being mutilated by a man she trusted.

Fresh
screenwriter Lauryn Kahn says that Ann represents women who don’t support other women.

Where Noa’s desire for self-preservation leads her to plot her escape, Ann seems to have warped feelings for her captor. Not only does she empathize with Steve, going so far as to marry and have children with him, but she actively helps him harm other victims. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Fresh screenwriter Lauryn Kahn says that Ann represents women who don’t support other women.

Even though she is presumably one of Steve’s victims herself, Ann has fully aligned herself with him and even tries to kill Noa for killing him, weighing keeping him happy as more important than the other women he has mutilated and murdered.

Who Are The Men At The Table?

Steve Is Part Of A Network Of Male Cannibals

As the Fresh ending explained, Steve sells his human meat to wealthy clients who pay big bucks to eat his “exotic” product. At the mid-credits, there is a quick glimpse of some of those clients. The men are seated around a table with a pile of bloody human meat at the center. Some are dressed in fancy suits while others are nude, representing how depraved these men actually are. While it’s more of an image than a scene, it helps to show that Steve is just one part of a much larger problem.

This is a visual representation of how men often view women as ”
pieces of meat
,” the metaphor that drives the entire film.

The men are literally using women for consumption, which, given their nudity, seems to be a sexual fetish for some of them. This is a visual representation of how men often view women as “pieces of meat,” the metaphor that drives the entire film. To too many men in power, women are viewed as objects, commodities to be traded.

The Real Meaning Of Fresh’s Ending

The 2022 Horror Movie’s Finale Drives Home Its Themes Of The Perils Of Online Dating

As the Fresh ending explained, Fresh is a social satire in line with the social commentary of 21st-century horror movies. At its core, it is a critique of the modern dating scene, especially the dangers involved in dating for young, single women. There are many good men out there, but also plenty of dangers and dates that potentially wish to do harm. It also aptly skewers the way men in power disregard the bodily autonomy of women and feel entitled to control women’s bodies.

But on a more hopeful note, the Fresh ending explained how women are able to take back their power by working together because no one else will. Three women who are victimized by a man take back their power by literally killing their oppressor.

It is the bond between Noa and Mollie that saves them, rather than a romantic connection with a man.

The women are left to save themselves, after Paul (Dayo Okeniyi), Mollie’s friend, drives away from the cabin instead of rescuing the women after he hears a gunshot. But through the women helping and supporting each other, they free themselves despite what Steve has taken from them. In the end, it is the bond between Noa and Mollie that saves them, rather than a romantic connection with a man.

The point is driven home at the very end of Fresh when Noa receives a text from Chad, her disastrous date from the beginning of the film, that simply reads “You up?” Though the horror of Noa’s experience with Steve is over, she isn’t free from the low-grade horror of modern dating or being viewed as no more than a metaphorical piece of meat.

Why The Fresh Ending Worked So Well

Noa’s Decisions Are The True Genius Behind The Fresh Ending

The Fresh ending explained its overarching meaning clearly, but that’s not the only reason it landed. Daisy Edgar-Jones in Fresh is one of the best final girls in a while, who smartly figures out that she and Steve’s victims must band together to survive.Fresh is unique as an elevated, yet gory, horror movie, as it artfully plays out its own themes in a digestible way. The final climax crescendos into some satisfying retribution as Noa is able to escape, and Chad’s text is a smart way of saying that the “horrors” of being a single woman aren’t over.

Fresh is truly a movie that hasn’t been done before, and its high stakes are paid off in full by its bombastic ending. The casting in and of itself is perfect, as it’s quite, well, refreshing to see Sebastian Stan outside of his usual superhero fare. Fresh is a woman’s version of Get Out, and the ending sticks simply because it’s so unique, yet its message remains true to life.

How The Fresh Movie Ending Was Received

The Final Act Of Fresh Was Praised Less Often Than The Rest Of The Movie

2022’s Fresh can be considered a success for Mimi Cave, especially considering it was her directorial debut. The horror thriller currently sits on Rotten Tomatoes with 81% both on the Tomatometer and audience score, showing that the vast majority of viewers and critics alike warmed to the suspense-filled critique of dating in the 21st century and the risks that come with it. However, somewhat surprisingly, in many of the reviews (even the overwhelmingly positive ones) the ending of Fresh is often brought up as a criticism.

While there are few reviews of Fresh in which the ending is outright panned, it has been commented on as being somewhat formulaic — especially to those schooled in horror and thriller movies. Another recurrent point is that the expertly-built tension present throughout most of Fresh kind of fizzles out when Noa realizes how much danger she’s in. Reviewer A. Leon gave an in-depth review on their blog, Never Think Impossible, that sums up the general sentiment many critics share:

It’s the confrontation at the end that is built up and tense which I feel works best while it remains inside the house. Once it spills outside, the tension is lost. In a similar way, the characters’ dynamic works better in a cat-and-mouse style on a closed environment but dissipates once they move outside.

Still, there are equally many reviews that do praise the ending of Fresh. It must also be noted that, among fan discussions, it’s an aspect of the film that is widely discussed as a positive. There’s also an argument that the ending of Fresh works because it sees the tables finally turn on Steve, and fits the core themes of the movie even if it does so at the expense of some of the dread felt in the opening acts.