- Release year: 2026
- Director: Dan Schaffer.
- Producers: Dan Schaffer and Jennifer Webb.
- Screenplay by: Dan Schaffer.
- Music by: Jacob Ryman.
Synopsis: A man uses the corpse of a woman for his twisted photoshoots.
Shotgun Commentary: What the fuck wrapped in leather.
Review
Electric Meat is the reason why you should never trust photographers. But really, it is a fascinating indie feature that will keep you frowning in confusion until the very end. Not because you will not know what is happening. Rather, because it keeps you in a permanent state of expectation as each second is its own world.
This film has been screened in London as part of the FrightFest 2026 programme. The festival will go on until the 31st of August. So if you are around and like to watch the best in horror, do swing by! Check out the line-up here!
The story is centred around Phaedra (Sylvia Soska). She is a model’s corpse that is being used by a butcher to fulfil his aspirations as a photographer. Phaedra seems to be in a Schrödinger’s cat state. Or, at least, that is how “The Butcher” (Caspia Faye) experiences it. As he works on his photoshoots, he notices that Phaedra has moved on her own accord. Additionally, strange noises and changes in the house that have not been caused by his actions. His paranoia only grows as these eerie occurrences become more frequent and intense with each passing day.
Meat market
The feature proposes the ultimate commodification of women. Much like Roar’s episode “The Woman Who Was Kept on a Shelf” (2022), this content showcases an extreme case in which a woman is stripped of humanity and rendered an object for an audience to admire. In The Butcher’s case, Phaedra is a decoration to be moved around and dressed up at will in an attempt to create a portfolio that will allow him into art school. The shelf story utilises a less gory approach, but both convey the same idea. It all comes down to a man using a woman for his own gain. And, in both cases, that woman’s humanity disappears into the man’s desires.
This concept is not as extreme as it might appear to be at a first glance. Sure, the BDSM and violence that coats the whole feature are definitely provocative. But ultimately they are nothing but the juicy bacon in which the film wraps the actual message. If you take away the gallons of blood and the miles of leather, you are left with the bleak reality: women are valued mostly for their aesthetic purposes. We are still very far away from reaching any kind of equality for the simple reason that women are not considered autonomous human beings.
The grim reality
They are bodies to be ruled over, to be admired and moulded to better serve males’ purposes. Their minds are infantilised, disregarded, dismissed. And until that viewpoint does not change, men will continue to have the nerve to legislate over biological matters they cannot be bothered to research. They will continue to have the guts to ask women what they were wearing after they are assaulted, harassed, or murdered because they cannot fathom the idea that a piece of clothing does not determine what one can or cannot do to a woman. They will continue to have the gumption to bring up the “not all of us” when you bring up the statistics on femicide, gender violence, and workplace inequality.
So the horror in Electric Meat is not just a deranged fantasy carefully crafted to spook you. It is a very real example of the nightmares that plague any woman you meet because, at this point, it does not feel that far-fetched at all.
All in all, Electric Meat brings up a topic that is not original or new by any means, but that is still as relevant as ever: the commodification of women. So if you want to feel the sweet, twisted satisfaction of seeing the tables between prey and predator turning, do give this wonderful chaos a chance. It will mess with your perception of time, space, and reality a little, but the madness will be absolutely worth it.
Advice to take from this movie:
- Always bring backup if you agree to do a photoshoot at an unknown location with a stranger.
- If the corpse you have adopted begins to move on his own, it might be time to change it for a different corpse.
- Beware of art school rejects.
What’s your take? Have you watched Electric Meat? Don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, or leave a message on my contact page! For more reviews and cinema-related articles, check out the rest of my blog! 😀